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Wednesday 5 February 2014

How Gujarat empowers villages with technology

Manik Tyagi31 Jan 2014

How Gujarat empowers villages with technology
A file photo showing Village Computer Entrepreneur helping a couple. 

Five years ago on January 23, 2009, on the birthday of Subhas Chandra Bose, the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi initiated one more reform by dedicating the widest village connectivity network of Asia in 2009 through the project E-Gram, Vishwa Gram. This project is to bridge the digital divide between the rural and urban areas and providing E-services to around 13,685 Gram Panchayats. The project is an outcome of the vision and determination of the Gujarat Government under the leadership of Narendra Modi for several years.

The story goes back to 2006 with the creation of the infrastructure by setting up Gram Panchayat buildings. Later on, the electrification of all villages was achieved through the much praised Jyotigram Yojana in 2007. Thereafter in 2008, the computerisation and E-connectivity of all these Gram Panchayats was attained thus leading to the launch of E-services by the end of the year 2008.

How Gujarat empowers villages with technology

Below are some of the services offered by e-Gram centre in the villages:

G2C Services – Government to consumer:

• Birth certificate
• Death certificate
• Document for caste certificate
• Income certificate
• Tax collection receipts
• Land Right Records Services (RoR- 7/12 & 8A)
• Application Forms of various development schemes
• ITI, BE/B Tech application forms
• Data entry work for Government departments like health etc
• Villagers can check 10th & 12th results
• E-ration cards

B2C Services – Business to consumer:

• e-Ticketing of railways, airlines
• Utility bill payments (electricity, telephone, mobile etc)
• Licences, permits, NOC, insurance selling
• Market linkages for agriculture commodities
• DTH recharging

Current status:
• Total e-Gram centers in operation: 13,685
• Each centre is equipped with computers, printers, scanner and UPS
• Each centre has VoIP Phone, web camera
• Each centre provides video conference, voice chat and video broadcast services
e-Gram works on a PPP Model, a local person who is 10th pass can run a e-Gram centre and is called as Village Computer Entrepreneur (VCE)

Awards
• E-Gram Gujarat won Skoch Challenger Award 2008,
• CSI-Nihilent Award 2008 in the category of Outstanding Projects.
• A Certificate of Achievement in CAPAM International Innovation Awards 2008.
• Adjudged for the ‘Best Project Management’ in the World Communication Awards, London

Source: http://www.niticentral.com/2014/01/31/how-gujarat-empowers-villages-with-technology-185043.html

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