Page 2 - Rural Areas

Over 60% rural population goes out of state for better medical treatment

The all-India level findings of the report showed that "almost 63% of people from rural areas chose to migrate out of their state for availing treatment for major diseases"

Several people killed as West Bengal's rural areas vote in panchayat polls

Several people were killed in election-related violence in West Bengal as voting was underway on Saturday for the three-tier panchayat polls in the state, officials said. The polling started at 7 am in 73,887 seats in the rural areas of the state with 5.67 crore people deciding the fate of around 2.06 lakh candidates, they said. BJP polling agent Madhab Biswas was allegedly killed in Falimari gram panchayat in Coochbehar district, they said. The BJP alleged that when Biswas tried to enter the polling booth he was stopped by TMC supporters, and as the situation escalated, they killed him. The TMC denied the allegations. The supporter of an Independent candidate died in Kadambagachi area in North 24 Paraganas district after he was beaten up overnight, police said. The deceased was identified as 41-year-old Abdullah. He died while undergoing treatment at a local hospital in the morning, Superintendent of Police Bhaskar Mukherjee said. Protesting against the killing, locals blocked t

PM2.5 pollution in India dips by 19% between 2017 to 2022: Report

PM2.5 pollution in rural and urban India reduced by around 19 per cent between 2017 and 2022, according to a new analysis. Uttar Pradesh leads the way with a 38 per cent decline in PM2.5 pollution in both urban and rural regions during the same period. On the other hand, Maharashtra observed the least decrease in PM2.5 pollution across the country, according to the study conducted by Climate Trends, a non-governmental environmental think tank, using satellite data from IIT Delhi. PM2.5 are fine inhalable particles, with diameters that are generally 2.5 micrometers and smaller, and are the greatest risk to health. The acceptable annual standard for PM2.5 is 40 micrograms per cubic metre. Rural India's PM 2.5 levels in 2022 stood at 46.8 microgram per cubic metre, down by 19.1 per cent compared to 2017. Urban India's PM 2.5 levels in 2022 stood at 46.4 microgram per cubic metre, down by 18.7 per cent compared to 2017. The study shows the annual average PM 2.5 levels in rural and urba

India needs to take mfg to rural areas to bridge income gap, say experts

India does not consist of binary rural and urban areas anymore and the country needs to look at taking manufacturing to its villages to fill the income gap and achieve its development goals, experts said on Wednesday. At a conference on re-imagining rural India, organised by the Union Rural Development Ministry in collaboration with the World Bank and the Bills and Melinda Gates Foundation, NITI Ayog member Ramesh Chand said a major portion of resources allocated for rural development were on social schemes and stressed on the need for investment for overall development. Former secretary of Rural Development Ministry Nagendra Nath Sinha laid emphasis for formulating policies for rural areas that are fast transforming to urban areas. Speaking during the concluding session of the two-day conference, Chand said a clear trend has emerged over the years in the rural sector and there is a shift in balance from development approach to an approach which involves enabling a particular set of

Large villages at risk of losing out on development due to 'rural' tag

India, the most populous country, will continue to live in its villages till the 2050s, even as a number of rural settlements now have more population than that required for them to be called a town, putting them at risk of missing out on growth opportunities, experts said on Thursday. With the latest Census exercise being delayed due to the Covid pandemic, available data from the 2011 Census shows there are 23,335 villages with a population of over 5,000, but continue to be in the category of villages as they do not fulfill other criteria, standing at a risk of missing on programmes meant for urban centres, they said. In India, a settlement is considered urban if it has a population of over 5,000, density of population is at least 400 people per sq km, and at least 75 per cent of the population must be involved in non-agricultural activities. The number of people living in centres with a population over 5,000 is over 23.5 per cent of the total rural population. "India does still

India has more internet users in rural areas than urban, says PM Modi

India has more rural internet users than urban users and the nation is the world's number one in digital transactions, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said here on Saturday, inaugurating several projects in the road and railway sectors. In his address, Modi said India has been witnessing a revolution in terms of infrastructure. "We are the world's No 1 in digital transactions; we have the most inexpensive mobile data. Today, India has more rural internet users than urban users." He said over 6 lakh km of optic fibre has been laid connecting almost 2 lakh gram panchayats. Some new generation infra projects will begin to serve the people from today and some other projects will see starting from now and these projects cover roadway, railway and airways, lending cheer to the new year celebration (Tamil New Year, April 14). Tamil Nadu is home of history and heritage. It is land of language and literature and a centre of patriotism and national consciousness. Many of the nation's leading ..

