What led to the idea of establishing 100,000 common services centres (CSCs) in the villages of India?
The concept emerged in the context of delivering more convenient e-Governance services to the citizens. No such scheme could be conceived without adequate thought and attention to providing access to people in rural and remote areas. These areas lack adequate connectivity, personal computers, Internet penetration, and literacy, particularly Information Technology (IT) literacy. Therefore, unless special measures are taken, a large section of the population would be deprived of the benefits of IT and e-Governance. A window for access has to be created for the deprived people. The e-Governance is also trying to change the way in which government services are delivered. Therefore, the need was felt to create a delivery system, with a footprint and scale large enough for its impact to be felt and visible across the country. Telecentre or IT related infrastructure has two typical challenges, electricity and core connectivity. How are they going to be tackled? Electricity and last mile conne
