New Delhi, Dec 29 (FN Bureau) The Common Services Centers (CSCs), a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) under the Ministry of Electronics and IT, has partnered with Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi (IIT-D) to establish a Design and Innovation Lab for conducting research on design-led innovations related to leveraging livelihood and enhancing their all-round entrepreneurial outlook. Called the ‘Design and Innovation in VLE’s Indigenous Network Ecosystem’ or ‘DIVINE’ Lab, it will promote design and innovation among the Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs) managing around 3.75 lakh CSCs across the country which will help in leveraging livelihood and enhancing their all-round entrepreneurial outlook.
The ‘DIVINE’ Lab will provide continuous research into the rural entrepreneurial ecosystem and design new products and services for the VLEs. It will also develop digital content for new skilling and education courses for VLEs. The network of VLEs operate amidst complex and infrastructurally underserved areas serving the last mile with poor connectivity and low digital literacy. The partnership will provide them with understanding and academic support to solve problems and challenges of growth.
“The CSCs and VLEs are driven by an entrepreneurial spirit. They are adaptive, based on the local community environment, they work on digital connectivity in areas with limited access, they also solve problems on a day-to-day basis for a diverse range of customers or citizens. The Design Lab will benefit from IIT Delhi’s unparalleled expertise and experiences of VLEs who will bring hyper-local realities and challenges of delivering services to the partnership. We also hope some of the learnings from the field will permeate upwards to create knowledge around grassroots innovation by VLEs,” said CSC SPV Managing Director Dr. Dinesh Tyagi. IIT-Delhi Director Prof V. Ramagopal Rao said: “I am hopeful this collaboration with CSC will support IIT students to access CSC’s network and identify problems in rural India. World-class research infrastructure and expertise available at IIT-Delhi will support to design and innovate solutions for rural problems through the wide network of VLEs across the country.”