Ahmedabad: Students at Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) are busy planning their online ventures for the largely unexploited tier two and three markets. Also, the ventures they have initiated with hardly need any seed capital. As per sources, Rahul Singhal, who interned with a leading investment bank, is planning to start an online medical counselling forum in order to cater to the needs of those people who do not have easy access to medical opinions.
Singhal who is also a master's in economics, said that doctors are generally restricted to a particular area. There are times where a surgery is recommended for a particular disease, but people prefer to have a second opinion. He said that in such cases, people in tier two and three cities do not have a choice but to consult other local doctors for a second opinion. Furthermore, Singhal mentioned that he plans to have a panel of doctors from all branches of medicine under his forum. He said that anybody who has any health problem - be it related to cardiology or neurology, sexual or psychology, needs to type his reports on the website, put current status and get consultation. Moreover, Singhal has refused a lucrative job.
Similarly, Raja Mukesh Krishna and Arunkumar, are also initiating with an e-commerce business enterprise together. They feel that the concept of gifting is growing in the tier two and three markets. According to Raja, a computer engineer, who saw a meeting of mindset with Arun, an electrical engineer at IIM-A, and decided to start the venture with him that there is a huge potential in these largely untapped markets with few big players. He added that logistics is an issue in e-commerce and they are looking at some ground realities at present. He said that they are looking at building inventory later so will have to manage only the running cost.
According to a statement issued by Arun it was the two years spent at IIM-A that gave them a better sense of business. He said that IIM-A teaches one to follow their heart and that is exactly what they are doing. He added that the course has been a confidence-booster that has certainly helped give us perspective, besides providing the opportunity to interact with people from all walks of life.
