Go to villages,President tells India Inc

Asking the corporate India to help improve the agriculture sector,which would ensure rural development,President Pratibha Patil today said location of food processing and agro-based industries close to rural areas would optimise the benefits for both the entrepreneurs and the farming community.

Inaugurating the three-day international conference on Dynamics of Rural Transformation in Emerging Economies here,Patil emphasised on developing farming models that include participation of industry to achieve economies of scale and promote socio-economic development. During the global downturn the negative impact on India was less than elsewhere. One reason was that we were able to sustain domestic demand,much of it coming from rural areas, the President said. She pointed out that growing migration from rural areas to cities was a challenge,which could be dealt by building rural infrastructure. Development of rural areas ..is to be undertaken in a globalised world,where what happens in one part of the world gets transmitted to other parts rather rapidly, she said.

Planning Commisison deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said building rural infrastructure was a bigger challenge than providing resources. We can divert funds to generate resources but building quality rural infrastructure is an area where we have a lot to learn, he said. Rural development minister C P Joshi said if the government could only achieve this single target (of transforming unskilled labour into skilled and semi-skilled) on a satisfactory scale,the transformative dynamics of rural India could take a quantum jump. Commission member Mihir Shah emphasisded on a need to use innovative methods to improve rural economy for betterment of 70 per cent of countrys population that lives in rural areas.