The government’s rural eGovernance initiative — Common Service Centres (CSCs) — has now embarked on a new project under which it will create a pan-India network of cash-and-carry stores run by village-level entrepreneurs (VLEs) to sell FMCG products, smartphones, computers, etc, from companies like ITC, Samsung, Hewlett Packard, Godrej and Patanjali in rural India.

“We are creating a pan-India network of CSC cash-and-carry stores covering all districts. Every district will have a registered CSC cooperative society for meeting demands of VLEs in the region. These societies will create an online network connecting all villages in the district and will act as centre points providing services, products, logistics and warehousing facilities,” CEO of the CSC SPV, Dinesh Kumar Tyagi told FE.

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CSCs were formed as a part of the government’s National e-Governance Plan (NeGP). They are ICT-enabled front-end service delivery points for villages, providing government, financial, social and private sector services in agriculture, health, education, entertainment, FMCG products, banking, insurance, pension, utility payments, etc.
At present, there are more than 3 lakh CSCs in the country, of which over 2.5 lakh are in the villages. These centres work under the CSC e-Governance Services India, a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) set up by the IT ministry.

“We will set up 700 CSC cooperative societies catering to almost all villages. VLEs will cater to the villagers and get back to these societies with their orders, which will go to the central controlling arm, CSC SPV. The SPV will deal with FMCG companies, consumer electronics makers, etc, for ordering the products and services,” Tyagi explained.
The district CSC societies will make arrangements for delivery, logistics and warehousing of the products. They will act as cash-and-carry stores. The CSC SPV will also create a logistics arm for delivery services right up to the villages so that it can deliver not just products from various companies, but will also tie-up with e-commerce portals for delivery, Tyagi noted.

“At present we have set up 200 cooperative societies and will establish another 300 by June and all 700 by end-2019,” he said, adding that all this is being done with no assistance from the government. As of February 2019, CSC SPV has inked agreements with 11 FMCG companies — ITC, Crompton, HP, Samsung, Godrej, Patanjali, iBall, IFFCO, KRIBHCO, G Mobile and Rita Machines.

During February, the district VLE societies sold products from nine FMCG companies, including ITC, Samsung, Hewlett Packard, Godrej and Patanjali worth more than Rs 35 lakh. For the first 11 months of FY19, they sold products worth almost Rs 4 crore, while between January 2018 and February 2019, the products sold were worth close to Rs 5 crore in villages across 265 districts.