Kollam: India needs to implement a twin-tracked development programme if it aims to bring in rural prosperity that ensures employment potential and holistic socio-economic progress, former President APJ Abdul Kalam said on Wednesday.
The main was PURA - Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas - which has to be supplemented with a feeder project that would become the backbone for all sustainable empowerment missions, he said.
Kalam was speaking after inaugurating an international summit on the occasion of the 60th birthday celebrations of spiritual leader Mata Amritanandamayi Devi at Amrithpuri at Vallikavu near here.
Explaining the two concepts at the summit on "Our villages, Our World: What can we Offer?", he lauded the Mata Amritanandamayi Math for launching a programme to adopt 101 villages and said the Amrita University should focus more on developing a model for sustainable development of villages through implementation of PURA systems.
"India has 600,000 villages where 70 per cent people are living. Bridging the rural-urban divide is closely interlinked with the mission of overcoming poverty and inequity," he said.
In the case of Kerala in particular, the former President said the state faced an urgent need to develop an all-season smart waterway.
Speaking on the occasion, agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan said that the Amrita University has been an agent of change as it was instrumental in bridging the digital divide and making use of technological advancements for the benefit of the people.
Later, answering questions posed by the audience, Kalam said aggressive economic development was the only way to bring in peace and prosperity in the regions which were infested with insurgency and militancy in the country.
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