Completely agree with you Charles.

If India has to ever call itself a developed country there is absolutely no way it can afford to continue ignoring its real base. The alarm bells are already ringing unstoppable food price rise thanks to governance flaws. Farmers not getting their due and middlemen making the fastest buck is a established truth which is yet to start showing its effects.

IT and similar industries are at best is a tool for bettering a process or two whilst food is mainstay for humans to survive. The faster this is understood the better it shall be in the interests of India.  Thanks for invite Sujatha.

I fully agree. It is meaningless to say that we are developing, unless the face of the villages change and the life of the villagers in the rural India improve.

I would request interested members to read my article "A Bitter Pill for India Reprieve" in TooStep, which I wrote many years back.   

OUR POPULATION IS EVER INCREASING AND VILLAGERS ARE MIGRATING TO NEARBY TOWNS AND CITIES TO GET INCREASED AND PERMANENT INCOME.OUR GROWTH WILL BE LOPSIDED IF WE KEEP ON FOCUSING  ON URBAN GROWTH AND NEGLECT VILLAGES.INCREASED FOCUS ON IT ETC MAY INCREASE INCOME LEVEL,STANDARD OF LIVING ETC BUT WITHOUT ADEQUATE AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE WE WILL HAVE TO IMPORT FOOD GRAINS.THE IRONY IS WE ARE AN AGRICULTURAL COUNTRY.MURGI 4 ANNA.MASALA  8 ANNA.

I do agree with the said observation. The true India is still in the rural side. We are made advancement in various fields, but our economy still depend highly on agriculture also rural/ semi urban India is a very large market which is still not fully utilised. If we have to move forward we should think and look at the villages. it is the so called green revoluation the put India in the present position.

I agree with Charles, India's salvation is in the villages. We have grown up in IT and now its time to invest in agriculture, all the big companies should come forward to improve the present situation.

:)     

Mr mohandas Pai ,Director Infosys HR stated that the salvation of Indian economy lies with IT and not Villages (read Agriculture).

Mr Pai seems to be carried away by the success of IT sector which is solely dependent on US and other western countries economy(they are the customers). It is not a sector of self sufficiency as far as India is concerned.IT generates jobs which are not secure on the long run. The labour force in IT works with the proverbial Damocles sword over their head. There is a constant issual of pink slips in that sector which is in percentage wise very huge compared to other sectors.

I am not totally against on IT but as Indians we need to pause and look at a broader perspective since our asset is mainly human resources.What is the basic and ultimate aim of human beings? It is 3 square meals a day.with all the progress we have made in Industrialisation and IT lets us look at the population BPL.It has not been alleviated. If so then has IT ‘s progress really touched the real requirement of Indians.

What we need is SAR(special agriculture zones) in place of SEZ.Though the agriculture sector contribution is low compared top IT,it still feeds the millions including Mr Pai for survival. if all the people leave the agriculture-occupation wise and land for IT, where will the basic necessity of food come from?

 We are fortunate to have vast land that are cultivable .All that is needed is Progressand revolution in Irrigation ,ground water replenishment , saving and improving forests instead of destroying the said lands on SEZ buildings. We need to channel the income from IT on organic farming and mainstay agriculture so that there is a balanced growth and self sustenance.

Concentrating only on self sectors is selfish and suicidal. I do not think Mr Murthy the mentor of Infosys will endorse such statements. I request Giants like Infosys and Wipro and other indian owned IT companies to think on reviving Agriculture which they can do in a big way or we will end up having a lot of hardware and software but a undernourished nation dependent on not only IT consumers but also for food grains from outside.

Mr Pai I beg to differ-“India’s salvation is in thriving villages”