The recent publication of the Human Development Report by the UN, which has ranked India at 126 among 193 nations has come as a shock in spite of the euphoria created by the achievement of 9.5 per cent growth rate in GDP last year and the prospect of 8.5 per cent growth rate in the coming year. A more comprehensive Quality of Life Index which has considered nine categories including cost of living, culture and leisure, economy, environment, freedom, health, infrastructure, safety and risk and climate has ranked India at 133 in the world.

The high rate of inflation particularly in basic necessities such as food articles, large scale illiteracy, stagnation in agricultural productivity, inadequacy of infrastructure both in urban and rural areas, poor sanitation, growing digital divide between the rural and urban population and increasing inequity between the rich and the poor are surely ominous signs which need immediate attention.  

 The country has neglected to improve social infrastructure for too long in both urban and rural sectors. The fact that 39 per cent of our adult population continue to be illiterate, 35 per cent continue to exist below the poverty line, over 25 per cent have no access to safe drinking water and almost 60 per cent have no access to sanitation even after 60 years of our independence is indeed highly regrettable.

While stating that the population below the poverty line has significantly decreased since 1980, what is forgotten is that the actual number of BPL population has practically remained the same at about 375 million, while it has decreased from 1470 million to 970 million across the world. In other words, India’s share of poorest people in the world which was about 25 per cent in 1980 has now increased to 39 per cent.

The greatest impact of abject poverty and inequity is in India’s rural areas, which carry over 65 per cent of nation’s population but contribute to just 18 per cent of our GDP. The average productivity in food in India is just 1.7 tons/ha., much lower than the world’s average of 2.6 tons/ha. leave alone the world’s best of 4-5 tons/ha., in spite of over 55 million ha. of arable land under irrigation.

This is primarily caused by the unacceptable increase in soil salinity across most of the irrigated land due to over-flooding, indiscriminate use of chemical fertilisers and inadequate drainage.

Agriculture experts have now started talking of ushering a second Ever Green revolution with the help of latest biotechnological advances such as site specific fertigation practices, integrated pest management strategy, conservation of soil and water and use of genetically modified high yielding cultivars.

Use of space remote sensing imageries not only for monitoring agricultural crops, but also for watershed management, soil conservation and optimal application of type and quantity of fertilisers using Geographic Information System can indeed help us to produce more crop for every drop of water we use. Farmers in the US, who have practiced knowledge-based Precision Farming techniques using space remote sensing imageries including those from our own IRS satellites, have been able to enhance their food productivity from 4.2 tons to 4.8 tons per hectare. 

Unless our farmers are enabled to practice knowledge based Precision Farming System, India cannot significantly enhance its food productivity which must be doubled in the next three decades even to provide basic food security to our growing population expected to cross 1.5 billion.  

Most importantly we have to realise that there is no way our agriculture can support 65 per cent of our country’s population. Establishment of agro-based industries can provide additional employment and revenues only to a limitted extent and cannot solve the basic problem of poverty of the entire rural population. We will have to significantly reduce the percentage of population totally dependent on agriculture by providing alternate avenues of gainful employment to a substantial fraction of rural population. Skill development through short period vocational training, which has been neglected so far, can enable a significant percentage of rural population to find gainful employment even in semi-urban and urban areas.   

It is in this context, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s announcement at the Indian Science Congress on 3rd January, 2008  that the Government is launching a major mission on Vocational Education and Skill Development assumes great significance.

The proposed scheme envisages opening 1600 new Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs)  and Polytechnics, 10,000 of vocational schools and 50,000 new Skill Development Centers to provide vocational training to over 100 lakh students a year, a four-fold increase compared to the present level. Eventually we have to ensure that at least 10 million rural students are provided short term vocational training every year, to enable them to earn substantially higher income and improve their living standards.

The Prime Minister also announced that the plan allocation for education will be stepped up from 7.7 per cent of gross budgetary allocation for the Tenth Plan to over 19 per cent in the 11th Plan along with the award of a large number of sholarships to students opting for science & technology.

In the knowledge based globalised world, it is only by taking a quantum jump in improving the infrastructure, education and employment potential at the grass root level, that we can enable all citizens of this country to live a decent life.

(The writer is Chairman, PRL-Council, Department of Space)