The rise of the RURBAN entrepreneur
India is rapidly transitioning from an agricultural economy to a more centralized industrial economy where the entire economic growth is centered on seven major metros. This industrial expansion has resulted in a continuous migration of employable youth from rural and small urban (RURBAN) areas to large urban centers to participate in the major employment markets as well as the service sector. While this industrial shift has created an influx of jobs, this large-scale migration has also created unique challenges for urban areas in the country, such as:
However, despite the numerous challenges, the massive influx of labour from rural to urban areas also creates new markets for real estate developers, transportation providers, restaurant owners, security service providers and even health practitioners. The focus is largely on catering to the urban dwellers and the migrants.
Undeniably, almost all industry sectors see opportunity in the expanding urban cities but this continued expansion and development is not sustainable. For example, a car dealer will want to continue to sell cars each year, but where will these cars ply? Is there space left on the roads? Are there enough parking spaces? One can already see the signs of urban deterioration in the heavily polluted air of Delhi or the painful traffic in Bengaluru. How many people are suffering from asthma and bronchitis, and how difficult it is for ambulances to wade through the traffic even for life-threatening ailments? There will, come a point when the resources will cave in to the increasing pressure.
So, what is the solution to ensure uniform development in the country?
Metropolitans in India have turned into commercial hubs largely due to a significant and sustained foreign investment and large number of MNCs who have setup their offices there. The lure of these big companies continues to bring thousands of people from across the country into these seven major metros. The resulting problem of overcrowding, thus, cannot be reversed unless India starts focusing on the 1 billion people who are outside the scope of these seven mega-urban centers comprising a population of approximately 200 million and who live in Rural and Small Urban areas collectively called RURBAN areas.
Curbing over-exploitation in already developed areas provides a unique opportunity to Indian entrepreneurs to create products and services for the RURBAN segment of population by utilizing materials available in other parts of the country or easily importable from other countries. However, to create a viable business in the increasingly overcrowded entrepreneurial network, it may be prudent to first create a service business and build distribution channels to create a brand, and then add products to the offering. The services component can eventually be outsourced to third party providers. In order to help the Indian RURBAN entrepreneurs we, at HBSS, are creating a seamless network of logistics companies they can rely on for delivering goods and providing services within their region and later across the length and breadth of the nation. After pioneering several transportation efforts in USA and developing unique applications such as QRydeCloud, our team’s sight is fixed on developing innovative transportation solutions for the Indian RURBAN space.
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Helping War Veterans find affordable
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Helping employees avail low cost transportation
from Lowell MA to Devens MA
Established in 1997, HB Software Solutions has provided its services to over 700 companies in 17 states who have used HBSS’ both Cloud Based and Client-Server for daily trip management, billing and reporting to date. They currently maintain more than 50,000 trips on a daily basis.
If you are interested in setting up a RURBAN micro-enterprise, watch out this space for thoughts and ideas on building businesses with minimum capital investment. Get in touch with us at [email protected].
Himanshu Bhatnagar
CEO
Dr. Himanshu Bhatnagar, Founder is a D. Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts in the area of intelligent software for transportation challenges. He has more than 20 years of experience in developing turnkey systems in the area of brokerage call centers, Medicaid billing systems, shared ride management systems, intelligent transportation systems, demand response scheduling, logistics, internet and intelligent agents. Dr. Bhatnagar has keen interest in solving world’s, and especially India’s, socio-economical conditions by leveraging cutting-edge technology.