The government of Kerala set up Akshaya centres in 2002 to combat ‘digital divide’ in the state – way before the central government came up with the concept of the common services centres (CSCs). The decision to set up Akshaya centres as a one-stop shop for all the e-governance and technology-related services was taken after the government noticed that the e-governance schemes were not being very successful in Kerala because of the low technology awareness in the state. It was decided to go for effective computer education in Kerala to increase the digital literacy in the state. “The Akshaya centres were seen as the next step of e-literacy in the state,” according to Thomas Reju, district Akshaya coordinator. These centres were later converted to CSCs after the government of India announced the national e-governance plan in 2006.

Implementation

The Akshaya centres were set up by the state government under the guidance of the Kerala State IT Mission (KSITM). Before setting these centres extensive mapping of the state was done to determine the location of the centres. After extensive meetings between different panchayats and organisations such as the centre for development of imaging technology (C-DIT) and survey of the state it was decided to pilot the project in Mallapuram district. It was decided that there will be an Akshaya centre for every 1,000 families and in two to three municipal wards and that every centre would not be more than two to three kilometres away from each household.

The centres are 400 sq ft in area and have minimum five computers, a printer, a scanner and a working internet connection. The ‘Village Level Entrepreneur’ (VLE) running the centre is selected through an exhaustive selection process of a written test and an interview. The VLE is selected for his knowledge of computers and business and his or her ability to run the centre as a successful enterprise. The minimum qualification for a VLE is that he or she should have cleared the class 12 examination.

After an online examination with multiple choice questions, the short-listed candidates are interviewed in the panchayat by a five-member body which has representatives from the district body, the block and Akshaya. The results are declared online, making the process entirely transparent.

The successful candidate has to sign an agreement with the government but there is no deposit, so that there is no added financial burden on the entrepreneur for opening a centre.

There are more than 2,000 Akshaya centres in Kerala with around 130 in each district which are distributed according to the population of the district. There might be one or two in a rural panchayat and around five to 10 in an urban corporation due to differences in population.

The first centre was started in Mallapuram district in 2002 and then these were spread in different districts in a phased manner. The bouquet of services include 23 services - mostly comprising of issuance of all kinds of certificates such as caste, nativity and marriage - by the revenue department under e-District project.

Outcome

Akshaya centres are open from 8.30 AM to 10 PM, though the official timings are from 9 AM to 5 PM. Most of the e-governance services of the state can be availed through the Akshaya Centres such as e-payment of bills and 23 services of the revenue department.

Apart from these services, Akshya centres also provide services such as the Intel education programme, online education, online scholarship applications (especially for SC/ST students), and online registration of farmers on the website of the agricultural department. The Akshaya centres also register for the ‘Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme’ (CHIS) in Kerala and the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) for the citizens of Kerala. According to P Balakiran, deputy secretary, Akshaya State Project, Akshaya centres registered 35 lakh people under RSBY in just 40 days in 2012.

There are 2,000 Akshaya centres which have enrolled 1.25 crore people for the aadhaar. They have provided digital literacy to 32 lakh families since their inception and enrolled 1.2 lakh students in the Intel education programme (which provides basic education to the children in the age group of 5-18 years). They have provided 15 lakh e-district certificates to citizens and 5 lakh e-grants scholarship to SC/ST students.

According to official data, there have been 350 crore transactions in the Akshaya centres in the last ten years. In November 2012 alone, there were 12.65 lakh transactions.

Sateesh Kumar, the owner of an Akshaya centre in Vattiyur near the state capital, says he makes a profit of '15,000 every month after paying salaries of his employees and meeting other expenses of the centre. The minimum salary of an Akshaya centre employee is '5,500.

Challenges

Initially, the selection process for the VLEs of Akshaya centres was done by the District Office. They conducted the test and sent the candidates’ name and marks to the panchayat for the interview. The interview hence, was largely influenced by the written exam results, which was not a transparent process. “It wasn’t right that my office conducted the exam and people from here were present at the interview. It tilted the selection process in favour of some candidates,” said Balakiran.

Several court cases were filed against the selection process which wasted a lot of time of the district officials. The selection process has now been altered and is conducted entirely by Kerala Electronics (Keltron). The exams are conducted online and the names of the selected candidates are sent to the panchayat board for the interviews. Selected candidates have to sign the agreement with the government for running an Akshaya centre in the area.

The second challenge which is still being looked at by the government is the duplication of the services provided by the Friends centres. These centres offer only e-payment services to the people, are only in urban areas and are wholly run by the government. They preceded the Akshaya centres and were opened with the intention of making bill payments easier for the people in urban areas. However, the concept is largely becoming obsolete with the advent of the Akshaya centres which provide many more services.

The Friends centres are completely funded by the government and are operated by the government officials. They provide free services to the people in urban areas. While in rural areas, the citizens have to pay for their services at Akshaya centres.

Also, while Friends centres are only e-payment centres, Akshaya centres provide all the government services. The government cannot open an Akshaya centre near a Friends centre so that the latter remains viable.

“The process is on to merge Akshaya with Friends but it is taking time. This is one of the administrative issues with the running of Akshaya centres,” said Balakiran.

Road Ahead

According to Balakiran, Akshaya centres will soon become micro-ATMs in Kerala to aid the process of financial inclusion. “Financial services will be the next level of services which will be provided by the centres such as insurance and banking,” he said. In micro-ATMs, a person will be able to deposit and withdraw money with only his fingerprint as authentication as his bank account will be linked through Aadhaar.