Information Society Watch

August 2007, Rajeev Chawla, et al, id4

Conducted by the key visionaries of e-governance projects, this review of the Common Services Centres (CSCs) programme reports on implementation details, services provided and future plans. The review concludes that it is too early to determine if these CSCs have improved the provision of government services, and in these stages it is more important to analyse the gaps between perceived benefits and real services. The review explores how the CSCs provide India's rural citizens with better governance and health, legal, employment and other services on a local level and to generate income through direct and indirect job creation. It looks at the state CSC initiatives: the Tathya Mitra kiosks in West Bengal, the e-Disha Ekal Seva Kendras in Haryana, and the Nemmadi programme in Karnataka. The review also takes care to point out that technology is only an enabling factor for successful e-Governance and more importantly softer issues concerning training, hand holding and change management, determine the success or failure of any programme.

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