IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

The SREI Infastructure Finance Ltd, CMS Computers Ltd and Zoom Developers Pvt Ltd have been picked as the service providers for six zones with each zone comprising of four to six districts.

The government decided to launch 8,558 common service centres — Biju Seva Kendra — at least one in each block to provide government-to-citizen, business-to-consumer and business-to-business services to citizens at their doorsteps.

Of 1100 citizen and business centric services targeted for delivery, over 600 services of various Departments of Central and State Governments are now available electronically – anytime, anywhere. This was disclosed by the Cabinet Secretary Shri K M Chandrashekhar here today while speaking to media after review of the progress of e-governance initiatives by the Apex Committee on National e-Governance Plan (NeGP). The Cabinet Secretary said that the Mission Made Projects (MMPs) under NeGP approved in 2006 have the potential to transform the socio-economic landscape of rural India.

This was disclosed by Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrashekhar here today while speaking to media after review of the progress of e-governance initiatives by the Apex Committee on National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), according to a PIB release issued from New Delhi.

The Cabinet Secretary said the Mission Made Projects (MMPs) under NeGP approved in 2006 have the potential to transform the socio-economic landscape of rural India.

Mr. Chandrasekhar urged upon all other government departments to follow suit. He said over 80,000 common service centres have sprung up across the country and the number is expected to cross one lakh by March next year. He said the government is working to cover all panchayats under common service centres by 2012.

Under this project, HDFC has kick started the country's first Common Service Centre (CSC) with banking services in the state. The bank plans to install machines at Common Service Centres (CSC) in the villages where people would need to make use of smart cards only to withdraw or deposit cash in their bank account. HDFC Bank has first adopted the Chakala village near Ranchi to implement the project.

“Under the e-governance project, the government is trying to bring many services to the doorsteps of the masses. However, it is important to generate awareness about how technology can change their lives as for many IT is still an incomprehensible mystery,” said a source in DIT.

The six states are West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Assam, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

Under this project, every center would provide a bouquet of services starting from e-governance, e-commerce to e-learning and thereby linking rural areas with the entire world. "We will set up 25,000 IT kiosks in six states in east and south India, for setting up rural IT infrastructure, within a span of two years," said Hemant Kanoria, chairman and managing director of SIFL, said here.

This project is part of the central government’s e-governance drive, which is currently running close to 40,000 outlets and has a target of reaching more than a lakh outlets by the end of fiscal year 2011. Currently, Suvidhaa has 21,000 operational outlets in over 500 towns and cities.

With ICT-enabled kiosks or common service centers (CSC) dotting India’s rural map, WiMax could play a major role in delivering various applications to rural India. These include online bill payment, delivery of agriculture, healthcare and entertainment services, solutions for e-commerce activities, including commodity price information, online trading and banking transactions.

"As per the 11th Five Year Plan, the Centre has allocated a sum of Rs 40,000 crore for implementation of e-governance across the country," he said at a function here

"Out of the Rs 40,000 crore, Rs 6,000 crore would be spent by the Information and Technology Ministry while the remaining would be from other departments," Raja said. Under the scheme, to be launched in all the village panchayats shortly, one lakh Common Service Centres (CSC) would be set up for the benefit of the common man, he said.

At these centres, the villagers of the area can avail the following services for a nominal fee: digital photograph, videograph, NREGA photograph and data collection, submission of forms to various government departments, information regarding addition, deletion and modification in electoral rolls, data regarding land acquisition and records, internet, birth, death certificates, BSNL bill payment, mobile phone recharge cards, railway reservation, LIC premium payment, etc.

The point of decision of a government service and the point of its delivery have since time immemorial been one and the same, usually inside a government office. One of the fundamental reasons why governments are criticized is the absence of, or the very poor quality of, the front-end, or the point of contact of a citizen with the government. It’s here that, more often than not, there are instances of red tape and corruption.