Knowledge@Wharton came up with a report about how MNCs are doing in rural India. For starters, rural India is complex, fragmented, diverse and with shifting consumer tastes. In this market, MNCs have the difficult task of designing customized products and selling them at wafer thin margins. But on the positive side this is the heart of Indian growth story where the incomes are increasing rapidly and rural consumers started opening their wallets.

Most MNCs are now tying up their CSR initiatives with business performance. The need is to design CSR programs that benefit rural lives while at the same time bringing in potential business opportunities. The bottom line is that the companies are in for a very long haul – and as the article puts it – should target the next decade and not the next quarter.