I am delighted to participate in the inauguration of the Centre for Sustainable Rural Development and Research Studies of Vellore Institute of Technology. My greetings to the Chancellor, Vice Chancellor, Faculty Members, students, staff of VIT and distinguished guests.

I just inaugurated the Centre for Sustainable Rural Development Research Studies, in the university campus which has a strength of 8000 students and 400 Faculty members. I thought of sharing with you on the subject Development Ambience: PURA as an instrument. PURA means Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas. Particularly, I would like to discuss with students and teachers of VIT about two operational programmes which I have seen one in Tamil Nadu and another in Maharashtra.

Periyar PURA

In 2003 I had visited Periyar Maniammai college of technology for women and inaugurated a PURA Complex. I thought of sharing with you the developmental concept of a cluster of over 60 villages near Vallam, with a population of 3 lakhs in Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu. The centre of activity emanates from the women engineering college that provides the electronic and knowledge connectivity. This PURA complex has all the three connectivities - physical, electronic and knowledge - leading to economic connectivity. Periyar PURA has health care centres, primary to post graduate level education and vocational training centres. This has resulted in large scale employment generation and creation of number of entrepreneurs with the active support of 850 self-help groups. Two hundreds acres of waste land has been developed into a cultivable land with innovative water management schemes such as contour ponds and water sheds for storing and irrigating the fields. All the villagers are busy in either cultivation, planting Jatropha, herbal and medicinal plants, power generation using bio-mass, food processing and above all running marketing centres. This model has emanated independent of any government initiative. The committed leadership has been provided by the Engineering institution. This gives me the confidence that PURA is a realizable proposition and this movement can be multiplied by thousands of entrepreneurs, educational administrators and philanthropic institutions with the support of the government agencies. Now I would like to discuss another PURA model which I visited on 15 Oct 05 in Maharashtra.

PURA: Loni Model (Maharashtra)

At Loni near Nasik in Maharashtra, I saw a participative model of integrated rural development covering 44 villages with the population of 80 thousand people. The architect of this model Shri Bala Saheb Vikhe Patil, MP of Maharashtra has a vision of improving the productivity of the rural people through improved quality of life with healthcare, education and employment. The concept is people centric development for social transformation. The thrust area of development has been on comprehensive Medicare particularly for women and children, need based health education and e-connectivity to the farmers. The complex has created 27 educational and vocational institutions consisting of schools, colleges, polytechnic and ITI including medical and engineering colleges. They have created sugar factory, biogas plants, chemical plants and power projects. They have large number of self-help groups for providing low interest loan for the weaker sections in the society. Due to the co-operative effort of the people, literacy in these villages has gone up from 63% to 83%, birth rate has come down, infant mortality rate has decreased to 35 per 1000 from 70 per 1000 and the standard of living of the people has gone up by over 20% compared to other villages in the neighbouring areas.

I have explained to you these two PURAs to apprise you of certain developments which have taken place in the country. Since, your centre is in the sustainable rural development mission, I would suggest a development model which you may like to follow or VIT can create a unique model relevant to Vellore district.

Analysis of the present scenario

VIT is in the mission of providing sustainable development in the villages situated around the University such as Brahmapuram, Kangeyanallur, Katpadi, Thiruvalam, agaramcheri, Kothakuppam and Koranthankgal with a total population of 33,000 people. I would recommend VIT to undertake development of additional 15 villages near Vellore area so that you can have a PURA complex for 1,00,000 people. This PURA Complex will have the three connectivities namely physical connectivity, electronic connectivity and knowledge connectivity. These three connectivities will lead to economic connectivity.

As a first step I would suggest VIT to nominate a team of MBA, BBA students facilitated by a Faculty Member to bring out the socio economic profile of the 20 villages. They should bring out the present literacy percentage, availability of formal education, availability of potable drinking water, availability of pucca houses, infant mortality rate, people with income below poverty line, employment status and average per capita income of the region. Based on this analysis the team should work out a plan for implementing the PURA model in these 20 villages.

Physical Connectivity: Provision of Physical connectivity for the 20 villages will involve creation of a circular road which can be linked to the nearest highway. Also, there is a need to provide a bus system to operate on this circular road. Public- Private partnership can be initiated for connecting and running the bus system through these 20 villages.

Electronic Connectivity: It is essential to provide electronic connectivity to all the 20 villages through Wi-Max connectivity so that the villages are connected through broadband. This electronic connectivity will enable provisioning of tele-medicine, tele-education, tele-agriculture, e-commerce, e-marketing and e-governance to all the villages. This will pave the way for creation of a self-sustained economy in this rural cluster. We have to create Village Knowledge Centres that will have a link between rural citizens and data centre with computers in the villages.

