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What can be

Making PPP work for Public Service Delivery

Common Service Centers as vehicles for rural empowerment: Hopes and Challenges

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EDUCATIONHEALTH

EMPOWERMENTLIVELIHOOD

AWARENESSACCESS

AFFORDABILITYACCEPTABILITY

CONTENTCONNECTIVITY

COMPUTABILITY

COMMON MAN

Reaching the last man

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4 stages of Information Technology

• Computer on the table– Better looking Typewriter with a towel over it– Stage of computer as a status symbol

• Office Automation– Standalone spreadsheet, database & document solutions– Stage of learning & efficiency improvement

• E-Governance– Islands of BPR based ICT systems coexisting with manual & often

redundant systems– Stage of ribbon cutting and chest thumping

• Embedded ICT– Ubiquitous and invisible ICT where it is invisible but coordinated into a

seamless information system. IT companies become less important and become only suppliers of necessary parts/processes

– Stage of Governance

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A model for embedded ICT in Governance

POLICY

DEPT DATA MIS APPLICATIONS

DELIVERY CHANNELS

OUTCOME SERVICES FOR CITIZENS

GIS BASED DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS

QUERIES ANALYSIS & ANSWERS

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Delivery Channels

Common Service Centers:

Reaching out to all

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COMMON SERVICE CENTRE

• Under the National e-governance plan of Govt. of India, which was announced by Dr. Manmohan Singh, Hon’ble Prime Minister of India on 15th August, 2005, Implementation of Common Service Centers (CSCs) is the most important events of the four pillars of the NeGP. These Common Services Centers (CSCs) will become Hub or Community Centers for the delivering point for all e-governance and other services to the rural people.

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CSC Project salient features

• 100,000 CSCs will be established all over India• These will be set up in PPP mode on BOO basis• These CSCs will be the delivery points of all Govt services• Private Partner can use these centers to sell any other

service / product• Govt will give a minimum revenue support for G2C

services• Profits from other business (eg B2B or B2C services) is for

the SCA (Service Center Agency -the private partner) to keep

• The selection of the SCA is done through a three stage transparent bidding process

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Current Status• SREI-Wipro consortium has 22,473 CSCs • Our network will cater to 18.98 crore population of India

in five states – West Bengal, Bihar, U.P., T.N. and Assam

• Largest ICT based chain• Roll out has started in Hugli District• We completed our back end work by October end (7

months)• Data Center is up, portal is up, wireless network is being

rolled out in tandem with CSCs• Operation rollout began in November• 100 centres up and a target of 1000 by each month end

BENEFITS OF COMMON SERVICE CENTRES

• Creating Entrepreneurs – 22473 livelihoods created in the beginning itself

• Bridging the Digital Divide• Government at the doorsteps of people• Access to all services available in urban

areas • Access to rural markets • Usable education

• Positioning itself as a Business Integrator

• Integrating across IT and Infrastructure

• Making CSCs work beyond ribbon cutting

• Making technology simpler and affordable

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Challenges

• Infrastructure challenges• Human Resource challenges• Capital challenges• Revenue challenges• Technology challenges• Publicity & change management

challenges• Politico-administrative challenges

Partnerships• Wipro – IT Partner• Oracle – IT Software Infrastructure

Partner• Intel – World Ahead Alliance• Red Hat – Open Source Partner• SmartBridges – Connectivity

Partner• Delloitte – eGovernance Consulting• PWC - eGovernance Consulting

Business Logic

• To access various services, a villager has to go to the block headquarter or other nearest town. He loses his daily wage and transportation costs to access services, even if they are free.

• Service delivery is not assured• Non-availability of many products & services• Shared Access Model• Aggregation of services and delivery through a

kiosk based in his community, allows delivery at minimal costs and time.

