Richa Pandey Mishra(R) of eJeevika that trains potential candidates for jobs.

A VENTURE of the Indian Institute Tech­nology, Madras, or IIT-M, is training vil­lagers for employment in retail, business process outsourcing and security services, in an attempt to bridge the urban-rural divide.

"If you take any industry, companies are always looking for people. Considering that majority of the population lives in rural In­dia, we realised that they can be trained and brought to the same level as those in ur­ban centres — and employed," said Richa Pandey Mishra, founder and chief execu­tive officer of eJeevika HR Pvt. Ltd, a start­up incubated by IIT-M.

"This would help corporates battle labour shortage effectively" EJeevika's business model is simple: it identifies en­trepreneurs through village council heads, non-profits and self-help groups and offers them a franchise. The entrepreneur invests some Rs 50,000 on a couple of personal com­puters, a broadband Internet connection and power back-up. The franchises then identify potential candidates who are then trained by eJeevika according to the re­quirements of its clients.

For now, eJeevika has developed training modules for security services, retail and business process outsourcing and would de­velop modules for other sectors depending on client requirements. Villagers who wish to be trained register with eJeevika's website after which the company conducts an online interview in the presence of its client. Once the client gives a go-ahead sign, the candidate pays a fee and undergoes online train­ing. Mishra says the fee is "nominal," with­out elaborating. The candidate then has to clear online tests, interviews and a final face-to-face interview with the client. The entire process takes around a month, said Mishra.

The firm has successfully piloted its model in Cuddalore and Tiruvallur dis­tricts of Tamil Nadu, she said. EJeevika trained and placed some 100 candidates with the help of a network of 20 franchises in a few retailers and security services firms. Mishra declined to name clients cit­ing business confidentiality

"This is what we need at the moment.There is a shortage of labour supply There are talks about inclusive growth and here is a good example of inclusiveness," said Ra-jesh Sukumaran, investment manager for Singapore-based angel investment fund Mercatus Capital's India operations.

With a nine-member team backing her, Mishra plans to train and find jobs for 200,000 people in the next couple of years through a network of around 1,000 franchises in the ru­ral districts of India. "We will handhold the franchisee owner to help him set up the cen­tre. What we are looking for is that he should be dedicated, besides being computer literate and a local guy," Mishra said.

EJeevika has a mix of field workers and technical staff. It also has tied up with cor­porate human resources experts who help improvise on training content to make it relevant to villagers.

"India requires innovations like these," said Ravi Narayan, managing director at Mentor Partners that works closely with start-ups. "IT as a business model has be­come passe. How one uses IT to scale up is what many companies have increasingly started to look at." But, how will the com­pany overcome constraints like limited broadband connectivity and erratic electric supply? "We will first go wherever there is connectivity," Mishra said. "India is bound to grow and we will ride on that wave." "Their scalability would depend on the quality of training that they provide to the candidates but it is a scaleable model. With technology like 3G, issues like broadband connectivity form a temporary picture,"