NEW DELHI: Ecommerce may no longer be just an urban phenomenon, if the government has its way. The government plans to partner with the likes of Flipkart and Snapdeal and use common service centres (CSCs) in rural areas to deliver ecommerce services.
CSCs are access points set up at the Panchayat level to help people access online and egovernance services. There are one lakh such centres and there is a plan to increase this number to 2.5 lakh in the next four years. “The CSCs will be used by the logistics and ecommerce partners for delivering services in the rural areas, helping aggregate demand on both sides,” Dinesh Tyagi, CEO of the CSC special purpose vehicle, told ET.
The government hopes that the partnership will foster rural entrepreneurs and encourage them to buy and sell through CSCs, as well as provide last-mile logistics for ecommerce firms. Among the companies that are part of this partnership are Flipkart, Snapdeal, Paytm and Infibeam. Under the initiative, which will be announced on Friday, the CSCs will play the role of buyer and seller for the aggregator websites. It will also act as a hub of training activity to help local sellers use the online platforms to sell their products.
“We will also encourage the sale of commodities by the village-level entrepreneurs through this partnership. These entrepreneurs could also log into the portal and sell through the ecommerce firms,” said Tyagi. The government is hoping that such partnerships would boost the growth of CSCs.