Rural markets, especially in countries like India hold strong potential as emerging markets. The aim of this paper is to identify and analyse factors acting as drivers for companies to enter and serve rural markets and also to identify interrelationships among them along with their driver and dependence power, with special reference to India. A total of 13 enablers were identified on the basis of focused group discussions and interviews with experts from academics and industry. An interpretative structural modelling (ISM) and fuzzy MICMAC analysis were used to identify levels of hierarchical relationship among the drivers. The findings show that government policies and regulations are some of the most important drivers in rural markets.

• Anita Sengar(University of Petroleum & Energy Studies Dehradun, India)
• Rajat Agrawal(Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India)
• Vinay Sharma(Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India)
• Kumkum Bharti(Indian Institute of Management Kashipur, India)