Unleashing the Power of Youth

The government of India has been on the lookout for real solutions to real problems. Therefore it has geared up to address two issues (not so burning but definitely addressable): Promotion of entrepreneurship in India and also to enhance the effectiveness of Common Service Centers (CSCs) through the 'youth enterprise' pilot program. As a result, in December 2011, the government, through its National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), which is under Department of Science & Technology (DST) joined hands with Intel Corporation and NS Raghavan Center for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL), part of IIM-Bengaluru to achieve the above mentioned objective.

CSC-Integral to NeGP

The Common Service Center (CSC Scheme), an integral pillar of the government's National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) was a $1.2 bn initiative by the Government of India. It was proposed in the year 2004 and was finally approved by the government of India in September 2006 for setting up of 100,000+ (one lakh) internet-enabled centers in rural areas under the NeGP, which are being implemented in a Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.

The Objective

The CSC Scheme was envisaged to be a bottom-up model for delivery of content, services, information, and knowledge, that can allow like-minded public and private enterprises - through a collaborative framework - to integrate their goals of profit as well as social objectives, into a sustainable business model for achieving rapid socio-economic change in rural India.

Youth Enterprise Program

The 'Youth Enterprise Pilot' is aimed at accelerating ideation, innovation, and venture creation among the youth from premier colleges in the state of Karnataka. Fifty students were selected from across the state and winners of Intel Embedded Challenge. Eleven projects were shortlisted to undergo 5-day intensive business guidance workshops from February 14-19, 2012, by IIM-Bengaluru faculty and technical support from Intel. Finally, 6 projects have been finalized which are further undergoing mentoring from IIM-B. Two of these have been declared winners and awarded `2.5 lakh each by Intel.

Our Take

This program certainly sounds promising but all the beneficiaries have to watch them closely when they take off to become independent entities. In addition, it has to be seen how effectively these drivers are able to replicate this success story across all the states, keeping in view the diversity of the country and its unique advantages and disadvantages. Like Intel India, other leading IT players should also volunteer not only for fresh ideas to work upon and a market to exploit but also to foster such initiatives. And a huge potential opens up for SMBs to make use of such schemes and programs to scale up and become more competitive.

The current intent of the project and the drivers make the project look very actionable, but will the future be as per their expectations has to be seen as it entirely depends on the success of this pilot project and the responsiveness of other state governments and the direct beneficiaries.