The Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu has said that the rural areas have to become thriving hubs of economic activities with the agriculture playing an important role in the overall prosperity of the rural people.
He was addressing the gathering after inaugurating the New India Conclave being organised by Y4D Foundation at Vigyan Bhawan on Monday. An NGO Y4D Foundation focuses on Child Education & Youth Employment through Skilling.
Youth of our country need to acquire the right mix of knowledge, skills and attitudes required to overcome the 21st century challenges and reap the demographic dividend for the country’s growth and development, he added.
The Vice President said that there is a need to make agriculture remunerative and farmers must be encouraged to take up allied activities like poultry, horticulture, sericulture, bee keeping, dairy and others to improve income.
Easy availability of loan at an affordable price and assured power must be supplied to farmers living in villages even as schemes like loan waivers and free power may not provide lasting solutions to agriculture distress in the country, he added.
As a country we have failed to translate Gandhiji’s dreams into reality even 70 years after attaining Independence; there has been an uneven development with urban areas witnessing rapid growth and the rural areas remaining backward, he added.
The Vice President stressed on the need to bridge urban-rural divide at the earliest so that India’s progress towards becoming the third largest economy in the world in the next 10-15 years is not hampered.
Earlier, last month speaking on the occasion of the 19th Vaikunth Bhai Mehta Memorial Lecture organized by National Cooperative Union of India shri Naidu called for forging public-private-cooperative partnership as a viable model of development.
“I propose a new model of development, different from the traditional PPP; it should be PPCP which is Public-Private-Cooperative Partnership. It is the need of the hour”, said the Vice-President amidst thunderous applause from the audience which comprised of who’s who of the cooperative sector.