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Event Report
December 5th, 2015 marked the inauguration of a national-level Conference on: “ ग्रामीण उद्यममता की तरफ़ एक नई पहऱ
:
E-Commerce Services: Enhancing Rural Entrepreneurship through CSCs’’ at Scope Complex, New Delhi. Hon’ Union Minister of Communications and IT Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad inaugurated this initiative by CSC e-Governance Services India Ltd. (CSC-SPV) to create a platform to enhance rural entrepreneurship through CSCs.In India there is growing recognition that the opportunity for e-commerce is immense keeping in view the demographic dividend, rising living standards and manifold growth in Internet penetration. One of the challenges for e-Commerce industries is to expand their reach to 70% of the population living in rural areas. The aim of this conference was to bring all stakeholders on a
common platform to discuss, deliberate and share best practices and take e-commerce and logistic services to rural India. The conference was supported by Intel, Pumpkart and India Post.
The conference was presided by Hon‟bl Minister and had the participation by Shri J S Deepak, Secretary, Department of Electronics & IT (DeitY); Dr. Ajay Kumar, Additional Secretary, DeitY and Smt. Kavery Banerjee, Secretary, Department of Post. All major Indian e-Commerce , logistics and payment solution companies such as Snapdeal, Intel, Infibeam, Connect India, Paytm, PayU India, 1mg, Pumpkart, Kisan eStore, were present. They further conveyed their full support to CSCs. Also, over 600 Village Level Entrepreneurs of CSCs from across the country attended the event.
Shri Dinesh Tyagi, CEO, CSC SPV welcomed all the distinguished guests and
e-commerce partners at the event
CSC SPV in association with e-Commerce partners is enabling sale,
purchase and last mile delivery network to offer a level playing field
for rural markets.
On the occasion, a booklet on E-Commerce Services - Enhancing Rural Entrepreneurship through CSC’s was also launched by the Hon‟bl Minister
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Conference Highlights
Speaking on the occasion, Hon‟bl Minister Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad coined the term ‘Bharat Ko Badalne Wale’ for VLEs. He spoke about the existing services offered under CSCs and exhorted the VLEs to use the platform for the progress of the nation. He expressed the hope that CSCs would play a major role in the Digital India revolution. Hon‟ Minister said he is happy to see the participation of e-commerce players who are extending their services through the CSCs to rural citizen and hoped that they continue to collaborate in this unique venture. He urged them to look at this effort as a venture to bring quality products and services to rural citizens. He further added that the e-commerce companies can take advantage of the wide network of CSCs to fill in the gap for e-commerce companies to reach out to Tier 3 & 4 towns and rural areas of the country. CSCs on their part can help the rural citizens buy from e-commerce websites with assistance in payment and online browsing. This collaboration will help CSCs boost their income, at the same time allow online retailers to reach out to the rural customer base.
Key announcements
1. Set up One CSC in every Panchayat
2. Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DICCI): Dalit women should be encouraged for setting up of CSC.
3. G2C Service delivery: Enable creating the framework where G2C services can be delivered as Cash on Delivery (COD).
4. e-Commerce Services through CSC: To promote e-commerce and logistics services through CSC to enable the rural citizens to sell the products and get the reasonable price thereof. Minister has also mentioned that shoe products in Agra should be enabled to be sold through e-commerce operator utilizing the services of CSCs
5. CSCs as rural BPO: CSC having infrastructure more that 50 computers can be enabled to participate in the existing rural BPO scheme launched by DeitY.
6. Promotion of Education and Health: To promote education services mainly Digital Literacy through CSC as well as telemedicine so that the citizens of rural India can be appropriately empowered.
7. Incentives for VLE: VLE who do outstanding work in the field of education and health should be appropriately rewarded.
8. Loan Scheme for VLE: VLEs should be allowed to avail Mudra Loan. Necessary discussion should be held with DFC/SIDBI to become eligible for Mudra scheme / avail Mudra Loan.
“CSCs need to be funded, and being small-time entrepreneurs, they are fully qualified to get banking assistance under the MUDRA scheme. I will take up the matter with the Finance Ministry and the Prime Minister as CSCs will play a major
role to make Digital India successful.” – Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister,
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Addressing the workshop, Shri J S Deepak, Secretary, DeitY specifically mentioned the agreement reached with the Department of Posts to reach out to remote areas which are still not services by CSCs. He added that today‟s platform will provide us a forum for deliberation on enhancing rural entrepreneurship through CSCs leveraging on the e-commerce platform as well as evolve a roadmap for future actions.
“Today CSC are outposts for the e-governance programme and have emerged as an institution
providing various services to rural and remote areas of the country”
- Shri J S Deepak, Secretary, DeitY
Smt. Kavery Banerjee, Secretary, Posts said that the Indian government’s ambitious Digital India project and the modernization of India Post will also support the e-Commerce sector. India Post has till date transacted business worth Rs. 280 crore in the cash-on-delivery (CoD) segment for firms such as Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon.
Dr. Ajay Kumar, Additional Secretary, DeitY added that the government has decided to increase the number of CSCs to 2.5 lakhs by March 2016. They plan to set up one CSC in each panchayat.
Dr. Dinesh Tyagi, CEO, CSC e Governance Service Limited said that the VLEs are highly committed individuals who will take this venture forward and be active participants in the revolution that is unfolding at each and every village”.
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The programme was attended by over 600 Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs), many of whom are delivering last mile delivery service across the country through CSCs. Later the plenaries called upon the audience for questions and comments to fuel discussion around the practical steps that need to be taken and how CSC VLEs and the ecommerce companies can work together.
