Page 24 - TRI Annual Report

Transform Rural India
Bending Markets
for Flourishing
Localities (BMFL)
The BMFL approach is about
helping poor areas become
prosperous by developing their
markets with the help of private
businesses. "Languishing
localities" have limited
government help, so they rely
on subpar private markets and
community systems. BMFL
aims to use market systems to
help these areas grow in a fair
way. It focuses on helping poor
people and using non-market
interventions. This approach is
based on the belief that difficult
issues need interconnected
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solutions that disrupt the
system.
The need for differential
growth in languishing
localities is a prime national
agenda due to growing
opportunity-growth fault lines.
While India has become the
fastest-growing large
economy with a fast decline
in absolute poverty, it remains
a highly unequal society with
large unemployment. Basic
safety nets and government
and private sector
commitments to producing no
net carbon emissions provide
chances for people to get
involved in the market and
receive helpful information and
ideas.
Rural areas have seen a
demographic shift with a
young, aspirational, tech-savvy
population with formal
education, including girls with
professional degrees. Climate
change concerns offer
opportunities to exploit rural
competitive advantages in the
bio-economy and eliminate
economic barriers through
digitization.
The challenge and opportunity
is "engaging masses in
mass-production". The
opportunity exists at two levels:
1. Maximising the potential for
economic enterprises within
the area based on the local
economy and using this
stock of enterprises to enter
the national and larger
economic arena, and
2. evolving an ecosystem to
encourage enterprises from
outside the region to
actively participate in the
local economy.
BMFL aims to improve the
demand and supply interlock
by mobilising resources and
talent from both within and
outside the area, in order to
promote economic growth. The
practice focuses on developing
solutions that work at scale,
leveraging TRI's ground
presence in live "Community
Action Lab" to learn and
demonstrate the prototypes
and contribute in the design
and development of
complementary public system
interventions.
Our nation is at the crossroads of
having highest demographic
dividend and aspiring for becoming
5-trillion economy. Changing the
lives of the poor – stimulating
growth and expanding access –
means changing the market systems
around them. BMFL recognises this
reality and provides a coherent and
unified approach improve market
systems especially for flourishing
localities in Rural India.
Aliva Das
Associate Director
Youth Employability and
Enterpreneurship
BMFL interventions include A: Structural Level
locality-based interventions to
increase demand and supply, • BMFL aims to increase the
designing rules of the game, productivity of the existing
and catalysing the provision of workforce and enterprises
missing supporting functions and provide affordable, good
like capital, information, and quality delivery of basic
logistics. services in health, education,
nutrition, water, and
The interventions are at three sanitation. We do this by:
levels: structural, meso, and � - Arranging partnerships
micro levels with public programs
with market-making
�• Structural level opportunities
interventions are related to � - Creating private sector
systems change partnerships
� - Establishing special
�• Meso level interventions are purpose vehicles
related to constituents of
the market system and its • BMFL also seeks to
interaction with other galvanise action and build
systems momentum through
deliberate and persuasive
�• Micro level interventions are presentations of analysis,
related to the locality or insights, and pathways. It
local market or enterprise provides insights on
base. opportunities for seeding
Annual Report 2022-23
"neo-market systems" with 1. Prototype Development: and Urban-to-Rural (U-R) collectives of producers such
business growth across Place-Based BMFL Models goods and services segment. as Producer Enterprises (PE),
mini and nano enterprises, Our approach involves a Public procurement Producer Groups (PGs), and
both formal and informal. district-based saturation opportunities have been Farmer Producer Organisations
strategy that combines created by mapping and (FPO). Additionally, CMRE Youth
�• BMFL also aims to catalyse existing livelihood and identifying openings. Hubs provide peer spaces for
state capacity and crowd-in employment programs and To disintermediate the collective analysis and
public investments by policies. It takes fragmented supply chain of solidarity, leading to higher
building local market data-driven, targeted action input supplies and motivation, social mobilisation,
capacity through roads, to address labour supply technology, agri-preneurs can and the development of
communication and gaps, create local demand, build marketable lots. They enterprise leadership.
business infrastructure, or and improve the quantity can form informal and formal
asset building for and quality of local
pre-commercial employment.
households. It includes Examples of this approach
design of new programs, are:
including the Bharat � GOYN Bharat
Enterprise Enabler System,
to bring synergy in public � Work for Progress (W4P)
investments to the locality � Rural Industrial Park
level market systems 2. Special Purpose
infrastructure. Promotional Vehicle
• BMFL engages with private For growth-oriented private
sectors to seed sector engagement, scale is
entrepreneurial talent crucial. In areas with
ex-situ, and catalyse private unexpressed latent demand,
there needs to be an effort to
sector action through RISE, "create a market," which
SSA Million+ Livelihoods,
AgVenture CoUp MEET, requires specialised attention.
Prajwala Challenge, Examples of this approach are:
PPAVCD, FEED, and �• National Agriculture and
RuralSutra.
• Lastly, BMFL aims to curate Food Processing
Organization (NAFPO)
mechanisms for supporting �• Farmer Producer
nascent ideas or expansion Organizations Development
of existing business models and Reform Vehicle
through size-fit financing Company (FDRVC)
with Sampark's MNRE and C: Micro Level
FaME. Investing in "Market Readiness"
is the main task, which involves
B: Meso Level: building assets, developing
skills, changing mindsets, and
The aim is to create identifying business models
Locality-Focused Growth with positive impacts on
Clusters that capitalise on market systems.
current opportunities while To achieve this, the growth of
preparing for future ones. Mini local enterprises is critical,
and Nano Enterprises (MNEs) including partnerships with
can generate a large number local business communities
of rural jobs. engaged in the Rural-to-Rural
(R-R), Rural-to-Urban (R-U),
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