This article explores the current scenario with regard to four important services in rural India, namely telecom, insurance, banking and postal services. For many years, these services were provided almost exclusively by the government, with a social objective. Even to this day, basic postal services are the monopoly of the government. The private entrants into telecom, banking and insurance services are required to meet certain obligations towards catering to rural areas. But they are lagging behind, as the rural market is not as attractive as the urban market at present. However, things could change with urban markets getting saturated and rural markets becoming more viable.

As a consequence of the liberalization process that began in 1991, the Indian economy was opened up for global players. And many multinational companies viewed India as a market with a huge potential and set foot in the country. But they were primarily concentrating their efforts on the urban middle class. This applied to both products and services.

As a result, not only was the rural population deprived of benefits and conveniences that their urban counterparts were enjoying, but even the marketers lost the opportunity of gaining from the fortune, which they could have earned by targeting the rural population in an appropriate manner.

The evolution of rural marketing as a potential for growth hinges on the question that when the urban markets saturate, where will the marketers go? They would have only two options, either to head for foreign markets or to get into the relatively virgin territory of rural markets. The former option is not applicable in many cases and is often more difficult, risky and expensive. For many home-grown Indian companies, this requires a major change in the current strategies to suit foreign markets and the probability of success is low. On the other hand, the latter option is much easier to adopt and does not demand major changes; and most importantly, this option offers better potential for generating revenues and profits.

It is also worth noting that India is the fourth largest economy in the world in terms of purchasing power parity, mainly due to the buying power in the villages. However, the gross reality is that the market potential of the rural areas has not been adequately explored even to this day. Time has now arrived to comprehend and take benefit of the rich potential offered by rural India.

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