I am indeed delighted to be here today amidst the distinguished members of the Ludhiana Management Association. My greetings to the President of the Association, office bearers and other members of the Ludhiana Management Association. I would like to share some of my thoughts to give a road map for Developed India with specific emphasis on rural development.

Vision for Developed India

The vision for Developed India aims at increasing the GDP growth rate to more than 10% from the present 5% and reduction of poverty line to almost nil level from the present 26%. We have identified five areas where India has a core competence for an integrated action: (1) Agriculture and food processing - we have to put a target of 400 million tons of food. Agro food processing would bring prosperity to rural people and speed up the economic growth. (2) Reliable and quality electric power for all parts of the country. (3) Education and Healthcare - we have seen, based on the experience, education and healthcare are inter related and assist population control leads to social security and also national security. (4) Information Technology - This is one of our core competence. We believe, this area can be used to promote education in remote areas and also to create national wealth. (5) Strategic sectors - This area, fortunately, witnessed the growth in nuclear technology, space technology and defence technology.

These five areas are closely inter-related and lead to national, food and economic security. A strong partnership among the R&D, academy, industry, entrepreneurs, management leaders and the community as a whole with the Government departments and agencies will be essential to accomplish the vision.

PURA

For bridging the rural-urban divide and achieving balanced socio-economic development, our Prime Minister, as part of his Independence Day Announcements, has declared the Rural Development Programme called PURA - Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas. It involves identification of rural clusters with growth potential and creating four types of connectivities for them -

(i) Road, transportation and power connectivity

(ii) electronic connectivity in the form of reliable telecom, Internet and IT services

(iii) knowledge connectivity in the form of good educational and training institutions, and

(iv) market connectivity that would enable kisans and others to get the best prices for their produce.

The Government has decided to implement the PURA strategy in 5,000 rural clusters across the country in the next five years. But the success of this ambitious programme lies in the collaborative efforts and active participation from all quarters and especially from the entrepreneurs, managers and institutions imparting quality education and entrepreneurial skills.

The Management Institutions should first understand the PURA project in full and design the special skills needed in implementing the projects in collaboration with the village community, district authorities, State Government, Central Government, Entrepreneurs and Non Governmental Organizations. We need large number of leaders for executing this mega mission in the rural sectors.

Developing Special Leadership Style

In the present environment, we require new leadership styles; namely, politics of development, administration for economic growth, banking for entrepreneur creation and Indian business for global market share. Politics for development will require a leadership style which will stimulate and enable reaching prosperity to people. There should be competition to bring connectivity to rural areas, to bring new investment and to bring new knowledge and skills to the people. It will be the leadership which will explain the new opportunities to people at large and make them work in the right direction. The administrative leaders for development will support the political development leaders and remove the impediments coming in the way of economic and social growth. Their job should be to remove hurdles and hassles for citizens and investors. Financial service leadership is required for all round economic growth. It has to cater for the needs of Indian big business to achieve multinational leadership. It will provide quick and efficient service for mega projects which should also be innovative to support aspiring young boys and girls possessing only knowledge and skills to start new enterprises, risky enterprises with great potential. Financial service leaders in the new era should develop new skills which will enable even a poor farmer to acquire new skills and to invest on new methods of work in agriculture and agro-processing, including IT services. The business leader for Developed India has to discard the old mindset, think big on global scale and look for order of magnitude, higher global market share and aim to enhance the Indian GDP to double digit. They should also create world class ancillaries around them transforming our small and medium enterprises into global leaders. In essence, business leader of developed India should aim at global granary of high value food and agriculture products, as world's manufacturing base and as a multi-continent service leader. This, I am sure, is very much possible with the type of entrepreneurship available in Ludhiana which is having a history of 15 major business houses producing steel, bicycles, automobile parts and hosiery and textiles. What they have achieved in Ludhiana, they should replicate in all the districts of Punjab and also in other States.

Identifying the core competence of villages

The leaders and mission executors need to analyze the existing core competence of the group of villages, both in agricultural and support sectors. They have to effectively use the unique features related to the place like climatic and terrain conditions, availability of diverse biological resources and native knowledge and native skills. They should plan for availability of power through non-conventional energy sources like generation of power from biomass, wind and solar energy. Special emphasis is required to be laid for use of bio-degradable waste for generating power. It is essential to address the problem of water scarcity and waste management. Water shortage can be overcome through innovative methods of rainwater harvesting, watershed management and recycling of water.

Appropriate technological inputs have to be identified for enhancing the quality and productivity of the products which can be generated through the core competence and the available resources in the village. Village products have to match the market demand both internal and international demand. The tourism potential of the place due to availability of inimitable natural beauty and places of cultural and spiritual importance, must also be taken into account.

