Get Instant Loan up to ₹10 Lakh!
There is a human-resource deficit in India: Jairam Ramesh
Ramesh says his ministry will tie up with IIT-Mumbai to create a pool of talented people to accelerate the development process in rural India
New Delhi: There was a human-resource deficit in India when it came to dealing with development issues needing sensitive handling, rural development minister Jairam Ramesh said on Wednesday.
His ministry would soon tie up with the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, and extend funding to the Institute of Rural Management Anand in Gujarat to create a pool of talented people to accelerate the development process in rural India, the minister said.
Speaking at an event organised to extend a pilot fellowship scheme that places young professionals in some of India’s most backward and violence-prone districts to introduce innovation in government practices, Ramesh said there was no shortage of funds or programmes for the uplift of the rural poor but was lacking in competency and sensitivity to handle such issues.
“What we lack is human resources, sensitive and competent human resources when dealing with sensitive issues,” said Ramesh at the launch of the second phase of the Prime Minister’s Rural Development Fellowship Scheme (PMRDFS).
The programme envisages deputing a young professional to a backward and in many cases Maoist violence prone district, who then works in tandem with the district administration to devise welfare schemes. “Under this programme, youth between 22-30 years of age, who want to know more about rural development and want to work in rural India are placed in affected districts where they work with the district administration,” Ramesh said.
The aim of the scheme is to build students as a cadre of development facilitators, who will be available as a ready resource for rural development activities over a long term.
In the first phase, of the 8,900 applications received when the project started two years ago, 156 professionals were chosen and attached to the Mumbai based Tata Institute of Social Sciences for training. They were then sent to different districts across the country including Dantewada in Chhattisgarh, considered the epicentre of Maoist extremism.
Lauding the success achieved in the first phase of the PMRDFS, Ramesh announced that the fellowship will now be tagged with a two-year degree programme in rural development practices. Besides this, the new batch of professionals would be sent to the northeast where the government pumps in Rs35,000-40,000 crore for development.
Catch all the Politics News and Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.
MoreLess
First Published:6 Nov 2013, 10:09 PM IST
- Top Gainers
- Top Losers
- 52 Week High