How Common Service Centres are creating Rural Entrepreneurs

1. How Common Service Centres are creating Rural Entrepreneurs? So, you want to be an entrepreneur? That’s good, but what are you waiting for. Ok, so, you are in a rural area and don’t have access to the market, resources, and other infrastructure. Don’t worry; it is no more a hurdle to prevent you from flying high in the sky and get clipped your aspirations to be an entrepreneur. Now you are as good as an urban citizen and could live your dreams and flourish to be a successful entrepreneur. To be an entrepreneur is now well in your reach. You must have heard about Common Service Centres (CSC’s). These Common Service Centres have changed the face of the rural landscape, and are facilitating, inspiring, and, empowering the ordinary rural people to be an Entrepreneur. So, dwelling in a rural area is no more a barrier for your aspirations to succeed and to let you be an entrepreneur.

2. Now you are connected to the rest of the nation, to make yourself available to all your prospective clients, throughout the country to work directly with you. It let you conveniently introduce your venture, promote your products, and extend your services. Now, it’s feasible for you to market your Unique Selling Propositions (USPs), and set up your entrepreneur to grow, expand, establish, and churn revenue. What are the Common Service Centres? The Common Service Centres are multiple services provider under one roof. It is a Single-point model that facilitates multiple transactions at a single place. It helps citizens to avail various government services in their close vicinity without leaving their place and commuting miles, as they were doing earlier. These centers are part of an innovative approach to promote rural micro-enterprises from remote areas in India, which were earlier disconnected from the rest of the country and were left- biased from the urban population. The Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLE) are set up under CSCs to achieve rural entrepreneurship. What are Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLE)? The Village Level Entrepreneurs are set up under CSCs to facilitate, run, and manage the rural run businesses. They are meant to support rural entrepreneurs by providing them immediate access to all the information available globally and to connect them to the rest of the world. They make them avail of all the benefits and the services other urban entrepreneurs have. It keeps them abreast with them and to make them compete fairly in the national a well as international market. How VLE’s Work? The VLE bazaars are e-commerce service platforms that are designed to promote rural market products in India and turn, become accessible to the rest of the world too. The VLE Bazaars are the initiative of the CSC’s Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs). They enable rural people to promote and sell their local production and other handmade products throughout India. Now, they can build their brand and can get their products displayed on CSC eCommerce portal that can be accessed all over India through these CSCs. 2.5 Lakh CSC’s are proposed to date to cater to them. These VLEs publish their products in online catalogs, which may include various kinds of local products. It may consist of products such as Madhubani painting, Kangra painting, handicrafts, cottage industry products, local productions such as shawls, jute items, etc. Along with making the rural entrepreneurs visible on all CSC throughout the country, the CSC also provides smooth and timely delivery services, as they have a tie-up with the courier partners. They let them deliver their products to far off remote places, which was otherwise not feasible for them to deliver. In other words, from inception to the final mile, CSC plays a significant role in promoting rural entrepreneurs. It provides them with quick payments at their door step via Aadhaar Enabled Payment System which allows them to transact from their place itself. What is Aadhar Enabled Payment System (AEPs) The Aadhar Enabled Payment System allows the rural entrepreneurs to make their financial transactions at Point of Sale (PoS) or Micro ATMs. These transactions are made through Business Correspondents (BCs), which are also known as Bank Mitras. The Bank Mitras could be of any bank and could make the financial transactions for other banks too. They use the Aadhar authentication to confirm the payment, which is available to all the rural citizens. Thus, it become feasible for rural entrepreneurs

3. to promote their products, market them, and finally make the transaction, to receive their money. And, this all without going anywhere else than visiting their local CSPs. Conclusion – Thus, it is not wrong to say that Common Service Centres, the Special Purpose Vehicles of e-Governance are creating rural entrepreneurs, by enabling them to establish their ventures and facilitating them from the initial requirement of showcasing their products to finally receiving their payments without leaving from their convenient remote locations. The ease of doing the business has let all the small rural people to directly sell their products throughout India by eliminating the middle man and successfully making the transactions and receiving the right price of their products and services. NICT CSP provides the low-cost infrastructure that provides instant, convenient, and secure financial transactions by mobile phones, CSP’s and web for processing the online payment to enable money transfer services. It serves multiple services providers and banks all over India. Source - https://nictcsp.org/blog/common-service-centres-creating-rural-entrepreneurs