If cities of Jharkhand are going to get smart, villages are going to get smarter as a two-day national convention is all set to introduce the State to measures that will ensure that the urban-rural divide is narrowed and hinterlands are not left behind as the urban areas prepare for a major overhaul through city centric schemes.
The two-day event—‘National Convention on Smart Village’—will be organised from August 21-22 at Sri Krishna Institute of Public Administration (SKIPA) at Ranchi. The event will be a milestone for the continuous process of development of rural areas with special emphasis on theme specific growth models, technology enabling schemes specific to rural areas and also evolving a platform that will facilitate transfer of knowledge to fuel growth. The event will be organised by Rural Development Department, State Institute for Rural Development and Institute for Human Development (IHD-ERC).
“It’s a view that innovative technologies must be used to bridge rural-urban divide, to make Jharkhand villages better compared to other states and also to achieve national standards of development. The technologies must be commensurate to the basic needs of the villages and promote governance at village level,” said Principal Secretary, Rural Development, NN Sinha.
As many as 100 villages are likely to be the part of the ‘Smart Village’ concept however the selection of villages for the ambitious project of the State government is yet to be undertaken and so as the defining parameters for the villages. The project is likely to cost around Rs 1-crore for each village selected and spread over two year’s time that is claimed to be the minimum duration for achieving all goals for a smart village. Sinha did not rule out that the scheme could run parallel with Sansad Aadarsh Gram Villages in the State.
The national level convention will help in moving forward and in identifying efforts made elsewhere for extraordinary development that is likely to be tailored for setting a high growth trajectory for Jharkhand villages. As the convention aims at projecting hinterlands of Jharkhand on the path of development, policymakers will be enlightened about successful development models through papers presented by experts of national repute on various themes including energy, education, livelihood, health, governance, et al. The list of eminent speakers includes Chairman TRAI and former Chief Secretary of Jharkhand, RS Sharma, academician representing institutions from Bangalore and other parts of the country.
“This convention will help in understanding about projects that needs to be undertaken for achieving maximum growth and schemes that should be implemented for better growth. We will upload all papers on a website for others to access it and learn from it,” said Sinha.
Interestingly, as the impact of climate pattern is telling on the state’s agriculture, the conference will try to understand the shift in rainfall pattern for crops with the help of smart climate technology to come out with plausible explanations in the shift and also with suggestions to tweak agriculture activities accordingly. The exercise will be the part of the theme—‘Climate Change’.
According to Sinha, the idea of ‘Smart Village’ germinated from a comparative study of 2005 regarding the gap between urban and rural population on indicators for human development including health, sanitation, accessibility to communication technology, availability of supplied water and other indicators.
Besides academician, a large number of high-level experts representing international organizations, development practitioners, social activists, representatives of panchyati raj institutions will be attending the event.