The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Call to bridge urban-rural divide

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Nov 26, 2006
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Call to bridge urban-rural divide

Staff Reporter

Bangalore: Even though India is being portrayed as a vibrant economy with a rapid rate of growth, there are core areas in which the country is lagging behind — health and hygiene, conservation of environment, literacy and basic amenities such as reliability of power supply, said R. Natarajan, the former Director of IIT-Chennai.

Dr. Natarajan was speaking after releasing the book "Indian Economy: Reviews and Commentaries — Vol 3" by S. Venkitaramanan, Former Governor, Reserve Bank of India, published by the ICFAI Business School.

Three other books written and edited by the faculty of the business school was also released on the occasion.

"The country is growing in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector and the aim is to become a `knowledge superpower.' But we can be comparable to developed countries in the next few decades only if all these needs are met," he said.

Dr. Natarajan emphasised the need to bridge the urban-rural divide brought about by the growth in the knowledge and technology sector.

Speaking about the quality of education, he said he was surprised how the IT sector was doing so well, considering that the quality of education in most technical and management institutes in the country was not very high.

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