Anand, Gujarat, Apr 17: Council of Scientific and Industrial Research
(CSIR) Director General Dr R A Mashelkar today said there was an urgent
need for a ''connectivity revolution'' in the country to develop the
rural India.
''We have had green revolution and white revolution that is being
heralded across India. What we need now is connectivity revolution'',
Dr Mashelkar said.
Delivering the 25th annual convocation address of the
Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA), the scientist underlined
the need for bridging the knowledge, technology and institutional
divide between rural and urban India by harnessing the power of
information of communication technologies.
''We must recognise that white revolution empowered the small cattle
owner through a launch of the co-operative movement. Now it is the time
for farmers, artisans and craftsmen to be empowered in cyber space
through information and communication technologies,'' he said.
Mashelkar, who is also the Chairman of the National
Innovation Foundation (NIF), said though tremendous creativity and
innovation existed in rural India, a large number of them never get due
attention. Stating it was a challenge for the country to harness the
creativity and innovation at grassroots level for generating new
commercial and social enterprises, he said, ''The mission of making
india innovative can't be fulfilled without widespread involvement of
professionals, no matter in which sector and region they are working.''
The co-operative movement, Mashelkar said, had a very vast
network of community organisations which could become a vehicle for
diffusing many innovations and value added traditional knowledge.
Praising the operation flood that helped in organising the
dairy co-operatives in different parts of India, he said the country
today needed developmental entrepreneurs, who would trigger a
technological innovation based entrepreneurial revolution in the rural
India.
Speaking on the occasion, IRMA Chairman Dr Verghese Kurien,
who recently resigned as Chairman of Gujarat Co-Operative Milk
Marketing Federation (GCMMF), feared that the country was inviting a
new form of colonialism by giving up everything in the name of
liberalization and globalisation.
Bureau Report
