Do we have a holistic view of rural development in which all the activities currently being undertaken are integrated ? Do we share a vision for a prosperous rural India, a vision which sees agriculture and allied activities as the growth engine for rural development complemented by promotion of non-farm activities for value addition and sustainable in a healthy competitive environment ? Are our strategies effective in increasing the productive potential of our agriculture, developing viable non-farm occupations and provision of basic human needs in a holistic manner ?†This quote is from a speech delivered by Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister. And that same speech said, “We need to learn from the Chinese model of rural business hubs that add value to agricultural produce within the rural areas.†And finally, “Together we have an opportunity to make a radical departure from current ways of doing things. Incrementalism will not take us very far as sometimes the fault may be in the very design of the programmes imposed from above.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Bibek Debroy
Bibek Debroy is Director of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies (RGICS), Rajive Gandhi Foundation, New Delhi. He is a professional economist and was educated in Presidency College (Calcutta), Delhi School of Economics and Trinity College (Chambridge). He has worked at Presidency College (Calcutta), Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (Pune), Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (Delhi), National Council of Applied Economic Research (Delhi) and as consultant, Department of Economic affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. He was also the Director for a project known as LARGE, set up by the Ministry of Finance and UNDP to Consulting Editor with Financial Express. Bibek Debroy's special interests are international trade in particular the WTOI, law reform and the political economy of liberalization in India. He has been listed in many bibliographies and has been a member of several government committees.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR P.D. Kaushik
P.D. Kaushik is a Fellow at the RGICS. He is an engineer, MBA and Ph.D. During his Ph.D., he was awarded Jawahar Lal Nehru Fellowship. He has wide experience of industry and academics. He was also associated with consultancy work for the FAO, Commonwealth Secretariat and World Bank. He is a visiting faculty at leading business schools in Delhi. He has publications on policy issues emerging from electronic commerce and WTO. He has co-authored two books on the WTO.
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