Stimulating rural demand

Farm reform focus should shift to income generation

A good sequel to the recent bold steps to reverse the economic slowdown would be to prop up rural demand for goods and services through a well-judged stimulus package for agriculture and its allied fields. Market researchers like Nielsen hold slump in rural demand partly responsible for the sluggish performance of various industries. Though typically, spending on consumer goods in rural areas grows by three to five percentage points more than in the urban centres, this has not been the case in the recent past. The rural demand has actually decelerated at twice the rate in urban India. The ongoing