When the ambitious project was launched, private firms bid so aggressively that there was negative viability gap funding. Bidders offered revenue support for a four-year period that would set-off against revenue generation through e-governance services. However, that has not happened, as Meena Chaturvedi, CEO of Srei Sahaj e-Village explains: “There is an inherent resistance within the government to give government-to-customer (G2C) services as it will bring transparency into the system. The problem is that services are not coming, besides electricity and connectivity issues. In fact, companies did not understand the rural market at all before getting into the scheme.”
CSCs are technology-enabled kiosks serving clusters of 5-6 villages aimed to bring e-governance to the masses, with a computer and peripherals like a printer, scanner, UPS and additional equipment for edutainment, telemedicine and projection systems. The Centre and states would chip in with R856 crore and R793 crore, respectively, for the project, with the balance R4,093 crore expected to be brought in by the private sector.
However, over a year after the auction of broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum — which was expected to be the backbone of the CSC project — no mobile operator has finalised plans for their rollout, without which e-governance projects like CSCs face a bleak future.
The scheme has not taken off thanks partly to the department of information technology’s (DIT) slow pace in setting up and operating CSCs. An IMRB report says that many existing CSCs are not fully functional, while 10% were shuttered due to insufficient footfalls. Only 70% had internet connectivity, which is essential for most CSC services.
Srei Sahaj, for instance, was mandated 29,000 CSCs of which it has rolled out 22,000 of which only 15,000 have internet connectivity and the rest do offline business.
Interestingly, the report also said that the monthly net operating income per CSC was below R3,000, keeping potential investors away. Far from the targeted internet access speed of 1 mbps, the CSCs get a speed of 256 kbps.
Both IT-based and non-IT based services are offered through CSCs, where villagers can make applications and get certificates. CSCs are also enabled to make payments for utilities like electricity, telephone and water.
The laggards in CSC implementation have been large states like Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
Of all the states, 13 have seen 70% rollout while in five states, the actual rollout is 20-70%.
The DIT blames insufficient footfalls, lack of power and internet connectivity, tough terrain and Naxalite problems in some states for the slow implementation of CSC project. “There are connectivity and power problems, besides the fact that many companies have backed out of the project. Some centres do not have power backup and the internet speed is also not good,” agreed a DIT official.
CSCs are intended to provide a wide range of services, becoming front-end delivery points for government, private and social sector services to rural citizens in an integrated manner.
While Maharashtra has been able to achieve 84% rollout, Uttar Pradesh has only seen half its CSCs seeing the light of the day. Punjab is the worst performer among all, meeting only 8% of the target. For programme management of the CSC scheme, a special purpose vehicle was formed for the government to progressively migrate to an e-governance platform and enable services through the CSC network.
Some service centre agencies like 3i Infotech have pulled out of the project, leaving around 4,700 CSCs in Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh,
Tamil Nadu, UP and Uttarakhand non-operational. Companies have pointed to poor returns for their decision to pull out. In Union territories like Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli, discussions to set up CSCs are still on.
On the bright side, 11 states and UTs have been able to achieve 100% rollout – including Manipur, Sikkim, Tripura, Kerala and Jharkhand among others.
The department adds that it may take another year before it is able to meet its target and set up CSCs across the length and breadth of the country.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Kirtika Suneja
Quelle/Source: The Financial Express, 11.05.2011
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