Building Sustainable Common
Services Centres in rural India
Ashis Sanyal,
Senior Director (e-Governance)
Department of Information Technology,
Govt. of India, New Delhi – 110 003
Building Sustainable Common Services Centres in Rural India
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Disclaimer
The content in this presentation are
comments and observations of the
Presenter and do not reflect the
views of Government of India
Building Sustainable Common Services Centres in Rural India
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Presently in India
Proliferation of Information and
Communication Technologies
(ICT) have been perceived as
an important Key Performance
Indicator (KPI) for Economic
Development of the regions
hitherto unreached by ICT
Building Sustainable Common Services Centres in Rural India
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Government has also taken a considered
decision on ICT interventions in all walks
of Governance (e-Governance)
 To
provide a new face to the Government
leading to changing the entire gamut of
relationship between Government and Citizen
 For fast, responsive and transparent
governance
 For more effectively reaching the huge unreached population in remote rural areas
 For significant reduction in cost of delivery of
government services
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Common Services Centre
Scheme
In September 2006, Govt of India
approved a flagship Scheme to
establish 100,000 Common
Services Centres (CSC) across rural
India, with an estimated total
outlay of 1.44 bn USD to be
expended over 4 years
- One CSC per approx 6 villages.
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Some Important Features of
CSC Scheme
A high-level programmatic approach in
implementation by outsourcing a National Level
Program Manager
- National Level Service Agency (NLSA)
 Single window service delivery for both G2C and
B2C services.
 Implementation through Public-PrivatePartnership model
 Financial Support for a handholding period of four
years

Building Sustainable Common Services Centres in Rural India
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Some Important Features of
CSC Scheme
…contd

Three-tier Implementation / Operation
– At the top level, the State Designated Agency
(SDA) in 29 states
– At the middle-level, the Service Center Agency
(SCA), identified by each State through a
bidding process (lowest bid for government
support sought per CSC per month for 4
years)
– At the bottom level, the actual Operator of the
CSC, the Village Level Entrepreneur (VLE)
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Current Scenario: Common Services
Centres

Many ICT-enabled e-Community Centres by some
States Govts. Civil Society entities, NGOs & Local
Entrepreneurs
–
About 10, 000+ Centres currently functional

Models now available for Need Assessment Survey
Procedures, Demand Estimation, Impact Analysis,
Value Proposition for Services etc.
Still these are isolated efforts and Growth /
Expansion / Replication rate is far from desirable
Dept. of IT, Govt. of India launched the Scheme of
CSC for calibrated interventions in Policy &
Funding support to create enabling environment
for faster roll-out of such centres


Building Sustainable Common Services Centres in Rural India
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Perceived Objectives: Common Services
Centres





To create a low cost vehicle for government
institutions so that easy, direct and cost-effective
delivery of e-governance services to the rural citizen
be possible
To develop, test and demonstrate, portfolio of products
and services which can be delivered through these
Centres
To customize and deliver standard products and
services as per local needs
To build capacity for support system for new
enterprise and infrastructure for such delivery outlets
To provide a platform to Civil Society Organizations
and NGOs to reach and communicate with remote and
Contd…
isolated communities
Building Sustainable Common Services Centres in Rural India
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Perceived Objectives: Common Services
Centres
…Contd

To demonstrate that to bring sustainable
economic and social growth in underserved rural
India by using the benefits ICT, one has to take
sustainable business approach and not merely a
philanthropic approach

(By meeting all these objectives above) to create
significant and lasting impact on rural livelihood
in the areas of empowerment, equal opportunity,
gender equity, social inclusion, better governance,
employment generation and human development
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The Services Model
Data
Collection,
Rural BPOs, etc.
Value-adds
Quality of Life
Social Development
Entertainment
Education, Healthcare,
Agricultural Extension, etc
Create Income
Opportunities
Save Costs
Market Linkages
E-Government Services
The power of the CSC would lie in its focus on content customization and
multi-lingual delivery of End-to-End Services
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RURAL SERVICE DELIVERY
Rural Society & Service Requirements

