Category: Rural India

There is no unemployment in the villages! Rural realities no one speaks out! We live in the village. We are engaged in farming. Is this enough to convey the truths about Indian villages as they are evolving today? It seems rural India is a holy cow! Yes, when President Abdul Kalam talks of the technological…

Though governments don’t do much! Citizens’ initiatives take roots. Citizen services? Consumer interests? Transparency, e-governance? Do you hear such words from any of the ministers? We dont hear so far! And yet, yes, there are new problems and new initiatives and opportunities opening out. Here we feature a few such services, be it municipal services,…

Rural India continues to bleed! The urban English press is full of news from Lalu Yadav’s Bihar. This is election time, with Congress trying to outwit Lalu who is a master of the game of outwitting! Yes, the continuous abduction news make the state a dark corner of India! So, what else is news from…

The big picture we have to get right! Who says agriculture is an unfashionable subject. Or, rural India is just for votes! No, no. Please listen. Farming is bout one’s country’s basic strength. India is a rural power. I want to enhance this perception through all the means at my command. A vision for farming,…

Where are the funds? When it will be disbursed? Where are the institutions to receive the funds? Who are all accountable for the funds use or misuse? Any hopes for rural India? For the rural poor? The Central government seems to have lost its direction and also the initial dynamism for action. Many new developments…

What defines rural India? An invitation from my English hostess is waiting for me to pay a visit to her country house in northern England of Cumberland country. This is very much near the Lake District made famous by Wordsworth. My hostess, Mrs.Dikcenson, had been our family friend ever since I was a student at…

Sonia populism vs state CMs’ populism! Is the National Advisory Council functioning? Aruna Roy resigns, others also lie low? Sound economic principles are needed in rural infrastructure development schemes. A pity such sound economic sense is missing now! The so many populist schemes where heavy subsidy or subsidies or almost freebies, like free ration rice…

The rural “pastoral idyll, a dream fantasy” farming is, yes a bloody profession today but it can regain its old value system and might become or turned to be a perennial source of inspiration. Every morning the first thing  we do in Bangalore is to call the village, some 300 km away, and talk to…