Mapping structural relationships among the critical factors of rural supply chains

The Indian retail, manufacturing and infrastructure sectors are poised for rapid growth but they are faced with new challenges when it comes to the untapped rural areas. Rural India is experiencing significant changes due to the pace of economic development in India. This includes changing consumption patterns, increasing exposure to different lifestyles and products, and increasing purchasing power. In order to understand the rural supply chain (RSC) better, an attempt was made to identify the factors that are pertinent in the Indian context. The factors have a profound impact in designing a suitable supply chain model for the rural markets. After identifying these factors, interpretive structural modelling (ISM) and fuzzy analysis was used to establish structural relationships among these factors to categorise them into sensitive and influential sets. The results obtained revealed a number of interesting facts about RSC, the details of which are presented in this paper.