Union minister for home affairs and cooperatives Amit Shah on Sunday stressed on the importance of rural development and empowerment of the country’s villages as a pre-requisite for the realisation of the ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ dream.
Shah, who was addressing the 41st convocation of the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) in Gujarat, said: “The dream of establishing an Aatmanirbhar Bharat will only be realised when India’s villages are Aatmanirbhar.”
“Without rural development, India’s development is not possible. Today, 70% of Indians are in rural India. If our villages become active contributors to India’s development and progress, India can become a $5 trillion economy over the next five years. Therefore, our responsibility is to focus on rural development,” he said.
He said the self-reliance of individual farmers is important for the total development of the village. Today, 75% of the farmers own land less than two acres. According to Nabard, ₹6,000 is needed as the basic expenditure to cultivate land. Prime Minister Modi has facilitated this with direct benefit transfers, he added.
Pointing out that the cooperative sector is inclusive, Shah said that the sector will have to be made more inclusive through modern technology. Through the medium of cooperatives, people, sectors and villages can be made Aatmanirbhar, he added. “This can be achieved when institutions like IRMA increase their contribution towards cooperatives,” Shah said.
“What a farmer cultivates needs to be marketed well. Cooperative model is the way forward for marketing these products. The entire cooperative sector got impetus as a Ministry of Cooperation was formed under PM Modi’s leadership,” he said. (Economic Times)
