President ask financial sector to reach the unreached

The President, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in his address to the Nation on the eve of 58th Republic Day, outlined abundant opportunities in which every citizen can contribute. Spelling out the “ambience in 2020”, the President stressed the need for a “national movement of development” to achieve these goals. “In this movement, every citizen, every constituent of our democracy has to participate”, he said. Elaborating on it, he said, “Citizens participation can be in many important areas like; Reaching the unreached, Feedback on service to the people, Human Resource Development, Entrepreneurship, Role of Home makers, Environment development, Youth participation in the political system with a focus on developed India”.

Reaching the unreached

The Government has doubled credit availability to the agriculture sector in 2005-06 keeping 2004-05 as a base. President stressed that NABARD and banking and financial institutions have to work together to find hassle-free methods of providing micro credit and micro investment to needy farmers so that they are weaned away from the clutches of elements who exploit them. Simultaneously, agricultural researchers, extension workers from academic institutions, non-governmental organisations and industry should work closely with farmers and enable them to increase productivity, storage, food processing and marketing.

In addition, they should facilitate the farmers to undertake non-farm tasks on the lines of “one product per village cluster” scheme to promote export of products based on the core-competence of the village for increasing the sustainability of the rural sector as a whole. The President added that Insurance companies have to come forward with micro insurance, crop insurance and cattle insurance, apart from low cost medical insurance for providing risk cover to farmers. Similarly, units like mobile diagnostic clinics as in Uttarakhand may be operated in all the districts to reach medicare to the unreached.

The President felt that the corporate sector may also think of reaching the unreached as an essential component of “Corporate Social Responsibility.” In a world dominated by communication, extending communication from the privileged to include connectivity to the unreached should be part of our technological upheaval.

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