3i Infotech spreads wings to rural India

MUMBAI, INDIA: 3i Infotech, a provider in IT services, announced on Wednesday that it has entered in to strategic partnerships with ICICI Lombard, Airtel and Max New York Life to offer a comprehensive range of services to rural consumers under the I-SERV brand.

Through I-SERV, consumers especially in remote rural areas, would get an access to a range of value-added services that would improve their quality of life, said a press release.

Through this partnership, ICICI Lombard, Airtel and Max New York Life would aid 3i Infotech in providing a bouquet of retail services in the general insurance, telecom and life insurance sectors respectively.

ICICI Lombard would provide its entire suite of general insurance products like motor, home, travel and health. The company would also make available specific rural insurance products like cattle, tractor and weather insurance through these I-SERV stores.

Airtel would use the I-SERV retail stores for marketing, promotion and distribution of various cellular services across this space, the release said.

While Max New York Life would offer Max Vijay, a product designed specifically for the undeserved segment of the society, to meet the unique challenges of unpredictability in life and their income flow.

3i Infotech is setting up 12,500 I-SERV stores across nine Indian states including: Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Delhi, the release added. The stores would deliver services related to banking, insurance, mobile, education, ticketing and utilities.

Anirudh Prabhakaran, executive director and president, South Asia, 3i Infotech, said, “We have taken care to align with organizations having similar commitment to use technology as a tool to enrich lives and to empower Rural India. The wide reach of our I-SERV stores, coupled with the experience and expertise that these organizations bring to this relationship, will benefit Rural India”.

“Our alliance with 3i Infotech for its I-SERV initiative, is part of our effort in expanding the general insurance footprint through government partnerships, NGOs and MFIs,” according to Sandeep Bakhshi, managing director and CEO, ICICI Lombard.

K.Srinivas, executive director, East/West Hub, Mobility, Bharti Airtel Limited, said, “Our partnership with I-SERV is another step towards our aim to reach customers in rural India to help them experience the benefits of mobile telephony. This partnership, we hope, will be creating another success story benefiting Rural India."

Rajit Mehta, chief operating officer, Max New York Life Insurance Company, said that they are extremely happy to partner with 3i Infotech, that has provided a unique platform through I-SERV to expand their reach significantly amongst the rural, and less developed parts of the country.