It is noteworthy that Dr A.PJ. Abdul Kalam, ever since he became the President of India has been promoting his Vision 2020, and, to remove poverty from India, he has been emphasising the adoption of PURA (providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas). In his address to the Food Security Summit on 5th February 2004, he summarised the concept and strategy of PURA as the lever of economic upliftment of the villages. India currently has 260 million people living below the poverty line.
The GDP growth has been on the average 6% per annum during the last decade. It has to be progressively risen up to 10% and to be sustained for several years. Then only it is possible for India to get the position of a developed country. To achieve this, the roadmap involves integrated action on the following five areas:
1. Agriculture and food processing – You require to note that the nation should target for 360 million tonnes of food and agricultural production by 2020. Other regions of agriculture and agro-food processing would bring prosperity to rural people and speed up economic growth.
2. Reliable and quality electric power for all parts of the nation.
3. Education and health care for all.
4. Expansion of information and communication technology to rural areas to encourage education and generate national wealth.
5. Development of strategic sectors–growth in space technology, nuclear technology and defence technology.
All these areas have to be developed into missions such as: availability of high quality uninterrupted power, Networking of rivers, Providing Urban-amenities in Rural Areas (PURA),Second Green Revolution, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) transforming into knowledge products and tourism.