PANEL DISCUSSION
Panel 1: Sale & Purchase & Services through CSC
Sandeep Aurora, Head of Marketing, Intel spoke about the unique initiative with CSC where CSCs will be enabled as assembling and sale points for computing devices. Special training would be provided to VLEs as part of this venture, he added.
Prashant Tandon, CoFounder, 1mg spoke about the revolution in technology and how the internet highways being created in the country are helping rural citizens to purchase any product from any brand sitting in his hometown. People in the rural areas have a different consumption pattern and the VLEs can tap onto this potential to create a lot of economic scope.
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K S Bhatia, CEO and Founder, Pumpkart runs a unique startup selling water pumps through CSCs. It offers free installation and said that CSCs can become service centres.
Gurang Patel, Founder, Kisan eStore provides agricultural products such as seeds, fertilizers, agro machinery etc. online for farmers through CSC VLEs. VLEs can not only earn a good commission but also earn goodwill from the farmers.
Panel 2: Incentive for VLEs and VLE participation in Logistics and payment framework
Speaking on the occasion Paritosh Sharma, Head of Channel Partnerships, PayU applauded the CSC team adding that “This is history in the making and I am happy to be part of such an impact always. Change lives for the better, make India a superpower”.
Kshitij Sanghi, Senior Vice President, Paytm further added that small entrepreneurs can add their products to the online marketplace and also use Paytm as a payment enabler for citizens in rural areas by depositing money in their Paytm wallet through the VLEs.
Pawan Kaul, Head of Operations, Snapdeal said he was very happy to be part of this initiative to facilitate e-commerce services through CSCs across rural India and provide channels for access to quality products.
L R Sridhar, CEO, Connect India said „With e-commerce technology enabling rural people to buy and sell goods, there is a need for efficient logistics infrastructure „. He spoke about the tie-up with CSC SPV where the CSCs are being leveraged as delivery channels for shipments of goods.
Infibeam Cofounder Smt. Neeru Sharma spoke about their partnership with CSCs through CSC Bazaar and Rural bazaar. By offering both these services VLEs can earn handsome commissions on the number of product ordered and also help sell locally manufactured goods on ecommerce marketplaces and get logistics help from Infibeam.
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Representatives of other e-commerce companies expressed their happiness at being part of this innovative initiative and pledged their support to provide their platform to CSCs. Key speakers at the event encouraged and inspired the VLEs to take up the ecommerce campaign as a new challenge to prosper further in their work. Their presentations struck cord with the audience who were enthralled at the new opportunity for economic growth being offered to them.
MEDIA OUTREACH
The conference was well attended by members of the press. Prominent names attending the conference were: Hindu, Livemint, Business Standard, ET NOW, CNBC, CNN IBN, Bloomberg TV, PTI, DD News, RSTV, India News, ABP, Hindustan. The speakers got a chance to interact with the media and give their views on CSCs collaboration with ecommerce, logistics and payment companies to boost economic growth.
With the motivation from Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Ministry officers and a chance to interact with key industry leaders it was truly a day to remember.
SOCIAL MEDIA
The event was well received on the Social Media platform aswell. We crossed the mark of 100
followers on twitter in a day.Tweets sent out during the event were liked, shared, retweeted
by ministry officers and private companies alike. We were re-tweeted by Shri JS Deepak, Sri Ajay Kumar. Companies such as PayUmoney, Intel, 1mg, infibeam, Pumpkart, Paytm etc.
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liked, shared and retweeted our tweets. Many of the VLEs present on twitter also helped boost our tweets.
On facebook we shared live videos, pictures of the proceedings of the conference. This
included live quotes from the Hon‟ Minister, Secretary-DeitY, Additional Secretary-DeitY and heads of various ecommerce players who participated at the event. Each of our posts received
1000-2000 views and likes within minutes of posting.
The speeches have been uploaded on youtube at the following Link:
Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad at the inauguration of "e-Commerce through CSCs" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dqvj5WnQ02A&feature=youtu.be
Sh J S Deepak, Secretary, DeitY - Inaugural Session e-Commerce https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21-x_V7yq48
Sh Pawan Kumar Kaul, Snapdeal - Inaugural Session e-Commerce https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ezsx5fpOBZU
Smt Neeru Sharma, Co Founder, Infibeam - Inaugural Session e-Commerce https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsK0xyVDJZE
Sh. LR Sridhar, Founder & CEO, Connect India - Inaugural Session e-Commerce https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gn6KOE27Dng
Smt Kavery Banerjee, Secretary Posts, GOI - Inaugural Session e-Commerce https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68BIsoFPPPw
Sh. Ajay Kumar, Additional Secretary, DeitY - Inaugural Session e-Commerce https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixDfjTRTaZI
Dr Dinesh Kumar Tyagi (CEO, CSC SPV) Inaugural Session "e-Commerce" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HM3_-52Dmk
Paritosh Sharma (PayUmoney) ‘‘e-Commerce" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLIjJ6PaaEI
Kshitij Sanghi (Paytm) ‘‘e-Commerce & Logistics-Enhancing Rural Entrepreneurship through CSCs" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hilKdAwZbR8
Sandeep Arora (Intel) ‘‘e-Commerce & Logistics-Enhancing Rural Entrepreneurship through CSCs" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqafrCOGAeA
Gurang Patel (Kisan Store) ‘‘e-Commerce & Logistics-Enhancing Rural Entrepreneurship through CSCs" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEs3ah1yT6o
KS Bhatia (Pumpkart) ‘‘e-Commerce & Logistics-Enhancing Rural Entrepreneurship through CSCs" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKnuBXwiGiI
Mr. Prashant Tandon (1MG) ‘‘e-Commerce & Logistics-Enhancing Rural Entrepreneurship through CSCs" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBZsTevHbDk
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