The 2nd tech revolution in village India

The Indian government’s ambitious project of setting up 1,00,000 Common Service Centres takes technology to the doorstep of the common citizen

by Parsa Venkateshwar Rao Jr Delhi

The next stage of Information Technology (IT), it seems, will now happen in the countryside, if the Manmohan Singh government’s decision to create a network of 1,00,000 e-kiosks, to be known as Common Services Centre (CSCs), in the rural areas in 2007 is to become a reality. E-kiosk is seen as a nodal point to make e-governance meaningful. It is when villagers can transact official business through the network of e-kiosks that it can be claimed digitalisation of governance has been achieved.
E-kiosk is being seen as an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) unit that includes personal computers (PCs), printers, digital cameras, scanners, projection system and tele-medicine equipment. It certainly looks a lot more ambitious than the PCOs or the private cellular operators who increased telecommunication connectivity by leaps and bounds. It was during the first flush of young Rajiv Gandhi’s call for marching into the 21st century, and Sam Pitroda, who undertook the telecomunication mission, delivered it with a quiet panache. In many ways, e-kiosk can be seen as a more sophisticated expansion and upgradation of the PCO of the 1980s.
The kiosk project is being structured as a three-tier system, with the village-level entrepreneur (VLE), who will manage the kiosk, and who is being seen as a franchisee. The next level is that of the Service Level Agency (SLA), with an apex agency facilitating the service at the state level. To work out the modalities, the Department of Information Technology (DIT) has chosen Infrastructure Lending and Financial Services (IL&FS) as the national level agency (NLA). The mission-mode is the favoured means to implement the scheme.
A private document of IL&FS looking at the implementation of the CSC project argues for a bottom-up model that “can allow like-minded public and private enterprises—through a collaborative framework—to integrate their goals of profit as well as social objectives, into a sustainable business model for achieving rapid socio-economic change in rural India.” The basic model on offer is a public-private partnership.
It is clear that government alone will not be able to create the 1,00,000 e-kiosk network because lack of funds will remain an obstacle. Private-sector participation will enable the scheme to be a sustainable one by creating an appropriate business model.
An interesting aspect of the IL&FS report is the argument that private sector can be used effectively in the delivery of public service systems. Until now, policy pundits in the government as well as in the private sector had argued that public services should be left to the government, and that private sector should be allowed to grow and expand and generate wealth, which, then, would trickle down to the others.
There is a change of heart in the private sector as the realisation dawns that public service delivery systems need not necessarily mean an all-expenditure scheme, and that there are returns as well. It will be something on the lines of the private health services system, which generates handsome income as people are willing to pay. Of course, the money to be charged has to remain within reasonable limits. The report also argues that the business model for the CSC scheme facilitates creation of employment and generation of incomes, which will have a positive cascading effect on the rural economy, which has remained at the subsistence level for a majority of people living in villages.
It is argued that this is not the first time that private sector has played a key role in the rural sector, especially in spreading rural connectivity through satellite technology and by offering entertainment through cable network. So, it does make sense to harness the capability and expertise of private sector to spread IT-enabled services in the rural sector.
The promising part of the scheme is its employment potential. It is projected that the scheme would create 2,25,000 direct jobs in the villages, apart from the indirect job opportunities through the expansion of rural markets. The exact figure is certainly modest, but it need not be faulted on that count. The 1,00,000 e-kiosk scheme can only be the first stage, and there is potential for enormous growth in the future.
The scheme also conforms to the long-term plan of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s economic reform agenda that the net should be cast wide to bring in beneficiaries. The focus on rural areas is not out of place.
The main criticism against the present government has been that it is trying to pursue populism, on the one hand, through programmes like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NRGS), economic packages to relieve farmers in distress et al, and, on the other hand, it wants to push big-ticket reforms through schemes like Special Economic Zones (SEZs). Critics of the government are sure to describe the exercise as one of riding two horses, while the government will defend itself saying that it is adopting a two-pronged approach.
The IL&FS report cites some interesting data with regard to progress of e-governance in some of the states. It notes: “Several State Governments, too, have been at the forefront of e-government innovation, especially in the rural areas. The Bhoomi project has computerised 20,000,000 rural land records covering 67,00,000 farmers in the state of Karnataka. The CARD project in Andhra Pradesh has registered over 10 million
citizens in three years. The Rajiv Project has reportedly recorded transactions worth Rs21 crore in the last five months only on electricity bill payments in rural Andhra Pradesh.”
The CSC scheme is a necessary complement to e-government. The e-kiosk will enable the villager to access the information and services that government offers through its e-government windows. Instead of doing the endless and fruitless rounds of government offices in the village and in the district headquarters, where the hierarchy-based bureaucracy throws its weight around, villagers can access information as well as get work done more efficiently through IT modes.
The CSC scheme is both feasible and attractive. There is much in it for the private sector, especially the business model. It now realises that there are profits to be made in the rural sector as well, which is what drives the private sector. There is nothing wrong with that. But what the private sector will have to ensure is the efficient qualitative delivery of services.
If more than one service provider exists, then competition will keep prices down as well as ensure that people are not taken for a ride. Monopolies, whether in public or private sector, are to be avoided like plague.
More importantly, it is one of the best ways of empowering economically and socially weak villagers. The maxim that knowledge is power could be suitably changed to “Information is power”. Give information to the poor. This could serve as a better catalyst to remove illiteracy. Through the ITinterface, people will see the direct reward for turning literate