After a pilot in the state of Maharashtra, Nokia has rolled out its Nokia Life Tools service in India involving government agencies, carriers and wireless industry players.

Designed specifically for the emerging markets, Nokia Life Tools is a range of Agriculture, Education and Entertainment services "addressing the information gaps" of target non-urban consumers. With Nokia Life Tools, consumers can choose various types of services and information that they opt in to receive.

"There were many in the rural and emerging areas whose needs and pain points were being unmet," said Dinesh Subramaniam, senior manager of communications for Nokia, Espoo, Finland.

"Many of these folks were involved in agriculture, but depended heavily on middlemen for information, and also spent a lot of time and money seeking out information that would enable them to grow better crops or sell their produce at better prices.

"Unfortunately, the kind of information that they were used to getting were not completely in their favor, or was obtained with some difficulty," she said. "In the area of Education and learning, many sought to improve themselves by knowing more about the world around them, or having a better command of English.

"Again, these resources were not readily available to people in emerging markets."

Research by the Emerging Markets Services team that conceptualized and launched Nokia Life Tools found that almost everyone interviewed expressed the desire to get such information directly on their devices.

The service was designed to work wherever the mobile phone works, according to Nokia.

The information was presented to the consumer through a graphical user interface, but the mode of delivery for information was SMS.

The service launched first in Maharashtra in association with the Maharashtra State Agricultural Marketing Board, or MSAMB.

The MSAMB network specializes in commodity pricing.

MSAMB will also have the opportunity to deliver relevant news, alerts on schemes and other information directly to grassroots consumers via their handsets.

Nokia Life Tools is available on the Nokia 2323 classic and Nokia 2330 classic devices, and at some point will be expanded to other Nokia devices.

Designed with input from target users, Nokia has collaborated with multiple partners, including the Indian Government and private enterprises to deliver localized and personalized information directly to consumers' Life Tools-enabled mobile devices.

Nokia Life Tools has three primary services -- Agriculture Services, Education Services and Entertainment Services.

The Nokia Life Tools Agriculture service provides daily weather updates and relevant agriculture-related news, advice and tips.

The premium plan will be available in 10 states, including Maharashtra, and provides the closest market prices for three crops chosen by the subscriber, as well as weather, news, advice and tips.

Nokia is collaborating with Reuters Market Light, which was the provider for agriculture services in the pilot.

Syngenta, Madison Research and Skymet also partnered in this initiative.

The Nokia Life Tools Education service, available throughout India, offers three components: Learn English, with basic, intermediate and advanced levels; exam preparation, which offers students tips and advice for ICSE, CBSE and State Board-level exams mapped to the relevant curriculum; and General Knowledge.

Information and content from multiple local and international companies will be aggregated and delivered to Nokia Life Tools by EnableM.

The Nokia Life Tools Entertainment service includes Astrology, News, Jokes, Cricket and ringtones. The content is aggregated and brought to Life Tools by OnMobile.

Nokia Life Tools was piloted in Maharashtra earlier this year before its commercial roll-out this month.

Nokia will collaborate with Pearson Education of India to bring content to Nokia Life Tools.

The target demographic for Nokia Life Tools in India is mobile phone subscribers, consumers in emerging markets for whom information gathering is a strain, and for whom access to the Internet is limited at best.

IDEA Cellular is the first Indian carrier to sign a deal with Nokia to bring Life Tools on deck.

The service comes pre-loaded in two of the latest entry-category -- that means low-price-point -- mobile phones in India.

Above-the-line tactics such as billboard advertising and retail advertising and below-the-line marketing tactics -- including teams of promoters driving around in vans -- will be employed to inform the emerging markets community about Nokia Life Tools.

"Together with ecosystem partners, Nokia will get the word out about Life Tools," Mr. Subramaniam said.