MVAS – Potential growth driver for social and economic sector in rural India

The mobile value-added services market is growing rapidly in Rural India. According to a consultation paper published by the TRAI, the VAS contributes around 10%-14% of the total revenue of mobile telecom service providers. A confluence of factors such as the falling costs of value added services, enhanced handsets qualities, lowering age profile of mobile users have helped in stimulating the growth in this segment. The Indian rural sector, at present, suffers from decelerating productivity growth rate in terms of economy. It is essential to catalyze agricultural productivity, raise rural incomes, and empower the rural population to make best use of the existing and available infrastructure and funds. The increasing penetration of mobile networks and handsets in India, therefore, presents an opportunity to make useful information more widely available. This could help rural India operate more efficiently and overcome some of the other challenges faced by the social and economic sector. It is therefore timely to take a look at the impact of mobile value added service in rural India.