Reuters Market Light, Future Group’s Aadhaar in tie-up to reach Indian farmers

Reuters Market Light and Future Group’s Aadhaar Retailing Limited in a strategic tie-up to reach to Indian farmers across key states

November 25, 2009 /India PRwire/ — Thomson Reuters today announced that its ground-breaking mobile information service for India’s agricultural community Reuters Market Light has teamed up with Future Group’s Aadhaar Retailing Limited (ARL), a leading end to end solution provider for rural communities across key states in India. With this tie-up Reuters Market Light (RML) looks at expanding its pioneering personalized mobile information service to the huge farming community across the country.

This new agreement will allow RML services to be offered through all ARL stores across key states like Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra and MP. ARL has a very significant presence in rural markets across the country and is a well known company in the agricultural services space. RML Direct Cards will be available for 3/6/12 month durations costing Rs. 260/500/850 respectively.

RML provides personalized and customized, decision-critical agricultural information to farmers which has created a significant positive impact in their lives. This relevant information is sent to farmers’ mobile phones via local language SMS (short message service) and is aimed at maximizing their productivity and increasing income.

Farmers can activate the RML service using an easy to use RML Direct scratch card, and create their personalized service comprising of localized weather updates, crop advisory, agricultural rural news and market prices in 11 states, from a wide menu of 250 crops and 1200 local and national markets, in the local language of their choice.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Saurabh Chadha, CEO, Aadhaar Retailing Limited, said, "We are glad to be associated with a unique and innovative service like RML, which will bring immense value to the farming community across the country. We are confident that the agreement will strengthen the network and help the farming community by providing relevant and accurate decision critical information to farmers at the right time".

Commenting on the tie-up, Mr. Amit Mehra, Managing Director of Reuters Market Light, at Thomson Reuters, said, "Teaming up with Future Group’s ARL will add momentum and help us scale-up our footprint in key states in a very rapid and systematic manner. This tie-up is a major step to reaching millions of farmers through the agri-input consumption route."

"We have spent over three years in creating this innovative and life enhancing personalized information service for farmers. Distribution in rural India has been a key challenge, and this partnership will greatly help address it. Thousands of farmers have benefitted between using the RML service, for instance, Mr. Vinayak Aher from village Bhalur, Nasik, who called the RML office to thank for the weather alert predicting unseasonal rainfall in his region, which helped him save Rs 50,000 by avoiding spray of pesticides".

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

Notes to Editor

About Reuters Market Light:

Reuters Market Light, is the first highly personalized professional information service for farmer that is directly impacting their lives. RML was launched in October 2007 in Maharashtra, by Shri. Sharad Pawar, Union Minister for Agriculture. Since then, Reuters Market Light has expanded its services in 10 more states including Punjab, Haryana , Gujarat, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. RML has been widely quoted in national and international media. Most recently, RML has appeared as a case study in Prof. CK Prahalad’s book ‘The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits’ and was recently mentioned in the Economist as a pioneering example of innovative services for farmers.

About Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters is the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals. We combine industry expertise with innovative technology to deliver critical information to leading decision makers in the financial, legal, tax and accounting, healthcare and science and media markets, powered by the world’s most trusted news organization. With headquarters in New York and major operations in London and Eagan, Minnesota, Thomson Reuters employs more than 50,000 people and operates in over 100 countries. Thomson Reuters shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange. For more information, go to www.thomsonreuters.com

About Aadhaar Retailing Limited:

Aadhaar Retailing Limited (ARL), commenced operations in 2003 as Godrej Aadhaar with its first store in Manchar. Over the years through close interactions with the rural community, the company has moved on from ‘Agri Retailing’ to becoming a ‘Complete Solution Provider’ for the rural /semi – urban community, with better price points, greater choice, & an urban shopping experience. Today, the company stands for happiness and prosperity of rural and semi urban population and enjoys tremendous goodwill in the markets it serves.

The company now operates in 63 stores and has presence in 2,200 villages and works with more than 40,000 farmers across states of Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra and MP. The company has plans to expand in future to cover states of Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.