<p>Lecture 2 – “The PURA Mission” (PURA – “Providing Urban amenities for Rural Areas”)</p><p>During the second lecture it was Mr. Srijan Singh, a graduate from IIM Ahmedabad, currently working on the PURA Mission, who took stage along with Dr. Abdul Kalam to address the students and discuss various PURAs set up across India.</p><p>Dr. Kalam spoke of 4 types of PURAs – Plain terrain PURA, Coastal PURA, Hill PURA and Desert PURA. He emphasized on the fact that energy was what drove the rural economy and hence it was important to explore energy options such as solar, wind, bio-fuel, bio-gas, energy from municipal waste etc. The aim of the PURA vision is manifold: to provide physical connectivity through roads, rails and infrastructure; electronic connectivity through telephone systems, Wi-Fi, Internet centers, fibre optics and the likes; and Knowledge connectivity for the purpose of development of land, water, schools, vocational training, irrigation, farming, healthcare and so on. All these would in turn result in Economic connectivity which is wealth distribution, employment generation, increase in social welfare and ultimately the growth of the country, said Dr. Kalam.</p><p>Dr. Kalam further added that the main problems faced by the PURA mission were the ratio of agriculture’s contribution to GDP, the low productivity in agriculture, the lack of alternative economic opportunities to farmers. He stressed on the need to reduce our dependence on agriculture (from 60% to 20%) and increase the crop productivity. Some of the major objectives of PURA are to provide employment opportunities and improved quality of life to villagers and in turn lead to urban decongestion.</p><p>Dr. Kalam spoke about a public-private partnership for establishing 1200 PURAs across 600 districts during the 11th Five-Year Plan. However he stated that this mission can only be achieved by a greater active involvement by the private sectors in the form of an entrepreneurial venture.</p><p>Mr. Srijan provided information and discussed his experiences with 3 PURAs in detail – Periyar PURA, Loni PURA and Chitrakoot PURA (which is in Madhya Pradesh). The Chitrakoot PURA was led by Mr. Nanaji Deshmukh who is a visionary and a great leader.</p><p>It has integrated 500 villages and aims to provide for 18,000 per annum income for all families, houses for every family and physical connectivity. They also have a program called “Samaj Shilp Dampati” – whereby graduate couples between ages 25 – 35, come to the PURA and work for a period of 5 years for a salary.</p><p>Suggestions from Dr. Kalam for IIM Indore</p><p>Some of the suggestions which Dr. Kalam had for IIM Indore included:</p><p>1. To design a course on PURA</p><p>2. Create PURAs around Indore which could be managed by students</p><p>3. Create PURApreneurs (entrepreneurs taking up the PURA Mission)</p><p>4. Creation of a forum for exchange of ideas for PURAs</p><p>For latest news on seminars and workshops stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com!</p>