Directions (Next Ten Questions) : Read the following passage carefully and answer the given questions. Certain words are given in bold to help you locate them while answering some of the questions.

Rural development in India has witnessed several changes over the years in its emphasis, approaches, strategies and programmes. It has assumed a new dimension and perspectives as a consequence. Rural development can be richer and more meaningful only through the participation of clienteles of development. Just as implementation is the touchstone for planning. People’s participation is the centre-piece in rural development. People’s participation is one of the foremost pre-requisites of development process both from procedural and philosophical perspectives. For the development planners and administrators, it is important to solicit the participation of different groups of rural people, to make the plans participatory.

Rural development aims at improving rural people’s livelihood in an equitable and sustainable manner, both socially and environmentally, through better access to assets and services, and control over productive capital.

The basic objective of Rural Development programmes have been  alleviation of poverty and unemployment through creation of basic social and economic infrastructure provision of training to rural unemployed youth and providing employment to marginal farmers/labourers to discourage seasonal and permanent migration to urban areas.

Rural development is the main pillar of our nation’s development in spite of rapid urbanisation, a large section of our population still lives in the villages. Secondly, rural India has lagged behind in development because of many historical factors. Though, the 11^th plan began in very favourable circumstances with the economy having grown at the rate of 7.7% per year in the 10^th plan period, there still existed a big challenge to correct the developmental imbalances and to accord due priority to development in rural areas. Ministry of Rural Development is implementing a number of programmes aimed at sustainable holistic development in rural areas. The thrust of these programmes is on all round economic and social transformation in rural areas, through a multi-pronged strategy, aiming to reach out to the most disadvantaged sections of the society.

Although, concerted efforts have been initiated by the Government of India through several plans and measures to alleviate poverty in rural India, there still remains much more to be done to bring prosperity in the lives of the people in rural areas. At present, technology dissemination is uneven and slow in the rural areas. Good efforts of organizations developing technologies, devices and products for rural areas could not yield high success. Experiences of many countries suggest that technological development fuelled by demand has a higher dissemination rate. However, in India, technology developers for rural areas have been catering to needs, rather than creating demands. There is no industry linkage machinery to create demand-based-technology market for rural communities. Besides, there is also an imbalance between strategies and effective management programmes. Propagation of technology / schemes for rural development is slow and there is lack of wider participation of different stakeholders. An ideal approach may therefore, include the government panchayat, village personnel, researchers, industries. NGOs and private companies to not only help in reducing this imbalance but also to have a multiplier effect on the overall economy.