The government has to play a more proactive role to make e-governance initiatives offering Government-to-Citizen (G2C) services a viable business model, says SREI Sahaj, which has the mandate to set up such centres across various states.

SREI Sahaj is a subsidiary of Kolkata-based Srei Infrastructure Finance Ltd and has the mandate of rolling out about 29,000 common service centres (CSCs) across the country.

"Though we have already rolled out 21,000 CSCs, many of them are yet to offer G2C services like issuing birth certificates, land records, etc. Without these services, CSCs can hardly play any role in e-governance as they were supposed to do," SREI Sahaj e-Village Senior Vice-President (Strategic Marketing) Sumanta Pal said.

Set up under the public-private partnership model, the CSCs were set up to provide video, voice and data services in areas of e-governance, education, health, telemedicine and entertainment.

The government has envisioned setting up of 2.5 lakh CSCs, which would also offer web-enabled services in rural areas for downloading application forms and certificates, and making payment of electricity, telephone and water bills.

"Companies were chosen to roll out the CSCs through a bidding process, but many have returned their licences as the CSCs are yet to make money," he said.

Pal added that many centres were running other businesses such as photocopy stores, training centres and digital photography outlets to sustain business.

"If government services, which were the basis of starting the centre, are not available, CSCs will never make for a viable business model. There is a lack of political will.

Also, in many centres, the government support money does not come in, which adds to the problem," Pal said.

Players include Zoom Developers and 3i Infotech, among others.

The company is eyeing a revenue of Rs 72 crore for the fiscal ended March 31, 2011, up from Rs 40 crore during the last fiscal.

"It will be still a few years before we can start making profits. Over the course of the year, we will launch the rest of the CSCs," Pal said.