10 years of CSC 2.0: Taking AI to villages, one CSC entrepreneur at a time

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The government will provide free artificial intelligence (AI) training to all 550,000 village-level entrepreneurs (VLEs) operating Common Services Centres (CSCs), Union Electronics and Information Technology (IT) Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said.

 

The training will be conducted under the IndiaAI Mission, which aims to equip nearly 1 million individuals with AI-related skills, Vaishnaw said.

 

Speaking at the decennial celebrations of CSC 2.0, Vaishnaw also urged VLEs to register with the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation to enable railway ticket bookings through CSCs. He added that the government would consider their request to resume Aadhaar-related services.

 

A special purpose vehicle under the Government of India’s Digital India programme — which turned 10 on July 1 — the CSC scheme serves as a vital access point for delivering e-governance and business services to citizens in rural and remote areas. The CSCs are operated by a pan-Indian network of over 550,000 VLEs.

 

 

In 2015, the government rebranded the project as CSC 2.0, with the goal of expanding coverage to 250,000 gram panchayats and all 600,000 villages.

 

Over the past 16 years, CSCs have emerged as one of the most vital cogs in the government’s push for people-centric governance, Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT Jitin Prasada said.

 

“Back in 2014, there were just 83,000 CSCs. Today, over 575,000 are functional across the remotest corners of the country,” Prasada said. “Going ahead, there should be an expansion of the digital services being offered through CSCs. Cybersecurity, which has become a crucial part of everyone’s digital life, should also be a key focus area.”