Doles, schemes like MNREGA making people less creative: Goel

Doles and schemes like the MNREGA have made people less creative and in turn stops their progress as they are satisfied with status quo, chairperson of National Innovation Foundation (NIF) Dr P S Goel said here on Tuesday.

Delivering a lecture on the 98th birth anniversary of Dr Verghese Kurien, fondly remembered as "milkman of India," Goel added that those who will innovate would survive while those who don't will perish.

"What we are doing is we're providing subsidised electricity, free water and doles to our rural population. By providing these things, we are making our people less creative to innovate new things. It makes people satisfied with their status quo and stops their progress," Goel said.

"Dr Verghese Kurien empowered people and brought great change in rural India. The present MNREGA programme, which is touted as a huge programme, is I think, an anti-thesis of the principles of Dr Kurien," he added.

He stressed on the importance of instilling the desire for change and nurturing the instinct of innovation in people, pointing out that India's innovation per capita is one of the lowest in the world.

Claiming that rural parts of the country remained stuck in the "1960s and 70s" when compared to cities, Dr Goel said, "The first thing to do is to establish connectivity. This government is working on it. Physical connectivity by roads is a necessity, second comes electricity connectivity and third is digital connectivity. This will be done by 2022."