Fostering inclusive growth through e-governance embedded rural telecenters (EGERT) in India

Abstract

In the recent years, two significant changes have taken place in an effort to address rural poor: Businesses have started recognizing potential of rural markets and governments have started using telecenters for providing G2C services to rural citizens. In India, the national and sub-national governments have supported businesses to establish telecenters in rural areas to provide information technology enabled services. However, the focus so far has been mostly on B2C services and viability of telecenters is being questioned. We argue that sustainability of these centers can be enhanced considerably if government services are embedded. Also, designing these telecenters with embedded G2C services would significantly improve effectiveness of their delivery and strengthen government information network, to foster inclusive growth.