AKASHGANGA Community Phone Shops
Case Study Interview


Digital Dividends interviewed Ahkilesh Yadav, a student at University of Michigan Business School and one of the members of the research team writing the soon-to-be released Digital Dividends case study on AKASHGANGA in India.

DD: What kind of services does AKASHGANGA provide?

AY: AKASHGANGA employs cutting-edge ICT along with mainstream hardware in its efforts to modernize milk collection and processing. The company has developed a suite of products for Dairy Cooperative Societies (DCS) throughout India, the collection points for dairy farmers in a rural villages. From the DCS, the farmers' milk is aggregated and then sent to a milk union for processing. AKASHGANGA markets an Automatic Milk Collection System (AMCS) which, in conjunction with milk analyzers, ensure that the volume and quality of the milk is properly measured. These advanced applications are complemented by more traditional weighing scales and raw milk receiving dock (RMRD) systems. Financial accounts are tracked using Rojmel accounting software.

The traditional method of milk collection at rural Dairy Cooperative Societies (DCS) involves the following steps: first, the milk is weighed using mapiyas (milk containers). After weighing the milk, the fat content is measured using the electronic milk-o-tester; these data are then manually entered on a member’s paper card. At the same time, the figures are recorded manually in a paper register. Since all these tasks have to be done manually, the process took about 30 minutes per farmer. The Automated Milk Collection System has automated these tasks and reduced the manpower requirement to three minutes per transaction.

Brief description of AKASHGANGA’S products and services:

1. Automatic Milk Collection Systems (ACMS)

AKASHGANGA has developed two unique Automatic Milk Collection Systems. The following chart provides a comparison of the two:

Conceptually, the systems are the same. However, the PC-based system provides more data storage and data analysis options and can be easily integrated with other software applications like AKASHGANGA’s Rojmel Accounting Software.

2. Weighing Scales

AKASHGANGA's weighing scales are designed with a 10 kilogram milk container set on top of a stainless steel platform. Its compact design and large, digital display increase its functionality and usability. Automated features such as tare-reset and spin drift correction maintain measurement integrity. The scale is extremely efficient and the IBM PC interface allows quick and error-free data entry. The scale's load cell design protects it from the effects of temperature variations. The AKASHGANGA scale is a significant technological improvement from the traditional measurement containers typically used by Dairy Cooperative Societies

3. AKASHGANGA Milk Analyzers (AMA): Fat and Solid Not Fat (SNF) Testing Machines

Currently, dairy farmers are paid according to milk volume and fat content. The DCS, on the other hand, is paid by the milk union according to average solid-not-fat (SNF) content of the union’s milk. This inconsistency in the payment method naturally leads to problems in the supply chain. The disparity persists because traditionally the solid-not-fat measurement products were not affordable for the DCS to purchase. [Explain the difference between fat and SNF payment.]

To address this problem, AKASHGANGA introduced milk analyzers that are designed for fast and cost-effective content analysis of raw milk. The analyzers are functional with both buffalo and cow's milk to measure fat, solid-not-fat, and protein content.

Key Features: • Simple and lightweight design • 220V AC supply • Cost effective • Fully automatic and user friendly • Low power consumption • No non destructive testing method • Fast, accurate display of results • No acid or other chemicals used • RS232 interface

4. Rojmel Accounting Software

This software incorporates existing bookkeeping and accounting records of the village cooperative society and generates a full complement of financial reports and analyses.

5. RMRD (Raw Milk Receiving Dock System) for Milk Unions

This software meets the accounting needs of milk receiving docks at milk unions. The software has been developed in the regional language and provides functionalities which includes milk reception, session receipts of total milk, employee attendance recording, and data transfer between societies.

DD: How many AMCS are currently operating, and where are they typically located?

AY: Currently there are 600 AMCS operating and they are spread throughout the states of Gujarat and Maharastra. Almost all of these are located in villages where milk collection traditionally takes place.

DD: How long has AKASHGANGA been using Automatic Milk Collection Systems (AMCS)? What drove them to develop the technology?

