Maha E Seva Kendra, Marwad Galli, Osmanabad.

Department of Information Technology (DIT), Ministry of Communication & Information Technology, Government of India has embarked upon an ambitious project to establish 1 lakh Common Service Centers in 6 lakh villages of India. CSCs scheme has been started in 2004 as a strategic cornerstone of the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) as part of its commitment in the National Common Minimum Programme to introduce e-governance on a massive scale and is more than just service delivery points. CSC is meant to be a low cost vehicle for Government institutions to deliver eGovernance services to the rural population of India in ‘Simple, Moral, Accountable, Responsive and Transparent’ (SMART) and most cost-effective manner to the rural and remote locations where availability of computers and Internet is currently negligible or mostly absent. CSC aims at promoting rural entrepreneurship, a source of financial viability to rural India by providing employment opportunities to rural population, built rural capacities and livelihoods, enabled community participation and effected collective action for social change – through a bottom-up model that focuses on the rural citizen. So CSC has to be positioned as a Change Agent than as mere service delivery points in rural India. CSCs are offering a solid foundation for economic prosperity of rural India.

Objective:
1. CSC as a Platform : CSC is a platform that can enable Government, private and social sector organizations to align their social and commercial goals for the benefit of the rural population in the remote corners of the country through a combination of IT-based and as non-IT-based services.
2. To Act as Multi Service Provider at Single-Point : CSC’s aim was to act as a multi-services-single-point model for providing facilities for multiple transactions at a single geographical location.
3. Promotes Rural Entrepreneurship and Social Welfare of India : CSC has emerged out as a source for economic and social growth in the underserved rural India by using the benefits of ICT. The maximum monthly earning of VLE is Rs. 719605.63. The Rural Population needs various certificates for various economic and social purposes and has little access to information. By enabling access to information and large number of e-governance services CSCs is creating a lasting impact on rural livelihoods.

Target Group: Target group for CSC Maharashtra is rural citizens of the State. The rural citizens, who used to travel, spend money and time to avail G2C services.

Geographical Reach within India: CMS Computers Ltd. is running Common Service Center successfully in a wide range of districts in Maharastra.CMS has its reach across Akola, Amravati, Aurangabad, Beed, Buldhana, Hingoli, Jalna, Latur, Nanded, Osmanabad, Parbhani, Wasim and Yava

Geographical Reach outside India: Not Applicable

Date From which the Project became Operational: 14-12-2008

Is the Project still operational?: Yes

List 5 achievements of the programme/project/initiative:
1. First and only SCA to have online print module for land records in Maharashtra. The online module has become so beneficial that now an individual can collect 7/12 and 8A extracts from anywhere with the help of the online service.
2. More than 13 million transactions till date and over 213 services running successfully in CSC project with total transaction amount collected over 665 million.
3.Over 3130 VLEs across Maharashtra.
4. Boosting up the economic and social growth of the rural mass is not only a boon to rural livelihood but an achievement by CSC project about which it can really boast of.
5. CMS Computers Ltd. is been awarded with the following:- o Best SCA of the month (December- 2011). o Best Entrepreneur of the year 2012. o eIndia Award 2012 as the Best CSC(Common Service Centers) Initiative for Meeseva project (State:Andhra Pradesh). CMS Computers Ltd. is been awarded with the following:- o Best SCA of the month (December- 2011). o Best Entrepreneur of the year 2012. o eIndia Award 2012 as the Best CSC(Common Service Centers) Initiative for Meeseva project (Sta

List 5 Key challenges faced while implementing the project/programme/initiative and how they were overcome:
1. Making Project Feasible in Rural India: – The biggest challenge is to make the CSC project feasible in rural areas. The project has to be financially feasible as well as viable to the VLEs in order to provide adequate income to the VLEs.
2. Internet Connectivity: Common Service Centers can only work efficiently and seamlessly if CSCs have reliable internet connectivity. Inconsistent connectivity and Electricity were one of the major challenges that were faced in setting up CSC in rural India.
3. VLE Training & Motivation: It is important to ensure that the VLEs undergo training in delivering services to rural customers, at regular intervals. Training should include technical as well as operating aspects of Services delivered. Further, VLEs need to be constantly motivated to proactively build awareness within their community (including local government officials) about the services they offer.
4. Awareness & Community Sensitization: There was the need to take proactive steps to build awareness and sensitize citizens and local government leaders in rural areas. In order to make CSC project a success awareness and community sensitization was important.
5. Offline to Online Services: One of the major challenges that were faced was to bring the off-line application to online application. Now an individual can collect certificates, affidavits, 7/12 and 8A extracts from anywhere with the help of the online service.

Documents publishing URL: http://www.cmscsconline.co.in/cms.ppt