pinheiro wrote: > There is a big rush to invest $500 billion in infrastructure in the eleventh >Five Year Plan (2007-2011). Is this what the 72 percent of population which >lives in villages need?
Agnelo Pinheiro, The answer to your question is a big, YES. Without infrastructure, there is no development, and especially so in the rural areas. I have seen tons of tomatoes rot by the roadside in Africa as desperate farmers tried to get their crop to the city just 40 miles away. Transporters refused to go to villages that did not have tarred roads as the cost of doing so would wipe out any potential profits. Without infrastructure, there usually is little or no economic activity. > Economic liberation in India has opened another avenue for the corporate > players to loot and plunder the resources of our country. No doubt about this one. I am constantly on the look out to pay 20 cents for any asset that is worth a dollar. More often than not, I find these opportunities in the developing countries. I think anyone presented with a such an opportunity would grab it too. > In the words of Mahatma Gandhi "A society must be built in which very village > has t be self sustained and capable of managing its own affairs..Independence > begins at the bottom". These words of wisdom from Father of our Nation are > fallen on deaf ears of our government. India needs bottom-up planning > strategy. It is the need of today and tomorrow if the growth story has to > reach the common man the 'Aam Aadmi'. Government has to invest in rural > development, in education, Health, Farming and small scale industry. The > current development is focused on urban population, and, by denying > investment > in rural India we force unchecked migration from villages to town and > cities. > If there is rural development then the migration will be reduce considerably > as > > peoples needs and wants will be fulfilled within with local environment and >they will see no need to migrate to town and cities. This will in turn save >our > > overburden urban infrastructure. If the government strengthens > local government > > bodies and invest in rural development the need for big investments will be >reduced. As far as I am concerned, govt involvement in economic activity has to be restricted to the development of infrastructure and education. When any govt tries to extend its reach beyond these two, what usually ensures is economic activity bogged down by red tape. Mervyn1205Lobo * * * Was life in the *kudds* glamourised? Who said, "It appears that the Goanese (sic) are a roving people, prepared to go to any part of the world for well-paid employment"? How did Goans find their first toehold in the Gulf? Find your answers in Selma Carvalho's *Into the Goan Diaspora Wilderness*. Buy from Broadways Book Centre, Panjim [Ph +91-9822488564] Price (in Goa only) Rs 295. http://selmacarvalho.squarespace.com/ * * *