Reuters Market Light achieves subscription milestone

Mumbai, Sept 25 (ANI/Business Wire India): Reuters Market Light (RML), the ground-breaking mobile information service for India's agricultural community, today announced it sold its 50,000th subscription - a new milestone.

Since its celebrated launch in October 2007, RML has signed up over 50,000 farmers from across the state to its service, who have reaped the benefits of accurate, timely information, achieving up to Rs. 100,000 of additional profits on the sale of crops.

Following the success in Maharashtra, RML was rolled-out in the state of Punjab, the birthplace of India's green revolution. The service is now live across this second state.

RML provides customised market intelligence to farmers in local language including crop prices from local markets, weather forecasts, and relevant news and advisory information.

It has successfully established its business practice in Maharashtra and by the end of 2008 the service will be rolled out to a third Indian state. Following its early successes, RML is now finding that increasingly subscribers opt for 12 month contracts, as opposed to the original three month option.

Amit Mehra, Managing Director, RML said: "We are delighted that RML has proved so successful and indispensable in Maharashtra and now Punjab, and look forward to entering a third market later this year. RML is proud to bring Thomson Reuters core strengths - accurate information, timely delivery and impartial guidance - to a large, developing, often isolated audience."

In a country where approximately eight million new mobile phone users connect to networks each month and where 60 per cent of the population is dependent on agriculture, RML is leading the way to provide easy-to-use information to a vast farming community.

The RML project was developed by Reuters development team and introduced to the state of Maharashtra in 2007.

Reuters Market Light is an example of Thomson Reuters commitment to empowering the world's markets with intelligent information, blue-sky thinking, technological innovation and fast, responsive implementation.

ANI