ITC e-Choupal wins global award

 ITC has won the prestigious Development Gateway Award 2005 for its trailblazing ITC e-Choupal initiative that has achieved the scale of a movement in rural India, becoming the first Indian company and the second in the world to win the $100,000 award. A company release said ITC e-Choupal won the award for its contribution to development priorities like poverty reduction, its scale and replicability, sustainability and transparency.

Last year, Grameen Bank-Village Phone won the Award (then known as the Petersberg Prize) for helping women entrepreneurs start small businesses providing wireless phone service in rural areas of Bangladesh.

The Development Gateway Award 2005 is sponsored by T-Systems, of Germany. The Development Gateway Forum 2005 has been co-h osted by the Government of China, Development Gateway and the World Bank.

Other Indian award finalists included:

Madhya Pradesh Agency for Promotion of Information Technology (MAP_IT): For empowering Indian farmers, traders, and government through accurate and timely information for effective decision-making. With smart cards and online access to text and video information, the “E-Agricultural Marketing” system run by MAP_IT benefits 6 million farmers and 70,000 licensed traders.

Related:

: Amy Waldman on e-Choupal

: Serving the World's Poor, Profitably by Prof. C.K. Prahalad and Allen Hammond

: The ITC eChoupal Initiative - HBS Case study by Prof. David Upton and Prof. Virginia Fuller.