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eJatra - Digital Village Fair for Rural Artisans: 

eJatra - Digital Village Fair for Rural Artisans Shruti Mahambre, IT Sumana Srinivasan, IT

What is the need?: 

What is the need? Rural artisans typically sell their products using following modes: Directly to buyers who visit their workplace. By participating in exhibitions, village fairs To middlepersons who in turn sell them to retailers or individual buyers at a higher price. Products need to be produced before initiation of sale, financial risk involved is high. Demand forecasting is very hard as sales data is not recorded in such way that it can be analyzed.

What can be a possible Solution?: 

What can be a possible Solution? eJatra - a digital marketplace that includes Natural interface similar to actual jatra Multilingual capability Voiced based interfaces Demand forecasting services Accounting and book-keeping services Payment services Support for ongoing relationship between buyers and sellers Support for building communities of buyers and sellers

What are related ventures and how eJatra differs from them: 

What are related ventures and how eJatra differs from them Online shops for artisans such as CraftsinIndia.com eJatra will not have its own warehouse Online auction sites such as eBay.com eJatra will support ongoing relationship between buyer and seller Online malls such as super-shopping-mall.com eJatra will support transient shops too. Similar in spirit to Craftsbridge.com

Who will gain?: 

Who will gain? The artisans will have expanded market so that their income can increase. Buyers will have more variety and less price to pay while buying artisan products (price will be less due to elimination of layers of middlemen). eJatra can make money on services and subscription fees. Internet kiosks can offer eJatra related services to augment the set of services they already provide

Survey: 

Survey Paramparik Karigar, interviewed a couple dozen artisans from various corners of the country Questionnaire to gather data relating Willing to use computers and Internet as medium Mean monthly income Number of members working in the group Basic education Modes of payment accepted by artisan Access to computer Owns a bank account Mode of selling and delivering the products

Survey Results: 

Survey Results

Survey results contd.: 

Survey results contd.

Requirements Specification: 

Requirements Specification eJatra can be implemented by a NGO like Paramparik Karigar or any other artisan cooperative. Charging a nominal monthly membership fee by the artisans can fund the maintenance of eJatra Artisan interface to eJatra had to be iconic and in the local dialect

Requirements contd.: 

Requirements contd. Support customized order entry applications. Support both online payment and offline payment Customer satisfaction rating system that evaluates the reliability of the artisans Provide password-based security across many artisans using the system

Additional bells & whistles: 

Additional bells & whistles Provide additional accounting services for the artisans to study trend and demand forecasting Provide technical expertise akin to aAQUA to help artisans with their problems and design ideas

Business Model: 

Business Model

Architecture: 

Architecture Computer Savvy Computer Illiterate XML Space

Iconic Interfaces: 

Iconic Interfaces

Artisan Profile: 

Artisan Profile

Product Information: 

Product Information

Buyer Interface: 

Buyer Interface

Artisan Products Showcase: 

Artisan Products Showcase

Product Subcategories: 

Product Subcategories

Product Details: 

Product Details

Shopping Cart: 

Shopping Cart

Payment Details: 

Payment Details

Plan of Action: 

Plan of Action Surveying artisans Preparing questionnaire – Sept 6 Data collection – Sept 27 Analysis – Oct 4 Interviewing institutional buyers using the technique of contextual enquiry – Sept 27 The Culture Shop, Hiranandani Gardens, Powai Chetana Arts and Crafts, South Mumbai Studying existing models, Nov. 10 ebay.com, amazon.com, craftsinindia.com Business Model, Design and Iconic Interfaces – Nov. 25th Deliverable: Documentation of the findings and the analysis in the form of Business Feasibility Report (BFR) – Nov 30th

Conclusion: 

Conclusion ICT can bridge the gap by expanding market and bringing expertise to artisans’ doorstep

References: 

References www.ebay.com www.craftsinindia.com www.IndiaHandicraftStore.com www.123Indiangifts.com www.india-gift.com www.gift-articles.com www.Craftsbridge.com Semiotics: http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/semiotic.html Iconic Interface: http://www.it.iitb.ac.in/~it625/lectureslides/SNDT-Semiotics_in_Mass_Media.doc XML space : http://autonomic.iitb.ac.in