AY: Shree Kaamdhenu Electronics Private Ltd. (SKEPL), the company which owns the AKASHGANGA brand, was established in 1996. The Indian dairy movement began in the 1970s but no one attempted to develop an information technology-based solution for milk collection centers until the founders of AKASHGANGA developed ACMS in 1997. Mr. Shah, the brain behind the concept, had developed a microprocessor-based black box that later became the prototype for ACMS. AKASHGANGA displayed its first products at an agricultural fair in 1997 and won first prize.


DD: How does the AMCS benefit the day-to-day lives of rural communities? What kinds of problems does it address?

AY: At a very high level, the AMCS benefits rural communities by increasing the efficiency of the milk collection, reducing wait time from forty-five minutes to three minutes, and by eliminating fraud by providing villagers with a printed receipt.

With AMCS, measurement and quality assessment are totally automated. The "milk-o-tester" reads fat content and AMCS calculates the price and prints the receipt based on these data, eliminating human error and time-consuming hand-written entry. The customer's receipt includes important information that was poorly documented using traditional methods. With AMCS, information including customer number, date, time, milk volume, fat content, and amount due are printed onto a receipt which is hard to challenge, thus reducing fraud and exploitation.

At the end of each session, a report including customer number, litres of milk received from the customer, fat content, and amount payable is generated. This report is printed separately for cow's milk and buffalo milk. This report also includes important summary statistics.

A final report is generated every ten days that contains information on total milk supplied by each customer during the previous ten-day period and the corresponding total amount due to the customer for that period. This makes the account settlement process much more fluid and guarantees the dairy farmer a steady stream of income.

Each farmer who supplies milk to the DCS is assigned a unique customer number. Under the traditional system, the customer number had to be entered manually into the accounting register. With the AMCS, each farmer is given an electronic card which stores the farmer’s customer number. When the customer inserts the card in the card-reader, the customer number is automatically read and recorded thereby reducing the manual entry and creating more efficient tracking and reporting over time

DD: How has AKASHGANGA achieved profitability? What is the profitability of the company and the local Dairy Cooperatives?

JR: AKASHGNAGA has achieved profitability by keeping very tight control of its costs and by maintaining consistent revenue growth. SKEPL has been profitable since 1998. Their profits declined in 2000 and 2001 because SKEPL made huge capital expenditures to fuel their future growth. SKEPL’s profitability in 2002 was INR 5.59 lakhs.

DD: What kind of user feedback has AKASHGANGA received about the AMCS?

AY: AKASHGANGA has received extremely good feedback about AMCS. The company already has an established track record of over five years and its products and services are well-accepted. In some of the villages in the Kaira and Surat districts of Gujarat, SKEPL and its employees are known as AKASHGANGA more than SKEPL.

Customers like AMCS because of its usability, reliability, accuracy, and proven track record. Furthermore, SKEPL has a very good technical support team. SKEPL engineers travel between two and three hours on two-wheeled scooters to provide timely technical support.

DD: What are next steps for AKASHGANGA? Do they have plans to add additional services?

AY: AKASHGANGA is planning to take a number of additional steps in the near future. They will undertake significant software upgrades, providing a two-way data exchange between dairy collection societies and milk unions. In addition, the accounting software will be converted to Visual Basic (Windows) to include features to assist DCS internal audits. They are also in the process of developing a Web portal for the DCS market that will facilitate Internet usage along the lines of a rural information kiosk model. Once the software upgrades have been completed and the Internet portal is up and running, AKASHAGANGA envisions the development of a laboratory and assembly facility for the milk analyzer hardware.

In terms of market growth, the company hopes to scale up by opening additional offices at critical milk collection centers and partnering with dealers in major centers throughout India.

In-house training and development goals include licensing and certification for its product line and hiring additional talent to help with the plans for national expansion.

DD: The Aavishkaar India Micro Venture Fund is helping AKASHGANGA scale up. What are some of the advantages and challenges of this relationship?

AY: The Aavishkaar India MicroVenture Fund is helping AKASHGANGA by providing capital investment, strategic input, managerial oversight, and networking contacts to establish best practices and long-term strategies for expanding the enterprise.