Rural Post Offices To Provide E-Services: Ravi Shankar Prasad

KOLKATA: Union Minister for Information and Technology and Communications Ravi Shankar Prasad on Sunday said rural post offices across the country will also function as common service centres (CSCs) providing e-services.

He said this while asserting that the postal department had a crucial role to play in bringing in digital revolution in the country.

"Our vision of digital India is to ensure that from a mason to barber to a tyre-puncture repairer, all can access newer avenues of growth using communications equipment like a smart phone," said Prasad while inaugurating the revamped building of Bhowanipore post office in Kolkata.

"We are also committed to developing e-commerce, e-education and e-health. This is the larger vision of digital India. And in this digital India initiative, rural post offices have a very crucial role to play.

"We have decided that all the 1.30 lakh rural post offices should also become common service centres (CSCs) to further provide services," the minister added.

Implemented under the National e-Governance Plan and formulated by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology, the CSCs are ICT-enabled front end service delivery points at the village-level for delivery of government, financial, social and private sector services in the areas of agriculture, health, education, entertainment, FMCG products, banking, insurance, pension, utility payments etc.

Prasad said he expected the Reserve Bank of India to grant payment license to the proposed Post Bank of India by July.
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