Baramati sets an e-xample

Gram Panchayat forms, bus passes, e-mails, railway and airline tickets and matrimonial uploads on websites. The pilot project at Baramati has it all.

When seventy-year-old Ganpat Khomne and his wife, Khasubai recently visited the Common Service Centre in their village, Malegaon Budruk near Baramati, to get their digital pictures clicked, they walked out with not just their pictures, but a whole lot of information about e-governance and other IT enabled services. These services have already become an integral part of the lives of over 60,000 villagers from more than five villages around Baramati in Maharashtra.

8220;A recent nation-wide survey across Indian households conducted by a leading research agency suggested that Indians wanted government services to be made available like retail services 8212; conveniently and in their neighbourhood,8221; says Ninad Vengurlekar, head content and services, IL 038; FS, that has undertaken a study for the rollout and implementation of the Common Services Centre Scheme CSCS across India. It is exactly this thought that has gone into the making of the Baramati pilot projects of the Common Service Centres CSC implemented by the Department of Information Technology.

The Baramati pilot project, which was inaugurated in November last year, has been well-received by the villagers. There are similar projects in neighbouring villages like Supa, Morgaon and Korhale. 8220;Though I have completed my diploma in computers from Pune, I would prefer to stay and look after this kiosk. This national project that will have 1,00,000 such kiosks in India will help retain the rural youth in villages to an extent. Here, we have undertaken activities like digitisation of birth and death certificates and land documents. We have a ticker that displays NCDEX values in Marathi for the convenience of the farmers visiting it,8221; says Prakash Gade, village level entrepreneur at the Katewadi kiosk. The other facilities that villagers can access here include Gram Panchayat forms, bus passes, emails, railway and airline tickets, matrimonial uploads on websites and other convenience oriented services.

However, the most encouraging part of the project is that a number of private sector leaders have participated in the scheme while many others have shown keen interest in the project as potential stockholders. 8220;This is what made us set up pilot projects where appropriate technology, business and transaction models could be established,8221; says Vengurlekar.

The main aim for those implementing the project remains increasing footfalls at the CSCs because that8217;s the only way the host of retail services offered here will be noticed by villagers. The CSCs have been positioned as IT-enabled retail extension outlets, which have attracted a lot of players from fields like banking, telecom, agri-business, engineering as well as entertainment.

While the project aims at making such services handy to villagers, the 12-hour power cuts on alternate days in these areas, which brings IT enabled activities to a standstill, is something that the project seriously needs to consider. 8220;Electricity backups don8217;t last more than 5-6 hours with the kind of equipments we use. The project officers are now trying to work out the optimum number of equipments that can sustain the power cuts,8221; says Asha Balu Khandale, village level entrepreneur at the Malegaon kiosk.