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I am willing to sponsor my village Arpora, Bardez, Goa with $2000.00. Will appreciate to know other Goans who are willing to sponsor their villages, even with amount less than $2000 please I will much appreciate if any Goanetter could forward me Vidya Nand Singh's email to support him with this NRI project. I believe together we can do it! Cip Fernandes UK ---------------------------------------------------------- NRI project seeks to save rural India By Deepshikha Ghosh, Indo-Asian News Service New Delhi, Jan 12 (IANS) If each person of Indian origin across the globe were to contribute $2,000 each, it could bring health care, education and jobs to all villages of India. This may sound quixotic, but it won't be if a project proposed by a U.S.-based non-resident Indian, Vidya Nand Singh, hits the road. Singh, a businessman and philanthropist who migrated to the U.S. five decades ago, has submitted what he calls a "common sense economic model" for NRI funding in rural India's upliftment. "My proposal involves rural development across India over a period of five years with a budget of $40 billion," Singh told IANS in an interview. He has calculated the damage to each NRI pocket - taking some 20 million Indians spread the world over - to be $2,000. "That is nothing compared to what they earn and the millions of dollars they have lost in the stock market," he reasoned. He proposes the establishment of an NRI investment and development bank along with a team of Indian entrepreneurs to execute the project. Singh's proposal, circulated among prominent resident and non-resident Indian industrialists as well as chambers of commerce at a diaspora meet that ended here Saturday, envisages providing primary health care, basic education and employment to about 240,000 "block panchayats", or rural districts, of India. And he wants the government to be a helpful bystander. "The government should remain out of such development projects and limit itself to functions only a government can perform, such as providing law and order and facilitating permits." Singh, 65, president of the Bihar Chamber of Commerce in America and the founder chairman of the first Liberty National Bank in Washington, is a native of Bihar and is involved in various social development projects in India. But his rural development model, inspired by China, is the first of national scale. He refuses to be daunted by scepticism and plain cynicism. "As a first generation NRI based in the U.S., I know that many of us are self-sufficient and well protected by the social security system. We can afford to give back to our motherland without being burdened by the corruption and stagnation that India suffers from." He points out that over 70 percent Indians live in villages, and 32 percent of these people fall below the poverty line, meaning they earn less than one dollar a day and cannot afford two square meals. The project draws upon the link between health, education, employment, quality of life and human dignity. It estimates that $7.5 billion can be allocated in setting rural industries that will eliminate the problems of almost all people below poverty line in rural India. Around 22 billion dollars would be provided for primary education for age six to 11 in each Panchayat - or village council area. And $10 billion for 120,000 health centres catering to every two Panchayats. Said Singh: "Basic health care can do away with causes of death such as snakebites, diarrhoea, dehydration, injuries, childbirth. A good primary education is critical to involve one and all in globalisation and prevent exploitation." His model relies heavily on private enterprise. "All these five year plans have not and cannot achieve anything. The government should only be a facilitator and stay away from developmental projects that have become a breeding ground for corruption." Singh says the $40 billion could be raised through 400 million shares at the unit price of $100. "Twenty million NRIs can fund this programme by purchasing only 20 shares per person." He banishes fears that the project is too simplistic to work. "I am asked if it was possible, then why didn't it happen till now? "My answer is that many complex problems have simple solutions that miss us. We have to search our soul to see why." --Indo-Asian News Service
