The document proposes a solution to address the lack of information access for farmers in India that is causing many to leave farming. The proposed solution is a customer care center that farmers can call or SMS to get information on government schemes, technical farming advice, and weather forecasts. Farmers will be connected to experts who can help solve their problems based on a database of issues and solutions. The founders aim to partner with telecom providers and NGOs to launch a nonprofit customer care center as the first step to addressing this issue facing many Indian farmers.

1. By,
Vipul Sonavane
Dhruv Bansal
Vannessa Borges

2. Elevator Pitch
 Prices of essential food commodities are rising very fast
 condition of farmers is continuously deteriorating due to
inaccessibility to adequate information.
 NGO’s working to improve the condition of farmers in
India. But their resources are spent in finding the problem
of the farmers, than providing solution.
 Information can be exchanged on either side by using
basic technological tools.

3. Problem Definition
 Currently in India, almost 40% farmers are moving out of
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the agriculture business, as it requires more hard work
than a normal 9-5 job.
Attention and information are crucial things in farming.
Because of the unknown challenges farmers do not want
their next generations to do the same business.
The main problem behind this situation is the lack of
information and technology unawareness.
With help of government schemes and modern
technology farmers can generate more revenue than even
a similar manufacturing company, but this information is
not reaching to the farmers

4. Solution
3
1
Call
SMS
Farmer call or SMS
to Customer Care
Propagate the
problem
2
4
5
CC will call to farmer with
Solution
Provide optimum
solution
Take Help from
database, Agronomist or
NGOs

5. Solution Description
Initially we are focusing only following two
information:
1) Information about government schemes: We will
match up the problem of farmer to any of the
government schemes available
2) Technical Information:
1) Which crop to take in which farm and in which season
2) Which and how much resources are needed
3) Weather forecasts.

6. Define the opportunity (Market)
 India is the second largest farm products producer in the
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world
Agriculture and other allied sectors like fishery and
forestry accounted for around 17% of the GDP in 2009
50% of the workforce in India is in these businesses
Around 40% of the people who are in this business are
facing problems and they want to quit this business
Over 800 Million people of 1.2 billion population uses
mobile phone service

7. Business and Revenue Model
 We are non profit organization
 Three of us will work together to start the business.
 We will get into strategic alliance with India’s biggest telecom
provider which has presence in even smallest village in India
“BSNL” for providing telecom services
 Donations: NGOs which mainly work for farmers welfare
 Advertisement or promotions of products: While providing
technical information about resources we will promote their
products.
 Franchising business model in other countries once
successful in own country.

8. Competition
 Indisha:
 This is government owned customer care centre in India
dedicated to farmers
 This is very inefficient till now, as people recruited for
providing solution has very basic knowledge about
farming
 They don’t provide any details about government schemes
 They don’t provide any information on weather reports
 Also, there are some NGOs which are dedicated to
farmer welfare but as mentioned earlier they have not
yet delivered any efficient solutions

9. Traction (Customer Development/Metrics)
 Growth of complaint traffic increase per month.
 Percentage fall in incoming call/percentage increase in SMS
complaints.
 Mobile application usage for complaints/totals complaints
used.
 Percentage of (solutions implemented/complaints received)
per month.

10. Next steps/Milestones
 Step 1 – Finding NGO involved in irrigation activities near a
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Tier 2 city in India.
Step 2 – This Tier 2 city will be ideally closer to the so called
sugarcane belt where poverty is highest.
(Identified city – DehraDun, Uttrakhand(Overnight Trains
covering the Region)
Step 3 -Advertising of the modified helpline in the region.
Step 4 -Creating and maintaining the database of complaints.
Step 5 -Tie ups with the agronomists.(Irrigation and weather
focus).

11. Team Bios
Vipul Sonavane:
“To change the system you have to be in a system”.
5 year working experience in IT services in financial institutes, MBA from Hult international business
school, Have worked with NGOs like Save The Children which work for child welfare, Passionate
for a cause and giving back to society, good at analyzing problems, troubleshooting, managing and
finance.
Dhruv Bansal:
“Change people and system will change itself”.
6 year work experience as Navigating Officer in Merchant Navy, MBA at Hult International business
school, Did people management in diverse ethnic backgrounds while traveling overseas. Share
the same passion to fight for the cause, Good at marketing, persuading and People relationship.
Vannessa Borges:
“Tell me the plan, I will make it real”
4 years work experience in Sales and Marketing in Pharmaceutical Industry, MBA at Hult
International Business School, Worked extensively with Hospitals. Share the same passion to fight
for the cause, Good at communication, decision making and People management.

12. Use of the investment
 We will be a NPO, so all money received from the Partners
will be brought back into the enterprise.
 Initial setup Cost will be 50,000 USD for year 1.
 Subsequent cost will be maintained as 50,000 USD for
coming years. This will cover cost for a quarter of 3 executives
, 5 customer care resources and 3 experts.
 We will raise a targeted 60,000 USD every year from our
partners as investment to cover our expenditure.