Human resources, particularly with large young population, are unique core strength of the nation. This resource can be transformed through various educational and training programmes. Skilled, unskilled and creative manpower can be transformed into wealth generators particularly in the service sectors, agro industries etc. The leaders should facilitate organizing training programmes for village youths for increasing their employability and wealth generation. They should be able to plan and organize agro-based industries in the village and provide storage, packaging and distribution channels through formation of cooperatives for ensuring better return to the farmers. The project executors should have the ability to build a multi-disciplinary team of specialists in different facets of village development and coordinate their activities in a synchronous mode for enabling timely completion of the project.

Strategy for Employment Generation

A model for employment generation is proposed which suggests designing, developing and deploying the high technology tools and methods in agriculture sector by focusing on all walks of life, be it a farmer or a rural woman or a customer. We can indeed make them knowledge workers. The direct outcome of this model will be two-fold i.e. an increase in productivity and release of surplus person power from traditional agriculture sector. The benefits of higher productivity can be converted into wealth with establishment of agro based industries. The surplus manpower can be upgraded with proper education and training and be re-deployed in agro based industries, service sector and IT industry.

Information and Communication Technology

The Information Technology has not only provided the employment opportunities but also has revolutionised the way of working in all spheres of economy by bringing in speed, quality and efficiency. It is also transforming the way we communicate among ourselves and with the rest of the world, shrinking the distances between the hemispheres. It is yet to percolate down to smaller cities and towns. The government had established the Software Technology Park in selected metropolitan cities but still the problem remains. One method of overcoming this problem can be that established firms can form a nucleus where core activities can be performed around which smaller firms in rural and small towns can perform the non-core activities. These networks need not have geographical proximity. However, to take full advantage of the technological developments, investments in communication area have to be made. Rural information networks can allow knowledge services, money and certain kinds of product to flow more easily across long distances. The widespread use of Internet is creating the possibility of reorganising and networking government services to make them more user transparent and efficient. I am happy to know that some states have introduced e-governance to provide a single window clearance to their people.

Development of Invisible Leaders

For the nation today what is needed is a combination of technology, leadership and inspired workforce. Let us analyze the dynamics of good organizations for national development. Developed India as defined can be only powered by economic strength.

- The economic strength is powered by competitiveness

- The competitiveness is powered by knowledge power.

- The knowledge power is powered by Technology.

- The Technology is powered by resource investment.

- The Resource investment is powered by return on Investment.

- Return on Investment is powered by Revenues.

- The Revenues is powered by Volume and repeat sales.

- Volume and repeat sales is powered by customer loyalty.

- The customer loyalty is powered by Quality and value of products.

- Quality and value of products is powered by Employee Productivity.

- The Employee Productivity is powered by Employee Loyalty.

- The Employee Loyalty is powered by Employee Satisfaction.

- The Employee Satisfaction is powered by Working Environment.

- The Working Environment is powered by management stewardship.

- Management stewardship is powered by Invisible leadership.

The Invisible leadership means exercising the vision to change the traditional role from the commander to the coach, manager to mentor, from director to delegator and from one who demands respect to one who facilitates self respect. For a prosperous and developed India, the important thrust will be on the growth in the of number Invisible Leadership.

Need of the hour

When the nation is in developmental mode, the most important need of the country is an integrated developmental plan and empowered management structures in the areas of Education and Healthcare, Agriculture and Food Processing, Information and Communication Technology, Strategic Sectors and Infrastructure Industries. In addition, I would like to suggest various missions for our people. For example, the student community can take the task during holidays to remove the illiteracy of certain number of people in their area where their school or house are situated. Only a burning candle lights another. Teachers and parents can assist them in this task. The Government and R&D labs can provide technological upgradation to our small-scale industries so that production can be increased and be competitive. The large-scale industries should invest in PURA programmes and provide opportunities to the village clusters by outsourcing their work in those areas. Here, the industries can concentrate on maximum output and cost effective products, so that the demand will increase. The farming community have to increase their productivity with the help of available new scientific methods. The Information Technology and knowledge workers have got a tremendous responsibility to contribute in the areas of tele-medicine, tele-education and e-governance for rural areas apart from their business role. This type of motivated environment will be indeed a great foundation for our vision to bring prosperity to rural areas.

Conclusion

When a child is empowered by the parents at various phases of growth, the child gets transformed into a responsible citizen. When a teacher is empowered with knowledge and experience, good young human beings with value systems emerge. When an individual or a team is empowered with technology, transformation to higher potential for achievement is assured. When a leader of any village empowers his or her people, leaders are born who can change the nation in multiple areas. When women are empowered, society with stability gets assured. When the political leaders of the nation empower the people through visionary policies, the prosperity of the nation is certain. When religions are empowered and become spiritual force, peace and happiness will blossom in people's heart. Empowerment of various layers of management structure is indeed the best instrument to maximize the performance of a given fund to the developmental tasks.

My best wishes to all of you for success in your endeavors.

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