Rural India to get more access to banking, insurance products
By Financial Express
January 29, 2018
The ministry of electronics and IT (MeitY) has allowed its 2.70 lakh common service centres (CSCs) to partner with HDFC Bank and LIC for selling banking and insurance products across the country. Speaking at an event on Saturday on promoting empowerment of women and their participation in CSCs, IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said women entrepreneurs in villages and especially the CSC’s Stree Swabhiman project can increase the pace of change in rural India by educating women about the need of hygiene and importance of sanitary napkins. He added Corporate India, too, should find the relevance of engaging with CSCs in penetrating rural India. MeitY secretary Ajay Prakash Sawhney said, “The network of 2.70 lakh centres in India has done excellent work in tele-medicine, insurance, soil health card, Aadhaar enrollment, digital literacy, tele-law and skill development. CSCs are doing a great job in rural BPOs. Now, village-level entrepreneurs (VLEs) should promote payments through digital transactions for merchants in the country.” Meanwhile, LIC managing director Usha Sangwan said, “LIC has offered full support to CSCs to make their endeavour to transform rural India a grand success.”
Besides providing premium collection to all CSCs, she also permitted all 2.70 lakh CSCs to work as its agent in rural India. While HDFC Bank’s head of government business & e-commerce, Smita Bhagat suggested the bank’s products can be made available through CSCs in rural India. CSCs are an integral part of Digital India initiative of MeitY. They are ICT-enabled front-end service delivery points at the village level enabling delivery of government, financial, social and private sector services in areas of agriculture, health, education, entertainment, FMCG products, banking, insurance, pension, utility payments, etc. They are managed and operated by through VLEs.
© Renalysis Consultants Pvt Ltd