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Existing Models Project Authority Location

Number of centers Revenue

1 BELLANDUR GRAM PANCHAYAT

Karnataka 1Rs 25million per

annum

2 MYRADA KARNATAKA 1 Rs 750/month

3 TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES

ANDHRA PRADESH

1327 Rs 3000/month

4GYANDOOT SAMITI

MADHYA PRADESH

35 Rs.4375/month

5HEWLETT PACKARD ANDHRA PRADESH

16 (incl 3 mobile vans)

Rs 14000/month

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ITC MP, UP, AP, KARN, RAJ 5500 Rs 15000/month

7 M.S.SWAMINATHAN RESEARCH FOUNDATION

PONDICHERRY 12 Rs 1500/month

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n-Logue communication TN, MP,MAH, GUJ,MP 2000 Rs. 4000 - 20000/month

9 WARNA VIBHAG SHIKSHAN MANDAL

MAHARASTRA 54 Rs 34 million per annum

Source: Asia Pacific Research Centre, Stanford University, Nov 2005

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LIMITATIONS IN THE CURRENT SCENARIO

1.Lack of sufficient variety of services2.Lack of economies to capture & cater to mass

population3.No aggregation of content & services4.Lack of awareness of potential of rural markets

among other private investors5.Top down delivery of services, hence not catering

to citizen specific requirements 6. Non-integration of private and government

initiatives7. Unreliability of connectivity, power or service

delivery

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Downside Model for VLE

EMI Rs 3000

VLE Opex Rs 1500

SREI Share of Revenue Rs 2500

VLE Profit Rs 3000

Total revenue required Rs 10000

ARPU Rs 1.06

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Common Service Centers

Challenges unlimited

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Infrastructure Issues

• Connectivity

• Power

• IT infrastructure at kiosks

• Backend IT infrastructure

• Civil infrastructure at kiosks

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Connectivity

• Dial up• Data Card• Broad Band• GPRS / CDMA• CorDect • VSAT• WiLD• Wi-Fi• Wimax

Availability of services

Reliability

Redundancy

Bandwidth available

Spectrum issues

Capital expenditure

Recurring expenditure

Availability of equipment

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Availability• Coverage is poor in

most areas• ADC and USOF have

not helped so far• USOF towers are

overkill• Bandwidth low in

GPRS, CorDect etc• Wimax not yet

commercial• VSAT recurring exp

too high• Patchwork not reliable

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Power

• Availability• Quality• Survey, Data• Solar• Gensets• UPS• Biofuels

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CSC IT

• How much hardware?• Content, connectivity, computability• Scalability• Remote Management• Power efficiency• Capital Expenditure• OS• Language and localization

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SCA IT

• How much hardware and software?

• Service Oriented Architecture

• Scalability, Availability

• Integration

• Portal

• Security

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CSC civil

• Wide spread geography

• Time

• Cost

• Standardization

• Branding

• Attraction

• In sync with communities? Rural? Ethnic?

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Human Resource

• 22473 VLEs• 325 employees + teams of Wipro,

Delloitte, PWC, Oracle & Intel• Attitude• Subsidy• Bankability• Trainability• Training issues

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Capital Issues

• Appetite for risk

• Project structuring

• Phasing

• Internal accruals

• Leveraging

• Tax efficiency / sops

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Revenue challenges

• Everything looks good on paper

• VLE needs to be a genius to do all this

• Financial viability

• Scalability

• Replicability

• Ease of training

• Cash handling issues

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Technology risks

• Obsolescence

• Free broadband

• Newer technologies

• Competing models

• Mobile governance

• Who moved my cheese

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Publicity & Capacity Building

• Differing perspectives of different people• Publicity• Ownership• Department, District Admin & Local Admin

sensitization• Varied interests of intermediaries • Logical Framework & Results Based

Management• Training infrastructure• Costs

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Politico-administrative challenges

• New initiative by every new set of officers, by every new government, by new cartels

• Our people/their people

• M-Governance

• USOF

• E-Districts

• Local resistance

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Value

• Because of scale & expertise in infrastructure, SREI has been able to run down costs and meet these challenges

• Learners forever

• Only certainty is the uncertainty

• Need to earn some income for the investor

• Need to give value to each customer – Government, Citizens, Service Providers

MODEL OF THE SAHAJ CSCMODEL OF THE SAHAJ CSC

Kiosk Anatomy

SAHAJ

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• Laptops

• Peripherals

• Brand Space

• Power Supply

• Wi-Fi/Internet connectivity solution (CPE)

• Printer (Multi Functional Device) etc

• Each CSC to be financed to the Franchisee.