India needs dynamic approach to define rural-urban areas: EAC-PM member

India needs a more dynamic approach to define rural-urban areas by using technological indicators like night-time light intensity, the Economic Advisory Council to the PM (EAC-PM) has said. EAC-PM member Shamika Ravi in a working paper titled 'What is Urban/Rural India' also suggested that the government needs to establish 'trigger mechanisms' to automate the transition from rural to urban settlement after the prescribed threshold is reached. The EAC-PM also suggested that the government needs to revisit the assumption of creating schemes based on the rural-urban divide, which is a poor proxy for scarcity. "India needs a more dynamic approach to defining rural-urban areas, which includes technological indicators like night-time light intensity," Ravi said. As of December 2017, 'rural' is defined in relationship with 'urban'. Any settlement that is not considered 'urban' is automatically considered 'rural'. "Further, the government needs to establish "trigger mechanisms", which ...

Over 95% people have access to potable water in rural areas: Govt report

A government survey has revealed that 95 per cent of people in rural areas and 97.2 per cent in cities are having access to improved sources of drinking (potable) water during 2020-2021. According to the report based on the Multiple Indicator Survey (MIS) of the National Sample Survey (NSS) 78th round, about 56.3 per cent of the persons in the rural areas and about 76.3 per cent of the persons in the urban areas used improved source of drinking water located in the household premises, which was sufficiently available throughout the year. The primary objective of the MIS was to collect data for generation of some important national indicators of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The survey was initially planned to be conducted during January-December 2020, but due to Covid-19 pandemic, the data collection was continued up to August 15, 2021 for ensuring completeness of survey operation in terms of its coverage. For the central sample, the survey was spread over 14,266 first stag

Budget has focused on providing last mile facilities to tribals: PM Modi

Addressing a post-budget webinar on 'Reaching the last mile', Modi said: "For the first time, the country is tapping the huge potential of the tribal society of our country at this scale

Development of rural districts high on govt priority: Jitendra Singh

Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Wednesday said that districts with rural and semi-rural areas are high on the priority of the Central government for development. Presiding over District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee (DISHA) meeting of Amroha district here, he asked district collector and other senior officials to always keep in mind Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for maximising the reach and utilisation of government schemes in rural India so that no one is left out. Singh, the Minister of State for Personnel, said the Modi government has reiterated on many occasions that there would be no shortage of funds for any of the central schemes. He said that Prime Minister Modi's welfare schemes reached the neediest without any vote bank consideration in the last eight years. Singh emphasised on time-bound completion of development programmes and underlined the need for adoption of newer technologies and innovations for faster completion of projects without ...

Are states with high levels of poverty spending less on MGNREGS?

Experts said an institutionalised system of social audits will clear lots of doubt

Rajasthan govt implements new rural tourism scheme, promises jobs

Agriculture tourism units will be set up on farm land on areas ranging from 2,000 square metres to two hectares (one hectare is roughly 10,000 square metres)

Common Service Centre to open 500 theatres in rural areas by Mar 2023

The Common Service Centre (CSC), a special purpose vehicle under the Electronics and IT Ministry, on Monday announced that it would open 500 cinema halls in rural areas by March 2023

Rural demand for FMCG dips 17% in Nov as post-festive consumption slows

Urban demand also hit, but not as badly; Overall FMCG sales decline 15.3% MoM and 2.7% YoY

Social safety net product Bima Vistaar being developed for Bima Sugam

The regulator last month had formed a 24-member committee, headed by Devasia, to develop an affordable, accessible and comprehensive cover - Bima Vistaar -- for rural population

India has democratised technology to fight poverty, says PM Modi

New demographic joining information superhighway, he says at Bengaluru Tech Summit

Patchy rains, inflation hit rural sales of FMCG companies: NielsenIQ

Volumes decline 3.6%; urban areas sustain at 1.2 %: NielsenIQ

The irrelevance of regional rural banks

Scope of their survival is diminishing. Even as the overall business of rural financial institutions has generally been looking up, they are struggling to scale up business volumes

Key role for banks in offering best intermediation services: RBI's Patra

Calls for world-class financial intermediation services with Indian economy poised to surpass Germany and Japan a few years and nation's population set to become world's largest and youngest

Festivities push FMCG sales up 11% in first two weeks of October

Sales were down in September due to weak rural demand