Rural Transformation: Socio-economic Issues

The present book “Rural Transformation: Socio-Economic Issues” is a companion volume to the earlier title “Rural Transformation: Infrastructure and Micro-Finance”. To achieve rural transformation on ground, two primary factors i.e. economic policies and upliftment of rural population need to be considered along with their interplay. This book confines itself to the discussion of four key issues namely policy initiatives, health and education, agriculture and examples of implementation. Section I includes four articles on policy issues in rural transformation, rural employment program, role of financial institutions and developmental organizations and revitalization of rural areas through tourism. Section-II focuses on health and education. It elaborates how GIS and distance learning can be useful to health and education respectively. An initiative of FAO on how to educate agricultural and extension workers has also been discussed.Section-III discusses upliftment of agriculture through policy reforms, contract farming, new initiatives by banking sector and better water management. The concluding section illustrates 8 cases drawn from Indian and overseas scenarios, which bring out various initiatives taken across different sectors and segments of rural development, which have been successfully implemented. The cases have come from Tamilnadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Centre for Environment Education (CEE), Ahmedabad; Ingersoll-Rand Company Limited, Bermuda; Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation (BAIF), Pune; Rural Development Volunteers Association, Solomon; and The Council for Social Development (CSD), New Delhi. It is hoped that the book will appeal to social development agencies, NGOs, academic institutions, government departments etc., which aim at understanding and analysing the socio-economic issues in the transformation of rural India.