SREI Sahaj e-Village Limited, a subsidiary of the Kolkata-based Srei Infrastructure Finance Limited, targets to place 50,000 youth trained through the company's various skill development programmes, by March 31, 2010.
It had launched an employment programme for the rural population through its portal www.chaakri.in developed by the Sahaj IT team last year in December. "While we have trained around 8,700 people so far, the placement record is still poor at around 500 people", admitted Sabahat Azim, chief executive officer, SREI Sahaj e-Village.
The reason, he outlines, is that till date SREI has tied up with existing insititutes that have core competencies in certain areas, but these have their own standardised modules. "We have now created our own pool and have designed courses with a customised focus on each industry", Azim said.
It provides training through three channels, from its Common Service Centers (CSCs), through virtual studios that would be set up soon, and hands on training through 95 skill development centers at the district level. The company is spending around Rs 10 crore to set up six virtual studios where classroom teaching can reach the rural student through video conferencing facility. It has recently set up the Sahaj Academy in Kolkata for that purpose. Besides, SREI is also planning to launch its Banking Correspondent services in 1,000 pilot sites in August this year. The company has tied up with 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.
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 all the records of the bank accounts.
To facilitate the operation, the customers would be given smart cards. "The cost of setting up one center would be around Rs 10 crore", Azim said.
...ties up with DLF Pramerica...ties up with DLF Pramerica
SREI Sahaj e-Village Ltd today tied up with DLF Pramerica Life Insurance, a joint venture between DLF Ltd and Prudential International Insurance Holdings LTd, to make life insurance products services accessible to 27,000 villages across India. DLF Pramerica has started its India operations in September last year and has already done sales worth Rs 15 crore during the January to June 2009 period. "We have more than 5,000 policies on our books and sum assured of Rs 100 crore so far", said Kapil Mehta, managing director and CEO of DLF Pramerica. It will launch customised rural products in three months from now.
