Common Service Centre

Subject: Government schemes

Context:

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has directed Common Service Centres (CSC) to complete the work of providing fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) and WiFi connections from the panchayat level to individual homes.

Concept:

• Common Services Centre (CSC) programme is an initiative of the Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY), Government of India.
• The CSC is a strategic cornerstone of the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), approved by the Government in May 2006
• The CSCs would provide high quality and cost-effective video, voice and data content and services, in the areas of e-governance, education, health, telemedicine, entertainment as well as other private services.
• A highlight of the CSCs is that it will offer web-enabled e-governance services in rural areas, including application forms, certificates, and utility payments such as electricity, telephone and water bills
• In addition to the universe of G2C services, the CSC Guidelines envisage a wide variety of content and services that could be offered as listed below:
  • Agriculture Services (Agriculture, Horticulture, Sericulture, Animal Husbandry, Fisheries, Veterinary)
  • Education & Training Services (School, College, Vocational Education, Employment, etc.)
  • Health Services (Telemedicine, Health Check-ups, Medicines)
  • Rural Banking & Insurance Services (Micro-credit, Loans, Insurance)
  • Entertainment Services (Movies, Television)
  • Utility Services (Bill Payments, Online bookings)
  • Commercial Services (DTP, Printing, Internet Browsing, Village level BPO).
• The Scheme creates a conducive environment for the private sector and NGOs to play an active role in implementation of the CSC Scheme, thereby becoming a partner of the government in development of rural India.
• The PPP model of the CSC scheme envisages a 3-tier structure consisting of the CSC operator (called Village Level Entrepreneur or VLE); the Service Centre Agency (SCA), that will be responsible for a division of 500-1000 CSCs; and a State Designated Agency (SDA) identified by the State Government responsible for managing the implementation in the entire State.