RuralShores employs over 1,000 rural youth

MUMBAI, INDIA: RuralShores, which assimilates rural India into the knowledge economy through the creation of sustainable livelihood and entrepreneurial opportunities for rural youth, has celebrated crossing the mark of employment to 1000 rural youth by hosting an event at its first centre at Bagepalli, Karnataka.

The theme of the event was `Illuminating a Thousand Rural Families'. The function was presided by union corporate affairs minister, M Veerappa Moily, HDFC Limited chairman Deepak Parekh and Infosys co-hairman Kris Gopalakrishnan.

RuralShores has now set up 10 centres across seven states including Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat.

HDFC is a strategic investment partner in RuralShores through its equity participation. A second round of investment came two months ago from Lok Capital Venture Fund to the tune of Rs. 14 crores.

Murali Vullaganti, co-founder and chief executive of RuralShores, said, “RuralShores will focus on equipping rural youth, hone their skills and provide them appropriate employment while connecting corporate India to Bharat. Our endeavors are supported by marquee investors and young professionals to build scale and impact.”

Having established itself firmly in the field of IT Enabled Services, RuralShores is now launching into a new area of Business Enablement Services to connect Corporate India with Bharat consumers.

As growth in the telecom, insurance and retail sectors are largely coming from the rural markets, it is becoming very pertinent for organisations in these sectors to find ways to stay engaged with their clients in the rural market place.

RuralShores centres will act as the catalyst to enable these companies to reach the last mile. RuralShores is in advanced discussions with a number of retail, insurance and banking clients for such strategic tie-ups.

The company has started to use alternate energy for power at its centres. In partnership with GramOorja, a solar based power unit was set up at its Sonari centre in Sitapur District of Uttar Pradesh