Rural Transformation In India

Despite impressive changes being made by Govt. of India, there is still need for old-fashioned investment in transportation, power and internet to create more employment for Women and Youth in Rural areas and Human capital. Despite technology promise, around 25% of Indian adults cannot read or write. India needs to bridge the Gender divide, particularly investing in Rural women's education, training. Innovative technologies can be a significant engine of growth, equity and sustainability, but their geographical application is limited to rural areas, and many farmers remain unaware of advancements. Insufficient connectivity in Rural areas, lack of basic computer knowledge and literacy bars rapid development of e - agriculture. Substantial investment is needed in physical infrastructure (only 27% of villages have banks within 5 kms.), power, transportation, Broadband, education particularly in poorer regions and in the poorest people.

Criticism mounts - Across thousands of schools in India, expensive Computers, Printers, Scanners
are gathering dust. In many panchayats and other local bodies, such hardware remain unused. Meanwhile huge number of Govt. orders and circulars continue to be scanned and uploaded on official websites which serve absolutely no purpose to anyone.

India has fallen behind its Asian neighbors in inclusive growth illustrated by several key indicators
of under performance. Agriculture share in GDP dropped from 42% in 1970 to 17.5% in 2015. Nearly half of India's population makes a living from low productivity agriculture, with a majority
of poverty in rural areas. Youth want nonfarm jobs, due to low farm production, higher aspirations. 75% of rural women depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, mostly doing back breaking manual labor. The production of most crops in India is well below the Global average.

Farm productivity can be improved through better irrigation facilities, technology improvement, diversifying towards higher value added crops (like fruits, vegetables, spices, condiments) and increasing crop intensity. Better price realization for Farmers is a big step that can help in improving income levels. This is where removing the middlemen and introducing market reforms becomes critical. There needs to be a mechanism in place to ensure that agriculture prices do not fall below
the minimum support prices.

Apart from this, there need to focus on improving livestock, service sector, rural handicrafts, food processing, roads, flood control measures, managing water ways. What is also critical is to impart skill development, training to rural workforce to educate them and enable to get absorbed in bith agriculture and non- agricultural sectors.


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