CSCs in 2.5 lakh gram panchayats by year-end: IT Min

The network of Common Service Centres (CSCs) will be expanded to 2.5 lakh gram panchayats by the end of this year, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said today.

The platform is available in 1.9 lakh gram panchayats, at present.

Referring to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's interaction via video conferencing earlier today with the beneficiaries of various Digital India efforts and village level entrepreneurs (VLEs), Prasad said that government's digital push has become a movement of empowerment and hope.

"Digital India, to succeed, had to become a mass movement and PM's interaction today has highlighted that," the minister said.

The CSC network - that is being used for delivery of various electronic services - has promoted both entrepreneurship and self confidence amongst VLEs, and brought digital delivery of services to the doorstep of common man, he said.

"The JAM (Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile) trinity has led to saving of Rs 90,000 crore," Prasad noted.

The CSCs will be expanded to 2.5 lakh gram panchayats by the year-end, the minister added.

Earlier today, Prime Minister Modi had said that the Digital India initiative is a war against touts and middlemen, helping check blackmoney and black marketing while creating immense job opportunities in smaller towns and rural areas.

Interacting with beneficiaries of various digital initiatives including CSCs, National Knowledge Network, rural BPOs, and electronics manufacturing units, Modi associated use of home-grown card network RuPay with nationalism and appealed to everyone to adopt it for digital payments.