Terminologies Used In Localized Mobile Application For Supply Chain Management In Rural India

The mobile phone penetration in rural India is high and network prices are low. Usage of smartphones in rural areas is rising. However, information technology in general, and smartphones in particular are not being used for business purposes. While there is scope for developing localised business applications for rural India, there are very few Indian language business application terminologies that are commonly understood. We designed and developed an Android based business application in Hindi to manage logistics in a rural enterprise involving wild apricot oil. After the application evaluation with 11 rural users, we discovered that some terms worked well, while others do not. We also investigated the reasons why this happens. The lessons learnt from our study could be applied in contexts of other business applications in similar contexts.