India needs to take mfg to rural areas to bridge income gap, say experts

India does not consist of binary rural and urban areas anymore and the country needs to look at taking manufacturing to its villages to fill the income gap and achieve its development goals, experts said on Wednesday.

At a conference on re-imagining rural India, organised by the Union Rural Development Ministry in collaboration with the World Bank and the Bills and Melinda Gates Foundation, NITI Ayog member Ramesh Chand said a major portion of resources allocated for rural development were on social schemes and stressed on the need for investment for overall development.

Former secretary of Rural Development Ministry Nagendra Nath Sinha laid emphasis for formulating policies for rural areas that are fast transforming to urban areas.

Speaking during the concluding session of the two-day conference, Chand said a clear trend has emerged over the years in the rural sector and there is a shift in balance from development approach to an approach which involves enabling a particular set of