Cisco to enable common service centers

href="http://dqchannels.ciol.com/content/reselleralert/110022302.asp">Cisco
today signed a memorandum of
understanding (MoU) with CSC e-Governance Services India. CSC
e-Governance is a private company established to catalyze and
accelerate the delivery of various eGovernance services through the
CSC framework. The purpose of the MoU is to make education and health
care solutions available and to promote social inclusion through CSCs
across India. The MoU was signed by Shankar Aggarwal, CEO, CSC
e-Governance Services India and Naresh Wadhwa, President and Country
Manager, Cisco India in the presence of John Chambers, Chairman and
CEO, Cisco; Wim Elfrink, Chief Globalisation Officer and Executive
VP, Cisco Services; R Chandrashekhar, Secretary, Department of
Information Technology, Government of India; and SR Rao, Additional
Secretary, Department of Information Technology.

href="http://dqchannels.ciol.com/content/reselleralert/109092501.asp">The
Common Service Center's program is
a strategic cornerstone of the government of India's href="http://dqchannels.ciol.com/content/features/109021301.asp">National
e-Governance Plan (NeGP) with 250,000 CSCs planned across 600,000
villages. The CSCs have the potential to offer Web-enabled
e-governance services in rural areas as well as to provide
high-quality and cost-effective video, voice and data content and
services in areas such as education, health and entertainment.

John Chambers, Chairman and CEO, Cisco,
said, “Collaborative technologies, powered by ubiquitous broadband
access, will not only enable access to high-quality education and
health care services but also help drive the next phase of economic
growth for our future. Education and health care are fundamentally
collaborative, interactive endeavors, critical to the success of
future generations. It's an honor to collaborate with the
Department of Information Technology and help deliver
transformational education and health care services to the citizens
of India. We believe communities, cities, countries and individual
lives can be transformed by providing access to socially,
economically and environmentally sustainable solutions.”

R Chandrashekhar, Secretary, Department
of IT and Chairman, CSC, e-Governance Services India, said, “I am
very pleased that this innovative technology platform will bring
high-quality health care and education services to villagers across
India. It's very encouraging to see how two private sector
companies are collaboratively building on the government's
substantial investment in IT infrastructure and bringing services to
the common man through the Common Service Centers.”