• One kiosk to be set up per 6 villages addressing about 9437population

• To be located in the market place, Block offices, gram panchayat office etc

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CSCs

Operational Plan• About 4937 kiosks to be setup across 14 districts of rural

Bengal, 5565 in Bihar, 2833 in Assam & 8118 in Uttar Pradesh.

• The ratio of setup shall be 1 kiosk for every 6 villages or as may be required after detailed survey.

• Each kiosk shall be under the responsibility of a Village level entrepreneur (VLE) to be selected through standard norms.

• The capital expenditure of the Kiosk (about Rs 120K) shall be borne by the entrepreneur.

• Finance facility may be extended to the entrepreneur for availing Kiosk assets.

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Publicity & Training

Architecture

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Data Center

Technical Solution & Transaction Monitoring

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Sahaj Mitra PortalSahaj Mitra

Login

Enter UserID Enter Password Click Login

Help Line

Call Helpline Send mail to

support Call to mobile

for support Call

Headquarter

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Sahaj Mitra Portal

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Sahaj Mitra PortalSKash Card

Details

Once SKash card is activated successfully, SKash Card Details info will be shown in the Home Page.

Initial Balance will be displayed there.

Card can be recharged by clicking Recharge link (Red)

Transaction History could be displayed for the VLE (Blue)

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Sahaj Mitra PortalSKash Card

Recharge

Amount Charged will be shown here

Remaining Balance will be increased once it is recharged

Transaction History

Click on the Transaction History to see the transactions done by VLE

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Sahaj Mitra PortalVLE Customer

Registration

In HOME page click on Customer Registration. This customer is VLE’s customer/Villagers.

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Sahaj Mitra PortalVLE Customer

Registration

VLE will help his/her customer to fill up the forms and get him registered

Mandatory fields are marked as red star

Once the form is filled up terms and conditions agreement needs to be accepted

Click on Continue

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Sahaj Mitra PortalVLE Customer

Registration

After successful creation of the account it will show the select service page.

List of services will be displayed here along with the rates

Multiple services could be chosen

This step could be skipped as well

Click continue

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Sahaj Mitra PortalVLE Customer

Registration

It will show the total rate of the selected services

SKash card details need to be provided

Card number will be same as VLE ID

PIN needs to be entered twice

Click Submit

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Sahaj Mitra PortalVLE Customer

Registration

It will ask for the final confirmation before deducting the money from SKash Card account

Click Confirm Once done go

back to the home page and check Transaction History link

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Sahaj Mitra PortalVLE Customer

Login

Now VLE customer has been registered. So he can login into the system using his ID and password

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Sahaj Mitra PortalVLE Customer

Page

List of services will be displayed here. The services for which payment has been made, will be ticked. Services not selected by the customer during registration will be crossed.

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Sahaj Mitra PortalVLE Customer

Page

Click on Computer Education

It will popup a new window where Basic Computer Education will be started.

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Sahaj Mitra PortalVLE Customer

Page

In Computer learning following things will be available

Linux Office Windows Internet

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Sahaj Mitra PortalVLE Customer

Page

Click on English Education.

It will popup the English education portal

Login into it. (This login will be removed later)

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Sahaj Mitra PortalVLE Customer

Page

English Education screen will come up

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Sahaj Mitra PortalVLE Customer

Page

Job Registration Form Click on Job

Registration Page Enter the details Save

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Sahaj Mitra PortalVLE Home Page

>> Service Catalogue

Click on Service Catalogue link

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Sahaj Mitra PortalVLE Home Page

>> Register Grievance

In HOME page click on Register Grievance Page.

VLE Customer can lodge his grievance and send it to any govt dept.

It is a paid service

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Sahaj Mitra PortalVLE Home Page

>> Register Grievance

If VLE customer is a registered user, he can select Registered User radio button and enter his ID.

Click on Lodge Grievance

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Sahaj Mitra PortalVLE Home Page

>> Grievance Status

Click on Grievance Status on home page

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Sahaj Mitra PortalVLE Home Page

>> Govt. Form

Short Description of each Govt. Form will be displayed here

You can take the printout of the forms.

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Sahaj Mitra PortalVLE Home

Page>>Feedback

In HOME page click on Give Feedback link.

