Rural development: Post-budget webinar –‘Leaving No Citizen Behind’ concluded today

Rural development is the process of improving the quality of life and economic well-being of people living in rural areas, often relatively isolated and sparsely populated areas. Rural Development has traditionally centered on the exploitation of land-intensive natural resources such as agriculture and forestry.

Rural development: Post-budget webinar –‘Leaving No Citizen Behind’ concluded today

Rural development: Post-budget webinar –‘Leaving No Citizen Behind’ concluded today. 10 Ministries/Departments through 6 sessions with 1000+ participants drew inspiration from Prime Minister’s mantra ‘SabkaPrayas’.

Actionable strategies were chalked out collectively to ensure every individual, section, and the region gets the full benefit of development.

The post-budget webinar PM Addressed

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi addressed the post-budget webinar, ‘Leaving No Citizen Behind’ today. More than 1000 participants including Union Ministers, representatives of the state governments, industry leaders, policymakers, government officials, and representatives from social institutions came together to deliberate upon the positive impact of the Union Budget 2022-23 on rural development.

            The address by the Prime Minister laid the foundation of the webinar. “The budget has given a clear roadmap for achieving the goal of saturation of government development schemes benefits and how basic amenities can reach cent percent population,” he said. 

The Prime Minister gave specific directions to the participants, that to ensure smooth execution of schemes in rural areas, we need to focus more on ‘output’ than ‘outcome’ for the true development of our villages. He also gave a call for innovative approaches, igniting competitive spirit at local levels and breaking silos. 

While concluding his address he said “You are going to discuss the entire day on how to make optimum utilization of every penny of the budget to bring about changes in villages. If we can do this, no citizen will be left behind.”

The Budget Implementation Strategies 

Post-Prime Minister’s address, Shri Nagendra Nath Sinha, Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development gave a presentation on the Budget Implementation Strategies of various Government schemes focused on rural development. The schemes discussed, included the following:

PradhanMantriAwaasYojanaGramin& Urban (providing affordable pucca housing with all basic amenities through convergence)

Mission AMRUT (providing tap water connections). 

JalJeevan Mission (ensuring tap water supply)

PradhanMantriUjjwalaYojana(providing LPG connections)

PradhanMantri Gram Sadak Yojana (providing all-weather roads connecting rural habitations)

BharatNet (providing broadband connectivity to all Gram Panchayats)

DeendayalAntyodayaYojana – National Rural Livelihood Mission (providing livelihood opportunities to rural women)

India Post (providing banking services in rural areas)

Unique Land Parcel Identification Number (to facilitate IT-based management of records)

National Generic Document Registration System (for a uniform process for registration and ‘anywhere registration’ of  documents)

SVAMITVA (mapping of land parcels using drone technology and providing ‘Record of Rights’ to village household owners)

Vibrant Villages Programme (comprehensive development of villages on the northern border to improve the quality of life of people and reduce their migration)

Prime Minister’s Development Initiative for North East Region

The 10 participating Ministries and Departments responsible for the implementation of the above schemes are the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), Ministry of Panchayati Raj (PR), Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas (MoPG), Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeITY), Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (MoDONER), Department of Drinking Water & Sanitation (DDWS), Department of Border Management (BBM), Department of Posts (DoP), Department of Telecommunication & Department of Land Resources (DoLR).

           The webinar broke into 6 breakout sessions namely Realising Housing for all in AmritKaal, HarGharJal and HarGharUjjwala, Road and Infoway(internet) connectivity to all rural habitations, Assuring all rural poor especially women access to livelihood options and financial services, Easing Land Governance Through End-To-End Digitisation, Saturation of Development Schemes in Remote & Backward Areas. During these breakout sessions, concerning subjects were deliberated in great detail wherein various experts and stakeholders expressed their views. After detailed deliberations, conclusions were drawn out and presented in Concluding Session chaired by Shri Giriraj Singh, Minister, Rural Development, and Panchayati Raj.

Following are some of key conclusions and recommendations:

Housing has direct and indirect impacts on 130 sectors of the Economy. PMAY-U and PMAY-G both lead to direct and indirect job creation during its implementation. Budget announcements for the Real Estate & Construction Sector will have a long-term positive impact on creating a self-propelling affordable housing sector in the country.  There is a need for convergence of schemes and all stakeholders to make Housing For All a reality. Land Availability, Access to Finance, Civic Infrastructure from State agencies, Convergence with other schemes are major enablers for success. Affordable housing needs to be understood not only be about the number of dwelling units constructed but as dignified liveable habitats.

Every rural household should have assured drinking water supply inadequate quantity of prescribed quality on a regular and long-term basis at affordable service delivery charges leading to improvement in living standards of rural communities. This will lead to improved ‘quality of life’ and ‘ease of living’, Reduced drudgery of women and girls, Reduced water-borne diseases and healthy rural communities, Increased employment opportunities, Dignity of life of rural communities, and bridging the urban-rural gap. 

