Rural Business Hubs is an Initiative of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj in collaboration with Confederation of Indian Industries and such Panchayats, NGOs (including Trusts and Societies) and Professional Experts/Facilitators as are willing to contribute to the goal of Rural Economic Empowerment.
In-Trust Foundation (Regd) and Karmyog Society (Regd) have made an humble beginning to create mass awareness and have also re-conceptualised the purpose, parameters, scope, amplitude and methodology of this new Initiative, as under.
About 3 decades ago, Japan took the initiative of experimenting with the concept of One Culture, One Product in its Oita Prefecture--located on the island of Kyushu.
This initiative was borrowed by Thailand which, with some conceptual modifications, launched an experiment into One Town (Tambon) One Product (OTOP).
These two initiatives/ experiments became successful due to several local factors, and were copied by many countries. Some of these factors are:-
i) The reputation of certain handicrafts depends upon the local culture/town in Japan/Thailand (whereas in India it largely depends upon the individual Master-craftsmen or their schools/gharanas).
ii) In the Japanese and Thai cultures, respect for the Vocational Gurus and Village elders is much higher than what it is in the 21st century India.
iii) Governmental support, in terms of Internet exposure and e-commerce, was overwhelming in these countries.
Colonial India was split into several Administrative Units for the ease of governance/ administration-- that is to say, it was a Top-down approach for politico-geographical division, without any consideration for the economic viability of these Units. Moreso, due to a number of factors, our villages (even the small townships) fail either to provide evenly distributed and round-the-year gainful employment to their residents or to act as self-nurturing economic Units.
On the other hand, the fundamental concept of OTOP (One Tambon, One Product of Thailand) or TVE (Township and Village Enterprises in China) or OCOP (One Culture, One Product of Japan) are a Bottoms-up socio-economic integration of contiguous villages and townships into economically viable Units which can provide round-the-year gainful employment to all its inhabitants at a level which can assure a minimum standard of Quality of Life for all of them.
Rural Business Hubs (RBHs) should aim at the Bottoms-up socio-economic integration.
Such a well-balanced model of RBH will be applicable to all those countries which had suffered colonial rule and whose villages and townships bear a similarity to our own. Hence, the said model-- coupled with its flexibility and portability to act as a medium for Disaster Management (in times of need), is likely to be funded by the World Bank, too. This will save us a large part of our research-overheads.
Most of the resources for sharing such an information-base are available within the country-- we have only to intelligently modify and dovetail the same with the above objectives in mind. Surely, this can be achieved only through Bhagidari-- participation of all the Partners: Panchayats, Industry, NGOs, Government et al.
Though the above suggestions are simple to understand by any well-meaning sociologist/ macro-economist, yet these may leave a far-reaching impact not only on the RBH-initiative but also on the very concept of grass-root planning in a once-a-colonial country.
It is common knowledge that it is not possible for the peasants (semi-literate or illiterate) to note down important information which is given during the 30 or 60-minute programme named krishi darshan; moreso, these programmes are not available in very many regional languages. Besides, the farmers have no access to any Archived data on rural development.
Hence, we must construct at least one building per RBH for setting up commercial Transmission Towers for electronic digital media (generally used for Mobile-phones and Broadband transmission) coupled with one Central Database Server (with at least 5 Mirrors) at the National level-- for the implementation of latest technology towards rural development. Through these towers, a dedicated broadband-access will be provided for each such Centre to connect to the Central Database Server or one of its nearest Mirrors. This Server shall provide all the crucial information on Rural Development/ RBH, in several regional languages. Since these Towers can also be used for Mobile-connectivity, BSNL/ Reliance etc should be willing to use the same and, in turn, provide free dedicated broadband-connectivity to each such RBH-Centre.
These buildings may be funded out of the Development Funds allotted to the local Corporator/ Legislator, and will be financially self-sustaining (except for the Tower). The Company which provides free dedicated broadband-connectivity, will be able to earn revenue by allotting local Dealership (through the local Panchayat) to a person who, in addition to the sale of Mobile Re-charge cards etc, will look after the Security and day-to-day operation of these Transmission Towers. This will not only increase (at zero-costs) the transmission-reach of the Company, but also lessen its administrative overheads.
The said Dealer shall be responsible for assisting the Panchayat in retrieving the needed information from the Archives of the Panchayati Raj Ministry on its various Initiatives (including e-learning courses) as well as from the Archives of the Ministry of Agriculture.
These Centres and Server can also be utilised for Disaster Management since one of these Centres, at least, will be available near the affected spot (even lap-tops with satellite connectivity can be used, if the Centre itself has been destroyed). Through these Centres and server(s) the Volunteers and Government Agencies can communicate up-to-the-minute information as to which emergency items or services are needed and where, monitoring their movement, and diverting the supplies as and when required. (It is common knowledge that communication-gaps do affect Relief Measures during large-scale Emergencies).
The PCs used in these Centres can use Windows 98 as OS-- which is a robust and reliable operating system; and Microsoft may be persuaded to discharge its Corporate Social Responsibility by giving special bulk-License (plus Knowledge Database) for this Package at the lowest possible price.

Letter from Hon'ble Minister of Panchayati Raj:
From: "Mani Shankar Aiyar"
To:
CC: kesavan.pk
Subject: FW: RBHs
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007

Dear Wg Cdr,
I greatly welcome your communication on OTOP-type RBHs. Shri Sunil Munjal, Co-Chairman, National RBH Council, in particular, has been advocating the OTOP model for RHBs and, at his initiative, we interacted with Ex-President Watanobe of JETRO and PM mentioned this to his counterpart when he made an official visit to Japan about a year ago. Our principal officer in charge of the RBH programme, Smt. Rajwant Sandhu is on leave. So, I am instructing Director P.K. Kesavan to contact you with a view to carrying forward your proposal for us to link up with In-Trust Foundation and Karmyoga Society. Thank you for contacting me.
Best wishes,
Mani Shankar Aiyar

News-item which appeared at:-

http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/42202/1

New Delhi: The Government Saturday announced a Rupees 2-billion (INR) public-private partnership to provide broadband and internet connectivity in country's rural areas.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008