Agriculture in India is the one industry that is capable of creating more value and jobs single handedly than any other industry! And that is saying a lot considering India is one of the leading providers of IT services, technology, services (especially ITES/BPO) and has the potential to become the manufacturing centre of undeniable scales. Yet agriculture and the tertiary industries around its ecosystem has the ability to dwarf all these industries in comparison.
Recently there has been a marked increase
in the interest VC s are showing in agri based start-ups as well. One such
person putting his money where it matters is Jignesh Shah- more popularly known
as the “Exchange Man”. After having successfully setting up 10 exchanges in 10
years, making some of them the biggest exchanges in the world today. He not
only believes, but most definitely knows having seen the industry closely for
over two decades the value it holds. He feels that even just one project based
on the Agri industry - for example the proposed Agri-Grid via e-Nam
that would bring the entire agriculture and commodities ecosystem into one
integrated market platform has enough potential to create 10 crore new
jobs!
The management of this large ecosystem
platform of Agri-Grid and associated data will be valuable in making the
decision to trade in spot, forward; store, harvest commodities, global trading
etc. Thus a central repository in the form of a robust secured encrypted data
management system (through use of block chain technology), will be the heart of
the whole network.
The network can connect users by apps, web
platform, tele-callers etc. The economic size of the consolidated market place
and support infrastructure will be so significant that it will attract global
investment interest in the much deprived agriculture sector. Hence, linkages
with banking and financial markets are an integral part of the whole system.
