Page 160 - DMGT401Business Environment

Unit 7: Socio-cultural Environment

2. Providing gainful and high-quality employment at least to the addition to the labour Notes
force over the Tenth Plan period;
3. All children in school by 2003; all children to complete 5 years of schooling by 2007;
4. Reduction in gender gaps in literacy and wage rates by at least 50 per cent by 2007;
5. Reduction in the decadal rate of population growth between 2001 and 2011 to 16.2 per cent;
6. Increase in Literacy Rates to 75 per cent within the Tenth Plan period (2002-03 to 2006-07);
7. Reduction of Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) to 45 per 1000 live births by 2007 and to 28 by
2012;
8. Reduction of Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) to 2 per 1000 live births by 2007 and to 1 by
2012;
9. Increase in forest and tree cover to 25 per cent by 2007 and 33 per cent by 2012;

10. All villages to have sustained access to potable drinking water within the Plan period;
11. Cleaning of all major polluted rivers by 2007 and other notified stretches by 2012.

Task Find out the facts and figures regarding the level of education, poverty,
women development, infant mortality and gender equality in India.

7.4 Rural Development

Gone are the days when a rural consumer went to a nearby city to buy "branded products and
services". Today, rural markets are critical for every marketer - be it for a branded shampoo or
an automobile. There was a time when marketers thought van campaigns, cinema commercials
and a few wall paintings would suffice to entice rural folks under their folds. Thanks to television,
customers in rural areas are quite literate about myriad products that are on offer in the
marketplace today. An Indian farmer going through his daily chores wearing jeans may sound
idiotic. Not for Arvind Mills, though.

Did u know? When Arvind Mills launched the Ruff & Tuff kits in the rural areas, it had
created quite a sensation among the rural folks within a few months of their launch.
The Indian rural market with its vast size and demand base offers great opportunities to marketers.
Two-third of the country's consumers live in rural areas and almost half of the national income
is generated here. It is only natural that rural markets form an important part of the total market
of India. Our nation is classified into about 450 districts, and approximately 6,30,000 villages that
can be sorted according to different parameters such as literacy levels, accessibility, income
levels, penetration, distances from nearest towns, etc.

The Indian rural market with its vast size and demand base offers a huge opportunity that MNCs
cannot afford to ignore. With 128 million households, the rural population is nearly three times
the urban population. According to Mr. D. Shivakumar, Business Head (Hair), Personal Products
Division, Hindustan Lever Limited, the money available to spend on Fast Moving Consumer
Goods (FMCG) products by urban India is 49,500 crores as against is 63,500 crores in rural
India. The importance of the rural market for some FMCG and durable marketers is underlined
by the fact that the rural market accounts for close to 70 % of toilet-soap users and 38 % of all two-
wheelers purchased.

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