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Sahaj Mitra PortalVLE Home

Page>>Feedback

VLE/Customer can lodge their Request/Feedback/Complain or Suggestion to Sahaj

Last mile connectivity

• Independent Last Mile Connectivity using WiFi 802.11b/g

• 512 kbps connectivity will be delivered at each CSC

• smartBridges is the network partner

• This network will enable IPTV, VoIP and IPBX and so meet Bharat Nirman targets

Last mile diagram

FIRST FOUNDATION LAYING CEREMONY AT SINGUR

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Kolkata Tower

Going where no telco has gone before

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The priest is ready, the sacred fire is lit, guests have arrived, food is ready, the bridegroom is waiting…… where is the bride?

Bringing services to the CSCs:

Searching for financial & governance nirvana

Products & ServicesFacilitation – e-Governance services

Information – Internet, Market rates, Weather forecast

Education – Spoken English, Computer Literacy, Typewriting

Communication – VoIP, Video Chat, e-mail

Empowerment – Job Portal, RTI, Grievance, Microfinance, Insurance

Services – Photography, DTP, Matrimonial, Railway reservations, Tele-agri-diagnostics

Entertainment – Games, Multimedia

Bill Payments – Electricity, telephone, mobile recharge

B2B services- data entry, rural BPO, promotions

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Issues in PPP

Creating real partnerships

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Critical Issues

• Selection of competent partners– Bidding / MoU– Issues of transparency

• Trust between the private partner and the government– Agreements / MoUs– Third Party Mediation

• Not BOM but Outcome Based Agreements• Milestones to be mutually decided• Third party audits to ensure faith

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Working with Departments

• No G2C service rolled out so far.• SCA has engaged e-Governance consultants at own

cost to help in the process. Also ready to invest further if services can be made operational

• VLEs are demanding some G2C service as in rural areas, G2C services are in great demand

• Exposure of about Rs 100 Crore is at risk because of this delay

• WBSEDCL – working since May 2007• No Closure till date despite full support of the SDA and

Chairman WBSEDCL• The agreement proposed is of such nature that it cannot

be called a PPP project.

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WBSEDCL (Cont’d)

• No data about bills raised will be shared with the SCA, not even a flat file. CSCs will have to rely on the bill produced

• Bill cannot be paid everywhere, specific CSC will be mapped for each consumer. Mapping will take 1 year

• CSC will not be able to collect its transaction fee upfront. WBSEDCL will pay after 3 + X + 21 days. This may stretch to months after the collections have been deposited

• All kinds of penalties on the SCA but no penalty on WBSEDCL for late payment

• Daily collection report will be made in Triplicate and such hardcopies and softcopy in addition will need to be submitted by each CSC to each Division every day

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WBSEDCL (Cont’d)• Every CSC will need to provide separate counters for old people & disabled

people besides facilities for drinking water, sitting arrangements, fan, shelter etc

• CSCs will provide 6797 outlets to WBSEDCL for collection of bills to meet the WBSERC regulation that specifies that collection services need to be provided within 3 km of a consumer

• For this massive infrastructure with a state of art ICT network, the SCA and the VLE together will get Rs 5 which includes tax of Rs 0.55 approx, printing cost of Rs 1 and not including the cost of sending a person from every CSC to every division every day. Thus the gross revenue which does not include the cost of the infrastructure and the fact that that the SCA and the 6797 Village Level Entrepreneurs have to earn something, is about Rs 1 each for the VLE and the SCA. This too will be paid WBSEDCL desires. Current costs to WBSEDCL for providing collection facilities that too only upto Subdivisional level are Rs 3.40

• For doing this service, the SCA has to give a Bank Guarantee of Rs 15 Crores.

• This after the Government has signed an agreement to provide G2C services to CSCs and as per electricity regulations, such collection facilities have to be provided compulsorily by BSEDCL

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Models

• Pilot Projects / Technology Demonstration

• Replicability / Scalability – Telemedicine

• Swiss Challenge

• Integration with past initiatives

• Right of Use – SWAN

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Way Forward

• The most ambitious program of conquering the digital divide ever

• More passion than self interest• Taking government to the doorsteps of the

people only possible by partnership on a sustainable model

• Multiple stakeholders necessary• Co-optition rather than competition

Creating tomorrow……