f i nanc i a l i nc lu s i on i n i nd i a
29
Service Centres (CSCs) on a Public- Private-Partnership
(PPP) model.
The goal of the CSC Project is to empower rural
communities and catalyze social change through appli-
cation of ICT-based modern technologies. A network
of internet-enabled Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) access points are termed as Common
Service Centres (CSC) at Panchayat level. CSCs are the
front-end delivery points for government, private and
social sector services to citizens of India. These CSCs are
IT kiosks with internet connectivity delivering a holis-
tic suite of services through an alternate channel to the
rural market and thereby mainstreaming the citizens and
economy of rural India. The CSCs provide high-quality
and cost-effective audio, video and data content, in areas
of e-Governance, Education, Health, Tele-medicine and
Entertainment in addition to the government and private
services.
A Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) named ‘CSC
e-Governance Services India Ltd’ has been incorporated
under the Companies Act 1956 to enable services through
the CSC network. The CSC eco-system comprises of
about 1,40,000 Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs)
spread across the country, 30 Service Center Agencies
(SCAs) and 35 State Designated Agencies (SDAs). As on
31 May 2013, 1,29,266 CSCs were operational in thirty
three (33) states/union territories. As per the data available
from 64,454 CSCs across 24 states and 25 SCAs, in May
2013, on an average, each VLE has done 195 transactions
worth about Rs. 50,000 in the month. The CSC scheme
provides a collaborative framework for like-minded public
and private enterprises, to integrate their goals of profit as
well as social objectives into a sustainable business model.
The key driver for the selection of content and services is
their end-to-end applicability. It is believed that CSCs
will act as a change agent to bring rapid socio-economic
change in rural India.
The G2C services offered are: agricultural services,
RTI services, NREGA MIS data entry service, postal
products, land records, issuance of birth and death certifi-
cates, utility services, electoral services, transport services,
grievances, e-district services, etc. The CSCs provide the
following services for financial inclusion: (i) financial
inclusion banking; (ii) insurance; (iii) loans; (iv) pension
and others. Financial inclusion has started in the states of
Andhra Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh,
Meghalaya, Maharashtra, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh.
The aforementioned SPV has been retained by several
banks to act as BC to fulfil their commitments to financial
inclusion. It has in turn appointed several partners to act
as managers of the VLEs who are running the CSCs (see
Box 2.3).
B
OX
2.2
RuPay Kisan Credit Card
NABARD set up a Special Unit—Kisan Credit Card (SPU-KCC) in January 2013 with a mandate to encourage co-operative banks
and RRBs to issue RuPay Kisan Cards for providing eligible KCC customers with the facility of withdrawal/disbursement of loans
through ATM/PoS/micro ATMs using these cards.
‘RuPay’, a new card payment scheme launched by NPCI, is conceived to fulfil RBI’s vision to offer a domestic, open-loop,
multilateral system which will allow all Indian banks and financial institutions in India to participate in electronic payments.
RuPay has come out with its RuPay Kisan Card which leverages the benefits of both KCC and RuPay. RuPay Kisan Cards involves
a number of positive features such as:
• It is a smart card which can be used at the nearest ATM/PoS.
• No entry fee and negligible administrative costs as compared to international brand cards.
• Since it is a PIN-based product, it provides highest security.
• It provides advanced features such as processing of adjustment file to enable Tip and Surcharge processing on SMS platform.
43 RRBs have issued 7,11,000 RuPay KCCs Kisan Cards to their customers. NABARD continued to provide financial support
for issuance of cards, installation of micro ATMs, integration of PoS and CBS and migration of KCC accounts data from PACS
to CBS of CCBs. As at the end of March 2014, a total grant support of Rs. 330 million was sanctioned to 26 RRBs and eight
co-operative banks for helping in issuing 5.2 million RuPay Kisan Cards, installation of 10,000 micro ATMs and for demonstrating
banking technology through mobile vans (in 10 RRBs and four co-operative banks) at the doorstep of rural population.
Source
: NABARD,
Annual Report NABARD, 2013–14
.
