Srei to roll out IPTV services in Orissa at the CSC at Kalahandi

Srei to roll out IPTV services in Orissa
Business Standard, Aug 8, 2009

SREI Sahaj E-Village Limited, a subsidiary of the Kolkata-based Srei Infrastructure Finance Limited, plans to roll out IPTV (internet protocol television) services at its 20 common service centres (CSCs) in the rural areas of Orissa by the end of this year.

Among all the CSCs of SREI Sahaj E-Village Limited across the country, the IPTV service would be first launched in Orissa at its centre at Kalahandi .

Sabahat Azim, chief executive officer, SREI Sahaj e-Village Limited said, “Our IPTV services would be first launched at the CSC at Kalahandi in Orissa by the end of this month. The content of the IPTV would focus on the local culture and traditions of the people. The IPTV service is also aimed at offering education and entertainment to the rural folks.”

IPTV is a system through which digital television service is delivered using the architecture and networking methods of the internet protocol over a packet switched network infrastructure.

Meanwhile, SREI Sahaj e-Village has tied up with DLF Pramerica Life Insurance, a 74:26 joint venture between realty firm DLF Limited and US-based Prudential Financial to offer insurance services to the rural people at the CSCs.

The insurance services would be rolled out at the company’s 200 CSCs throughout the country by the end of this month.

“Our CSCs would offer services like premium collection and uploading of policies of the individual customers. We will also organise mass awareness campaigns on the insurance products for the rural people”, said Azim.

SREI Sahaj was also planning to launch its banking services at 200 CSCs in Orissa by the end of this month.

The company has tied up leading banks like State Bank of India (SBI), Punjab National Bank (PNB) and HDFC Bank to enable the people in rural areas to open bank accounts at the CSCs.

SREI Sahaj has started a pilot trial of this project along with PNB at Panapur village, about 25 km from Patna.

The company’s data centres would be connected to the data centres of these banks and the people can carry out the banking transactions through the CSCs which will maintain al the records of the bank accounts.

The banking correspondents would be roped in to provide the banking services at the CSCs.

SREI Sahaj is also looking to engage the banking correspondents to disburse payments to the workers of the Centre’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS).

Moreover, SREI Sahaj is planning to kick off the work of data collection on the Mid-Day Meals programme soon at its CSCs in West Bengal. Under this initiative, the company would prepare a monthly report on the status of the scheme.

The company was also aiming to roll out more services in the future like e-commerce, matrimonial services, distance education and postal services.

SREI Sahaj E-Village has lined up an investment of Rs 1,000 crore for the next five years for implementing its projects in three phases. The company has so far set up more than 11,000 CSCs across the country including 1,100 centres in Orissa.