Knowledge Connectivity: The study can establish the core-competence of every village. The University particularly, the rural development centre can add value to the core-competence, then skill package generated, imparted as a training programme as has been done in other PURA centres. The skills that can be imparted are carpentry, electrical wiring, welding, auto-repair, tractor repair, internet servicing, mobile phone servicing and civic amenities. VIT can enhance the quality of education provided in all the primary and secondary schools located in these villages through tele-education and imparting of special training programmes for the teachers in rural schools. In addition VIT can arrange provision of literacy to the 26,000 people who cannot read and write by deploying the 8000 students with Faculty members on Saturday-Sunday and holidays.

Healthcare Services: The Centre can carry out the health survey of all the 1,00,000 people located in the 20 villages in partnership with the medical team of CMC, Vellore, I have suggested provision of a mobile clinic to be created by CMC which can be used for undertaking the health check-up and treatment of all the personnel. The ailment profile of the villagers can enable the doctors to plan a treatment strategy and also work out a preventive healthcare strategy. The centre can plan tele-medicine connectivity between CMC Vellore and all the 20 village primary health centres so that the consultation from specialist and super-specialists are available to the rural people when they are faced with complicated ailments. With the provision of physical, electronic and knowledge connectivity the village complex is ripe to become economically sustainable entity. Some of the avenues of realizing economic connectivity are as given below:

Jatropha ? Biofuel: Government has decided to permit mixing of 10% bio-fuel with diesel. Southern Railway is using 100% bio-fuel for running heavy vehicles like trucks, cranes, forklifts, jeeps and tractors. This has opened up new opportunities for employment and wealth generation in the rural sector. The study team of VIT can determine the waste land available in the 15 villages and suggest plantation of Jatropha in the waste land which can grow with very little input. Once grown the crop has a fifty years of life. Fruiting can take place in this plant in less than two years.

It yields oil seeds up to 15 tonnes per hectares per year and produces two tonnes of bio-diesel. Presently, the cost of bio-diesel through the plant is approximately Rs. 17 to Rs. 19 per litre, which can be substantially reduced through choice of right size of the plant and using high yield variety plantation. This is a sustainable development process leading to large scale employment of villagers of this 20 villages. More over, use of Bio-fuel is carbon neutral. This oil can also be used for soap and candle industries. De-oiled cake is a raw material for composting. Also Jatropha plantation provides a good environment for honey production. The Jatropha farmers can also create honey farms in these villages. I would request the engineering students and management students assembled here to take the initiative and work with TNAU on this project and promote enterprises with financial support from the banks in rural areas.

Textile industry: Textile industry is very important for the Indian economy. The basic raw material is cotton. India is the third largest producer of cotton in the world. However, compared to the world average of 700 kgs of seed cotton per acre, we produce only 350 kgs of seed cotton per acre. It is indeed a technological concern for the nation. Some of the industries have adopted a village in Punjab, which has brought out a cooperative movement of the farmers, scientists, trainers and the industry and launched for cultivating cotton in over 1200 acres. A training programme was launched for farmers starting with soil characterization, matching the cottonseed to soil, water and fertilizer management.

The project resulted in increasing the average seed cotton yield of the village from 450 KG per acre to 950 KG per acre. This led to the seven-fold increase in net return per acre, due to considerable reduction in input costs. It is worth noting that in this case the yield is above the world average. This model has already been replicated in twenty five villages in Punjab. The revenue increase due to higher production in these twenty-five villages is around Rs. 20 crore. Certainly this model can be replicated in all the 20 villages taken up for sustainable rural development by VIT.

I would like to link up cotton production with textiles. Since the women in these villages have been trained on sewing and embroidery they can become outsourcing centres for apparel manufacturers and exporters. The MBA/BBA students assembled here can have a linkage with Tirupur and create ready made garment enterprises in this region which can provide employment to the women in all the 20 villages.

Conclusion

PURA (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) is a growth driver of our economy. The Centre for Sustainable Rural Development has an opportunity to put this concept into practice in all the 20 villages adopted by VIT. This can become a model configuration for realizing 100% literacy, provision of potable water to all, sanitary facility to all, imparting employment skills and remunerative employment for all. If this can be accomplished for all the 20 villages having a population of 1,00,000 people, in a time bound manner it will definitely become a pace setter in sustainable development for Vellore district. For accomplishing this mission, the centre should make use of the NGOs available in the region, CMC Vellore, entrepreneurs and industrialists of the district and the students and Faculty Members of VIT.

I would suggest the Centre to undertake immediate development of the PURA complex in the 20 villages. Once PURA is developed in a particular village it should be taken over by the trained entrepreneurs from VIT as a business proposition.

I inaugurate the Centre for Sustainable Development and Research Studies. My best wishes to the members of Vellore Institute of Technology for success in their mission of promoting sustainable prosperity in the 20 villages adopted by them.

May God bless you.

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