Government at your doorstep

The government of India is implementing the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) with a vision to make all government services accessible to the common man in his locality, through common services delivery outlets. In this regard, 27 central, state and integrated Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) have been identified under the NeGP to ensure availability of e-Government services. The NeGP is delivering services at doorstep through State Wide Area Networks (SWAN) for connectivity, National Data Bank/State Data Centers (SDC) for secure, data storage and Common Services Centers (CSC). In 2005, the government approved the SWAN project with an overall outlay of Rs 3,334 crores to be spent in five years. The scheme will establish wide area networks in 29 states and six union territories across the country from state headquarters to the block level. The scheme will provide minimum connectivity of 2 Mbps from state to district, subdivision and block level. Once implemented, the SWANs would go a long way in providing a network for G2G functions and for delivering G2C services, particularly in delivering various services planned under the Mission Mode Projects of the NeGP. The government is establishing 100,000 rural kiosks across the country – one CSC for every six census villages, through a Public Private Partnership. All CSCs would be broadband, internet-enabled, primarily through wireless connectivity and would provide for a mix of government and private services at the doorstep of citizens. The CSC is the delivery infrastructure for government services and in a sense would be the front-end for the NeGP. The scheme was approved in September 2006 at an estimated cost of Rs 5,742 crores over a four-year period. Out of this cost, the government is estimated to bear an expenditure of Rs 1,649 crores, with the balance coming from private sector. The government is not providing any upfront capital subsidy for the scheme. The CSC infrastructure is to be set up by private entities at their own cost with the government only providing financial support (viability gap funding) for running these centers for a four-year period, once the CSCs are established. The actual quantum of financial support to the private entities would be determined through a competitive process. The scheme is currently under implementation and proposals of 26 states and UTs have been sanctioned till date. The CSC scheme with such a geographical spread is a unique scheme, which is being implemented in a PPP framework and attempted for the first time in the world. Source: i4d and PIB

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