Time to revisit RISC — the development model that I proposed over 20 years ago. It was about helping the rural population develop so that they become urbanized. The solution to rural development is urbanization. The first step to urbanization is the development of rural people. That means providing them with services that help them increase their productivity.
The core insight is the importance of distinguishing between rural people and rural areas. We have to focus on the development of rural people and not on the development of rural areas. Quote:
Development of People, Not Villages
The economic development of the rural population, rather than the development of villages, is the goal. This requires that the population have access to services, which in turn requires the availability of infrastructure. Infrastructure investment is lumpy and cannot be economically provided at the scale appropriate to small villages which are the norm in rural India. Furthermore, looking to the future, the economy of present day rural India cannot continue to be dispersed into 600,000 villages. The population will have to migrate to a much smaller number of larger aggregations. These formation of these aggregations can be catalyzed by the coordinated investment of infrastructure, either in greenfield ventures or in existing locations where there is road or rail connectivity.
Read the full post: A Brief Introduction to RISC (January 2010)
Atanu Dey : Life is a Random Draw 
I notice that the RISC model is in contrast to the development of SEZs( Special Economic Zones), where the focus is on developing certain areas, and giving them special privileges like tax cuts, etc…
What do you think about SEZs, which were originally conceived as engines of economic growth? Should we have more of them?
LikeLike