Bharat Nirman

Rs. 174,000 crores have been pledged for development of irrigation, rural water supply, rural housing, rural roads, rural telephony, and rural electrification. Taken together with other initiatives like guaranteeing rural employment through the implementation of the National Rural Employment Act, the improvement of rural health through National Rural Health Missionm, and the improvement of rural education through Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, there is certainly going to be a new deal to rural india provided they are properly implemented.

Apart from this, the government has also pledged to spend Rs. 50,000 crores on urban development, Rs. 25,000 crores on freight railway development to connect the major metropolitan cities together, and work with the private players to provide telecommunication services ubiquitously.

Gaurav pointed me to this article in the Washington Post, which carries an interesting perspective on how development can be triggered by laying out the appropriate infrastructure, instead of following the traditional view that education precedes any kind of development. In fact, the business of education itself will become more efficient if rural areas are well connected through roads and have a good power supply. Of course, once schools are opened up and literacy levels start rising, dreams also rise, and the society as such moves into a higher spiral of life.