Stop looking  at rural sector as a CSR activity,  reposition it as a  valuable and vibrant sector of India’s growing economy , Opine industry stalwarts at AURUM 2014

With the emergence of Indian rural sector as an important growth engine in the Indian economy students of PGDM – Rural Management (Emerging Economies) at WeSchool organized ‘AuRuM 2014’ – The Annual Rural Roundtable Conference, with the overriding theme ‘Rural Inc – Growing together competitively’ on September 27, 2014 at WeSchool Campus, Mumbai. The event witnessed the presence of large number of Senior (CxO) Level executives from   companies like Mahindra Finance, Idea Cellular, Godrej CP, Pidilite, Tata Rallis etc. The collective experience sharing of the top executives of the companies who have made positive inroads for empowering growth in the rural sector, focussed  on three key topic of discussion namely, “Financial Knowledge gap”, “Enhancing livelihood opportunities for inclusive growth leading to smart & happy village” and “Rural ’to’ market and ‘from’ market gaps” .

The core idea behind this roundtable was not only to enable the young MBAs in  strengthening  their understanding about rural markets but also  identifying topics of research. What emerged out of these deliberations were topics that could be taken by students under the Global Citizen Leader program ,over a period of   6 months,  that will be instrumental in developing their understanding of the various facets of the rural sector be it consumer goods, telecom, banking ,insurance, farm equipments ,energy and others.

“With 60,0000 villages, 70% of India’s population lives in rural areas. The rural sector connects with all aspects of economy whether it is Ecommerce, retail, healthcare or education .Our future young corporate leaders should have a strong connect with rural India to understand its vibrancy, vitality and become instrumental in building bridges for rural partnerships for all round growth and development of India’s economy “said Prof Dr Uday Salunkhe while welcoming the corporate leaders at the conference.

“Our students will be working for a period of 6 months  on these projects to understand rural consumers, their habits and spending basket, factors that triggers the change in their behavior, facilities that can be established in rural India, etc. On the basis of their research, the teams  will design business models that will be presented during finale of the Global Citizen Leader program (GCL) wherein students are provided leadership and innovation knowledge along with an opportunity to learn and practice skills in real-life context” added Prof Dr Anuja Agrawal , Associate Dean, PGDM- Rural Management, WeSchool .