High income, upper caste, large land holding group
with adequate literacy, health and Housing
–

Low income, small land holding, small traders, poor
literacy, health and housing
–

Market prices, Land records, News, Entertainment, E-mail,
Health
Education, Health, Market Prices, Government Loan
Low/No income, no fixed employment, backward
class, poor literacy, health and dwelling, no land
holding
–
Eligibility Certificates for Anti-poverty Schemes, Health,
Education
Contd…
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RURAL SERVICE DELIVERY
Key Parameters to be considered
…Contd


Rural Dynamics
–
Expected to play a major role as it defines the volume of
transaction and kind of service mix.
–
Population is the major factor which indicates volume as
well as revenue generation
Rural Economics
–

BPL & APL data would determine the impact
Rural Infrastructure
–
Geographic dispersion, power, road, telephone etc. play
major role
Contd…
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Rural Service Delivery
…Contd
1
Framework Segmentation of Villages
2
3
Not sustainable
4
5
6
sustainable
Segment value of a village =
7
Viable
8
9
10
Profitable
Rural Dynamics (7) +
Rural Economics (1.5) +
Rural Infrastructure (1.5)
Contd…
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Rural Service Delivery
…Contd
Government
– Certificates, Licenses, Grievance Redressal
– Law & Order, Govt. Welfare Schemes
Private
– Market prices, Education, News,
Entertainment, Communication
Govt. – Private
– Mixed Services
Most of the current initiatives targeting services in a particular
market segment, not quite achieving self-sustainability
Contd…
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...with Delivery Network at the Core
of a Network of Stakeholders
Corporates
operating in
rural areas
e-Service
providers
Govern
ment
Government
Policy,
funding
Infrastructure
providers
Business
Agrobusiness
NGOs
Policy,
funding
schemes
Consumer
products
Finance
Delivery network
Regional
Network
hub
orchestrator
Village
kiosk
Communities/m
arkets
Hardware,
software,
connectivity
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Government Service Delivery Strategy

In course of time, all services would be webbased, any-time, any where basis
– At present limited information-based services are on the net
– Multiple channel Service delivery to continue for some time to
come

Capacity Building program for the HR to cope up
with the situation
– Wide level training for the Govt. officials on software applications,
infrastructure handling, change management and Government
process re-engineering

Back-end automation and readiness for net-based
service delivery
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Building Rural Common Services Centres

Macro Issues
Government-on-line is a very complex issue
–

Many Technical, Financial, Management & Risk issues
Single window e-Service Delivery through
Common Services Centres at remote place
warrants appropriate dis-aggregation
–
Structuring of Front End
–
Structuring of Back End
–
Middleware for all Technical, Financial and
Management parameters
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Organisational Support to deliver G2C
services
 Different
levels of authorisation for the
SCA/ VLE for delivery of G2C services
 Authorisation for revenue sharing for
revenue-based G2C services
 Nominal fees to be levied from citizen
for information-based G2C services
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Other Key Parameters for Sustainability
 Viable Business model
 Min Range of Services
 Partnership: Entrepreneur,
Industry,
Govt
 Role of the Local Govt
 Aligning existing Govt programs
 Eligibility of Entrepreneurs
 Aggregation: Recommended Reach /
Geographical Spread
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Common Services Centres : Conclusions
Impact On Rural Livelihood

Good Governance

Empowerment

Equal Opportunity

Human Development

Income / Employment Generation
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Ministry of Environment & Forests,
Government of India
Common Services Centres
“No power can stop an idea
whose time has come”
- Victor Hugo
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“The dreams of the digital empowerment
of rural India aren’t dreams any more.
They are slowly taking real shapes in the
hands of the rural poor, who with luck and
IT on their side, will not remain
impoverished much longer”
- DATA QUEST, Sept.30th, 2004
A leading fortnightly IT Magazine of India
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Thank You
For
Your Kind Attention
asanyal@mit.gov.in
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