For optimization and timely project completion, it is required to encourage EPC turnkey projects on a design, build and operate basis, Combine larger VMS projects for speedy completion, Clear categorization in size and stature of contractors enabling a level playing field during bidding and healthy competition, Single window clearance including land acquisition from various depts., Time-bound approval to avoid procedural delays, incentives for early completions. 

Leverage Digital payments

For Ujjwala, Leverage Digital payments infra to create Micro-financing of refills, Leveraging the social networks and existing knowledge – Aggregate refills, more discounts, Fuel stacking as per cultural and taste preferences, Providing new and innovative cooking solutions like e-stoves, solar cooking where LPG access isn’t viable.

To improve the sustainability of road connectivity it was felt that there should be workshops for robust partnership between the Government and Private Sector,  there is a need for higher benchmarking to avoid dubious technologies, a larger package for tenders for deploying the machinery, and quality control, upgraded and machine-based Quality testing standards,  Projects on EPC mode, to promote innovation. Standards and specifications for very low volume roads using new technologies need to be developed.

Rural Roads should have a provision of utility ducts. Funding for research to academic and research institutions for inventions and proliferation of technologies, Community participation in quality assurance, and performance monitoring. Suggestions on enhancing Infoway included the adoption of New Technology- E&V band for backhaul, Satellite broadband for remote areas, Free Space Optics, SLA-based network, High-quality O&M, Power reliability, Green Power availability. 

Technology agnostic approach, Reduce GST on FTTH to 5% in rural areas, Content development for Rural Users, Scrapping of license fees (8% of AGR) on Fixed wireline broadband, Innovative Spectrum licensing models – say 700 MHz offered free of cost with strict rural rollout obligations. 

Discussion on Generation of additional livelihoods for 25 million SHG women brought out suggestions on adopting the household segmented approach, Localised Comprehensive Livelihood Planning, implementation & monitoring – anchored at CLF level, Deepening, Enhancing and Expanding Sustainable Livelihoods options, Mapping & strengthening Skill and resources, Tapping opportunities in the farm, non-farm & service sectors, Skilling of the community cadre/community institutions, Saturation Approach for Universal coverage into Livelihoods, Diversification of livelihoods portfolio.

Financial & business development services

 Focus on credit mobilization targeting North, Central & NE States, Ease of access to credit for SHG women, Financial Literacy, Boosting Digital transaction - Digital Literacy and Fostering innovations - Financial & business development services. The discussion on any time – anywhere interoperable banking services led to suggestions of providing credit through the network through partnerships with fintech players, multiskilling days utilizing days in financial literacy as well, a partnership of SHG &Indiaposts, utilizing the power of Bharatnet for enhancing the digital payment eco-system. 

Enabling livelihood through digital payment ecosystem theme led to suggestions of utilizing novel approaches such as feature phone enabled protocols, multilingual interfaces of the digital payment eco-system, digital credit/collection system, last-mile digitization, etc.

Session on easing Land-Governance through end-to-end-digitization yielded suggestions that the sharing of data with other sectors for farmers’ benefit like MSP  Procurement, PM KisaanSamman Nidhi, etc. should be facilitated and States /UTs would be persuaded to expedite geo-referencing of cadastral maps and complete rollout of ALPIN by March 2023 to optimize its benefit. The ALPIN for the Abadi property parcels should be extended and SVAMITVA maps should be integrated with State land records. 

Land Records in all languages 

A complete rollout of Transliteration of Land Records in all languages of Schedule VIII in all States/UTs during 2023-24 in coordination with States/UTs and Integrated land information management systems should be established.  

Issues of connectivity in remote areas and NE regions to enhance the effectiveness of services should also be addressed. Services that may be provided on PPP Mode wherein government can play the role of regulator and facilitator should also be explored and CORS network establishment across the country should be taken up and expedited.

The Session on ‘Saturation of Development Schemes in Remote & Backward Areas’made the following suggestions.

In the Vibrant village's program, programs related to livelihood generation, road connectivity, housing, rural infrastructure, renewable energy, television, and broadband connections should be undertaken.  Special emphasis should be given to eco-system conservation and regeneration.  For economic activities, emphasis is given to tourism and culture.  For these, skill development, entrepreneurship, and financial inclusion should be promoted.  

A village action plan which includes convergence of various schemes should be prepared and healthy competition among villages should be instituted.  Proper monitoring and evaluation structure should be established and people’s participation in implementation and monitoring should be encouraged.

Under PMDevINE, currently, NECTAR has adopted a few projects such as banana pseudo-stem, organic farming, etc.  It was suggested that tailor-made skilling projects suitable for the local population should be taken up.  Biomass, an alternate to coal/ fuel has huge potential.  Agro-processing, irrigation supported by a proper transportation system should be encouraged for increased economic activity.  

Collaboration between different states for synergizing inputs and outputs can be encouraged.  Integrated piggery, pisciculture, and poultry processing may also be encouraged.  Convergence with existing government schemes was also suggested.

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