Shillong, July 17: Rose Angelina M Kharsyntiew, a village-level entrepreneur (VLE) from Mairang in Eastern West Khasi Hills district, was felicitated by Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw for her outstanding contribution to digital empowerment in rural areas.

The recognition was made during an event in New Delhi commemorating 10 years of the ‘Digital India’ initiative. The Minister praised Rose for delivering key digital services through her centre, ‘Rose CSC’, which offers facilities such as banking, insurance, telemedicine, education, and government scheme enrolments.

Beginning her journey as a job-seeker in 2015, Rose also launched the ‘Stree Swabhiman’ initiative—a sanitary pad manufacturing unit that promotes women’s health and employment in her locality.

The event highlighted the rapid growth of the Common Services Centre (CSC) network, which has increased from 83,000 in 2014 to over 5.5 lakh centres, covering 90 percent of villages in India. Over 74,000 of these centres are run by women entrepreneurs.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology also announced that 10 lakh people will be offered free Artificial Intelligence training as part of the next phase of the CSC programme.