Prospect of MBA in Rural Management

Dr Debabrata Lahiri *

In India 70% of the population lives in rural areas and 50% of the GDP contributed by rural India. Recently Finance Minister has told in an interview that road ahead of India's growth would be coming from rural and infrastructure sector of economy.

Govt of India gives very high priority for rural development due to it containing large population & contributing very vital input of agriculture and food to the entire population and large export potential.

Today agriculture contributes net trade surplus of Rs 18 billion compared to $ Rs 8 billion indicating the net contribution of agriculture in international trade exceed much that of net contribution by Services sector.

Unfortunately, 18% of the rural development budget reaches the target areas due to inefficient delivery mechanism and mismanagement.

Therefore, managing the rural economy requires educated professionals with right attitude to serve the rural sector with the population and its infrastructure. Rural India requires fresh breed of rural management professionals for the development of rural economy.

India's development lies in the management of the development of its villages. Successful implementation of various programmes requires knowledge and skills of various management areas in planning, monitoring, evaluation and execution. So there is requirement of Rural Management professionals committed to working very closely with the rural masses and having professional knowledge, skills, experience & expertise.

Besides government, several non-governmental organization, voluntary organizations, corporate houses, private companies, multinational organizations are working in rural areas for supporting rural development work and such organizations are looking for rural management professionals.

In this article we write about career opportunities for management graduate or any graduate in Rural Management specially for North-Eastern states of the country.

Largely unknown to many that rural management professionals are required in large numbers in the areas of sales & marketing, banking & finance, logistics & supply chain management, purchase, human resource management, general management, systems, project management etc.

Students after studying rural Management can work as managers, analysts, researchers, consultants, with government, public sector organizations, private companies, NGOs. Job opportunities are available in government development agencies & NGOs.

Rural Management professionals are engaged in banking & finance sectors, micro finance, co-operative sector, agri-business sectors like fertilizer, seeds, pesticides, farm machinery organizations, food sector etc. They are also employed in health, education, housing, irrigation etc.

Their work requires frequent travelling and interaction with various people. Prospects available from both Indian and multinational companies having operations in the rural areas from sectors like automobiles, telecom, FMCG, retail, market research and advertising, Rural BPO.

Where the course on MBA in Rural Management is available?

The ICFAI University Tripura is offering MBA in Rural Management at its campus at Kamalghat near Agartala.

Sectors where MBA (Rural Management) degree Holders can be employed:
– Private/Govt Banks/Co-operative Banks
– Microfinance
– Agriculture insurance and Micro insurance ?
– Food retailing and food service industry
– Agro Processing Industry
– Export and Import companies
– Commodity trading companies
– Milk & milk products/Poultry & Fisheries/Edible oil Industry
– Agri-machinery industry
– Biotechnologies companies
– Health and Food Department in Govt sectors
– Animal feed industry
– Technical research firms
– Consultancy
– Agriculture Media & marketing agencies
– Agriculture and allied industry IT organization ?
– NGO & social enterprises
– Development organizations
– E-commerce
– Co-operatives
– Supply Chain management
– Ware housing Management