Digital Seva Portal Common services centers (CSCs) are portals created to give the residents of the rural and remote regions of India access to information on various companies and governance and increase access to technology and digital services. Also called Jan Seva Kendra, CSC is a digital platform where citizens can pay for specific digital services like applying for various documents and government schemes. This is also called Digital Seva. CSC 2.0 scheme launched in August 2015 and is an Indian network that aims to make India a completely digital nation as envisaged in the Digital India program of the Indian government.
Services provided under the Digital Seva Portal
CSC Digital Seva Portal offers a variety of services like banking, skill development courses, insurance services, railway ticket booking, education ( learning English, legal literacy program), customer services (mobile recharge, CSC registration status), financial services (pension services, financial inclusion, banking, GST facility provider), UIDAI services ( residence address change, email update, agriculture services, Aadhaar update, and correction), health services ( telemedicine -telehealth consultation, thyroxine, health homeopathy, Pradhanmantri Jan Aushadhi Store Scheme), banking services (certificate download, insurance service, banking portals), and more.
Services for Government schemes and programs are also provided at CSC like Swachh Bharat (online applications for household toilets construction), PAN (new PAN card applications), Aadhar (complete Aadhaar authentication,e-KYC services for insurance firms, Gramin banks, national banks, government departments), E-District (coordination of several government departments ), election (address data inaccuracies and improve electoral registration, fill electoral registration forms), passport (full passport application procedure with the help of Passport Seva), Bharat Bill Pay( pay utility bills like water, gas, DTH, internet, power)
Eligibility to run a CSC center
To run a CSC center in your village as a village level entrepreneur (VLE), a person has to fulfill the eligibility criteria, document list, basic infrastructure requirements, and the computer system required to run the center. Any Indian citizen who has passed class 10 can open a CSC by acquiring a Telecentre Entrepreneur Certificate (TEC). This course can be taken online and once passing the exam an individual gets a certificate and can apply for CSC at https://register.csc.gov.in/register/status.
The applicant needs to meet some additional criteria like being a resident of the same area, having a bank account, email ID, and having infrastructure like a printer, a computer of specifications mentioned, scanner, internet connection with a minimum speed of 128 kbps.
Once registration is successful, the village-level entrepreneur is given access to CSC Digital Seva Portal Dashboard and can use it to provide different e-governance services to ordinary citizens in his or her village for a fee.
Future Goals of CSCs
Digital Seva at CSCs aims to reach out to 2.5 lakh gram panchayats, providing all necessary digital services at a single location in villages in a cost-effective manner, promoting government social and welfare programs, and providing access to safe and accurate information. It also aims at the creation of rural employment and encourages rural entrepreneurship. One of the key objectives of this scheme is to increase the sustainability of village-level entrepreneurs by sharing the maximum commission that is earned through e-services delivery at CSCs with them and address gender inequality by encouraging women to become VLEs.