The case study discusses the development of the CSC Academy-a unique effort by the Indian government to expand education outreach across the country. The effort was especially geared towards educating and empowering rural citizens, and to this end, the Academy utilised a mix of innovative technology and human actors at the village level to expand its reach to remote parts of the country. The study follows the organization's journey since its inception, and offers a high-level overview of several on-ground challenges faced, as well as the specific strategies it deployed in response. The study includes voices from across levels in the organization, ranging from decision-making managers to on-ground service providers and participants, thus providing a comprehensive, 360º view of the demand- and supply-side issues that exist in the educational landscape in India, which can be extended to comparable emerging economy settings.

The case covers a specific instance of state-led innovation in the provision of financial services to Indian citizens: through the the "Common Services Centres" (CSC) scheme. The CSC scheme engages a vast network of rural entrepreneurs to drive the delivery of a variety of services, including - in collaboration with banking organisations and bodies in the country - financial services (banking and insurance). This is particularly relevant since India has long suffered from extremely limited financial inclusion of its citizens, especially in rural areas and among marginalised groups and communities. Banking penetration as well as financial awareness too have historically been low. The present scheme has been an effort to combat these (and other related) challenges to bring hitherto underserved regions into the ambit of the formal banking system in India using a combination of locl social networks, innovative use of digital technologies, and iterative policy design.

The case discusses the development and implementation of a unique - and indeed, one of the world's largest - telecenter scheme, the "Common Services Centres" (CSC). The CSC scheme engaged rural entrepreneurs to meet the twin goals of ensuring last-mile delivery of e-governance services as well as supporting the development of indigenous entrepreneurship. The former has been a long-standing element of the government's plans to create a "Digital India", while the latter is geared towards serving as a source of employment generation and income growth to drive nation development. While highlighting contrasts between the different kinds of entrepeneurship that exist (specifically necessity/subsistence vs innovative entrepeneurship), the case also discusses in detail the unique challenges faced by subsistence entrepreneurs, which are likely to be common to all emerging economies, and how this scheme sought to address them through the deployment of innovative technologies. The case offers a high-level view into the creation and implementation of the CSC scheme, the processes of iteration and improvement it underwent, and the broad challenges it continues to face.