• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

Our Bureau

HYDERABAD, Jan. 2

IN order to ensure greater flow of bank credit to industrial units in rural areas, 40 per cent of the total priority sector lending has been earmarked for small-scale and tiny units. This is in accordance with the recent policy guidelines issued by the Union Government, according Mr K.C. Pant, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission.

Delivering the keynote address at the Foundation Day celebrations of the National Institute of Rural Development here on Wednesday, Mr Pant said that rural and village industries had immense potential to generate new employment opportunities with relatively low direct investment. However, these industries would not get adequate credit facilities from commercial banks or financial institutions.

Mr Pant pointed out that the contribution of agriculture to the GDP was declining continuously while population deriving its sustenance from this sector remained stagnant at about 60 per cent. A major challenge facing us today was providing productive employment opportunities to the increasing labour force which was expected to grow at a peak level of 2.5 per cent per annum for a few years before declining.

In the light of this situation, he said that there was a need to rapidly industrialise rural areas. The Government had also initiated various measures in this regard. However, in spite of all these initiatives, the rural non-farm sector continued to lag behind. At present, only 16 per cent of the rural population was engaged in non-farm sector.

Apart from credit facilities, Mr Pant said, rural industries needed technology support in areas of research, product development, quality improvement and standardisation. Hence, suitable linkages should be extended between the rural enterprises and national laboratories, universities and other specialised institutions.

The Union Minister for Rural Development, Mr M. Venkaiah Naidu, wanted massive investment in the rural sector by "withdrawing from the business sector to end the rural-urban divide". He sought re-orientation of priorities so as "to shift from urban bias towards rural bias with positive discrimination in favour of rural people".

According to him, today there were 2 lakh villages without roads, 2.17 lakh villages facing water problem, 2.3 lakh villages without telephone connectivity and 80,000 villages without power supply.

Besides, 80 per cent of rural population do not have toilet facilities and there are thousands of schools without proper building facilities.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section
Spices exports drop by Rs 172 cr

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line