It’s the desi, rural version of Flipkart and Amazon, and is promoted by the government.
Concerned over the severe restrictions on mobility and lack of adequate supplies in times of Covid-19, the government has facilitated the creation of a village-level online retail chain, planning massive supplies of essentials through fast-expanding outlets that are taking orders online and offline, and carrying out home deliveries.
The ambitious plan is being led by the Common Service Centres, the rural digital outreach vehicle of the government that reaches over 60 crore people through its nearly 3.8 lakh outlets.
The outlets are set up and run by private individuals but under the aegis of the ministry of electronics and IT. The CSCs have been tasked with engaging in sale and supply of essential commodities like vegetables, milk, pulses, fruits and other products, CSC CEO Dinesh Tyagi told TOI.
Customers can go online and order supplies through a specially curated app that has been provided to village-level entrepreneurs (VLEs) or those given the charge of retail and other CSC activities. The VLEs, who also take offline orders, then make arrangements to transport the goods within a period of a few hours to a day at most.
“These are like Amazon and Flipkart, but for the rural folk. We started with the initiative about three weeks ago and have already on-boarded about 2,000 CSC centres that are catering to nearly 12,000 villages,” Tyagi said.
So far, the fledgling chain has seen 5,000 orders to the tune of Rs 20 lakh. “Each VLE is allowed to cover a radius of 5-10km. The project is still in its infancy, but we plan to scale up very fast and reach 10,000 CSCs by the end of May, and around one lakh by the end of the year.”
The CSC CEO said that modern retailers do not supply in villages in large numbers due to the tough terrain, and also due to lack of basic requirements such as a confirmed postal address. Here, CSC seems to have found a place for itself and its outlets fill the gap.
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