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School and college drop-outs in rural areas may now be able to become small-time entrepreneurs with possible earnings of Rs 8,000- 10,000 a month with the aid of technology, thanks to a joint initiative by the Government and the Basix Group.
As part of the programme, semi-educated rural youth would be picked up to set up Common Service Centres (CSCs) which will provide a host of technology-based services.
Online service
The CSC would be integrated online with fibre optic cables on provide online services.
“We will be setting up 800 such CSCs in Punjab, 1400 in Maharashtra, 2200 in Meghalaya from April 2011 in public private participation mode with respective State Governments,” Mr Sajeev Vishwanathan, Chief Executive Officer of Bharatiya Samruddhi Finance Ltd, the microfinance arm of Basix Group told BusinessLine here.
It may be replicated in Andhra Pradesh as well, he added.
The youth, who will be aided with financial and infrastructural support, are expected to earn anything between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000 a month.
Village entrepreneurship
“The objective of the initiative is to encourage village entrepreneurship,” he added.
The CSCs are expected to provide all consumer services like payment of bills, birth and death certificates, among others.
“Even the payments for National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) could also be taken up,” he said.
Basix also has plans to enlist services of CSCs for distribution of mobile phones.
Financial inclusion
“More importantly, they can double up as banking correspondents in the rural areas as banks are now looking for expanding banking correspondents for financial inclusion,” Mr Vishwanathan said.
When asked on the revenue expectations for Basix from the initiative, he said each CSC may bring in about Rs 5,000-10,000 income. “But this is not a totally revenue-driven programme for us,” he added.
As the programme is being implemented in PPP model, the Government would provide infrastructure for setting up CSCs. “On its part, Basix has earmarked an outlay of Rs 8 crore for 2011-12,” he added.
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