In the early 1970s, India was experiencing severe poverty and hunger due to the great droughts of the previous decade. Although the Green Revolution was starting, agriculture and rural issues were largely ignored by urban residents and the media. Reports on monsoons, crops, and prices were seldom highlighted, lacking the appeal for widespread attention. Significant studies like those by V M Dandekar and Nilkanth Rath on poverty were published in specialised journals and went unnoticed by the general public. As a result, rural despair, evident then as now, remained hidden from mainstream discussion.

Fast forward to the third decade of the twenty-first century, and rural India, or Bharat, significantly lags behind urban areas in terms of income, infrastructure, governance, education, and healthcare. This gap has widened, especially since India’s economic growth accelerated over the last thirty years. Numerous initiatives over the past seven decades by the government, private sector, and civil organisations aimed at rural development have had mixed results, often falling short of expectations. While there have been significant achievements, they are isolated instances rather than widespread improvements. Additionally, resource scarcity, particularly water, has become a critical issue, yet remains largely ignored.

The pressing challenge is to connect these isolated successes, despite the difficult conditions, to create a more prosperous rural landscape.

In this episode of BIC Talks, Prof. Shreekant Sambrani, delves deeper into these issues to explore potential solutions. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in July 2024.

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