Common Service Centres (CSC), a pan India network that enables the Government’s mandate to build a digitally and financially inclusive society, has been working at the grassroots levels in rural and remote areas of the country.
With a vision to significantly propel the “Digital India” mission, CSC and SugarBox Networks have partnered to enable access to digital information and services, across rural geographies of the country.
The country’s sentiment is aligned to the fact that rural India is indeed a gateway to realizing the ‘Digital India’ mission and CSCs are playing a pivotal role for augmenting this growth. Infact, Rural India has seen internet usage grow by 37%, according to a recent report by IAMAI KANTAR report , emphasizing that the future growth of internet adoption will be driven by the rural markets. Despite this need, over two-thirds of the rural population continue to remain offline, often hindered by a lack of understanding, awareness and unaffordability of the digital service cost.
And this is where the collaboration of CSCs and SugarBox is bridging the digital divide. SugarBox harnesses the power of hyperlocal edge cloud technology to enable access to digital information and services, regardless of location or affordability. Simply means that population residing in digitally underserved geographies or areas with poor digital connectivity can get access to native digital services, even in the absence of an active network connection.
“The partnership of CSC and SugarBox Networks aims to empower our villages by enabling access to digital information and thus bridging the digital divide between rural and urban India. The objective of this partnership is to equip villagers, across the country, with access to digital services such as education, healthcare, digital payments, entertainment and lots more, at zero data cost. We have initiated pilot programs in villages across India and are moving towards building a nation of equitable digital access,” shared Dr. Dinesh Tyagi, Managing Director, CSC e-Governance Services India Ltd.
SugarBox Networks has presently deployed the patented technology solution in 100+ gram panchayats across Maharashtra, Haryana, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. This solution is a sustainable catalyst in the growing digital adoption among the residents of these villages. For instance, they often pick to view or download latest movies, web series, in the SugarBox zone and save their mobile data for additional digital consumption. The villages have benefitted with the introduction of a wifi zone, which never existed earlier and are excited to experience upcoming services like Government2Consumer, Healthcare, Ed-tech, Agritech and more.
In order to make staying “digitally connected” in underserved and unserved areas a basic need, SugarBox is currently installing this Hyperlocal Edge Cloud Technology at highly-populated centres like gram-panchayats, CSCs, and government schools. At the same time, this is also creating an ecosystem that is sustainable and profitable for network partners and digital application services. CSCs and SugarBox Networks are together ushering in an equitable digital future, offering content and services such as OTT, D2C e-commerce, Fintech and will soon empower the future of our nation (youth) by enabling Edtech services.
“Even today close to 50% of India’s vast population is yet to be connected. Any progress to bridge this existing digital divide is complicated and multidimensional, requiring a collaborative, multistakeholder approach to internet inclusion. Curating inclusion – be it financially, economically, or even digitally – is what our partnership with the CSC centres is unlocking by offering affordable and reliable access to digital content and services, for the villages, at zero data charges. We are confident that this is a beginning to building the backbone for the internet of the future and laying the foundation for digital democracy”, added Rohit Paranjpe, CEO & Co-Founder, SugarBox Networks.
Under the guidance of Dr. Dinesh Tyagi, we are confident that this collaboration is a strong step ahead to offer education, rural commerce, and digital payments in rural India, thus improving future capabilities and extending the reach to the next billion users.
