10,000 new IT-enabled rural centre to speed up e-governance

20 Feb 2009

1

Of the one-lakh IT-enabled common services centres (CSCs) that the centre is planning to set up by March 2010, as many as 25,195 centres have already been set up with another 10,000 in the pipeline which would become operational by the end of this March.

By setting up this network of access points, the department of information technology has sought to leverage the advances in information and communication technologies for the benefit of citizens at large, especially those in rural and remote areas.

These centres are being set up across the six-lakh villages in the country at an estimated cost of Rs5,742 crore which would be raised via the public-private partnership route.

By the end of 2008, requests for proposals had been issued by 25 states for 1,06,275 CSCs and master service agreements been signed for 1,02,851  across 23 states.

Haryana, Jharkhand and Sikkim have completed 100-per cent roll out.

A CSC is an ICT-enabled service delivery outlet providing a range of services to the people in the village or the town in which it is located. The centre has approved the CSC scheme that these centres as the front-end delivery points for government, private and social sector services to rural citizens in an integrated manner. The objective is to develop a platform to enable the government and private and social sector organisations to align their social and commercial goals for the benefit of the rural population in the remotest corners.

These CSC are being designed as ICT-enabled kiosks equipped with a PC along with basic support equipment like printer, scanner, UPS, with wireless connectivity as the backbone and additional equipment for edutainment, telemedicine, projection systems, etc.

The scheme, to be implemented through the PPP route, has been approved at a total cost of Rs5,742 crore over four years, of which the centre share is is estimated at Rs856 crore, with the state governments adding Rs793 crore.

The remainder will be mobilised from the private sector.

The CSC roll out is part of DIT's steps to support infrastructure under the National E-Governance Plan for enabling anytime-anywhere delivery of government services.

the department of IT would provide calibrated support through policy interventions and appropriate financial support to create the basic infrastructure for the 100,000 CSCs.

Business History Videos

History of hovercraft Part 3...

Today I shall talk a bit more about the military plans for ...

By Kiron Kasbekar | Presenter: Kiron Kasbekar

History of hovercraft Part 2...

In this episode of our history of hovercraft, we shall exam...

By Kiron Kasbekar | Presenter: Kiron Kasbekar

History of Hovercraft Part 1...

If you’ve been a James Bond movie fan, you may recall seein...

By Kiron Kasbekar | Presenter: Kiron Kasbekar

History of Trams in India | ...

The video I am presenting to you is based on a script writt...

By Aniket Gupta | Presenter: Sheetal Gaikwad

view more