Rain Water Harvesting; Every school, government building and house have a percolation pit

Courtesy: Better India

Rain Water Harvesting / Water Conservation should start from our own home and rather the below story says from school. Educating the next generation on water conservation at school building itself.

Commendable job!

The District Water Management Agency (DWMA) of Warangal has launched a massive conservation drive in the district. It has decided to build at least one percolation pits in every school. These pits will help in harvesting the rain water.

Know more about this in a video here:

Architect helps Mango Growers in KarnatakaPercolation pits will be installed in schools as a part of the drive.

Empowering Girls in Villages

Courtesy:
http://www.thebetterindia.com/59796/nandini-tripura-district-administration/


Below story is a classic example where districts can empower girls and women in village towards development of the village. A classic example of what an IAS officer can do if they want to work on social causes like Beti Bachao Beti Padao schemes of Central Government

Nandini, an initiative aimed towards the empowerment of women and girls in Gomati district of Tripura, is helping in the successful implementation of the central government’s Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme in the region. Started by 2008-batch IAS officer Sonal Goel, Nandini is an umbrella project that encompasses the work of several district administration departments.

1. Setting up a crèche – the first of its kind:

2. A park dedicated to girls and their parents:
A local park, was revamped and over 120 trees have been planted by local residents in the names of their daughters, sisters, granddaughters, etc. 
The community itself has taken up the responsibility of taking care of the park.


3. Festivals with a purpose:
Planned to popularize the idea of women empowerment during the celebrations around the theme of saving the girl child and women empowerment.

4. Collective streamlining of projects:

The DM issued collective guidelines to all stakeholder departments like social welfare, health, education, police, judiciary, forest department, IT department etc., informing that they all should take up steps towards women empowerment.

5. The Health and Family Welfare department has started training ASHAs (Accredited Social Health Activists) on how they can prevent domestic violence.

6. Making women self-dependent:
The department of social welfare in the district is involved in providing supplementary nutrition to 24,315 girls in the age group of six months to six years. The department has also set up 70 vocational training centres for making women self-dependant by teaching them tailoring skills.

7. Nandini Samman:

An award called Nandini Samman has been introduced in the district and has been adopted by every department to honour women and girls excelling in different fields. The education department awards female students who perform well; health department honours the ASHAs; social service department gives the award to anganwadi workers, etc.

Farmer Success Story: Jackfruit tree and its agri products

Courtesy:
http://www.thebetterindia.com/59942/james-joseph-jackfruit-365-superfood-india/


James Joseph says Jackfruit is Jack of all fruits. He wanted to make this undervalued and underrated seasonal fruit available for consumption 365 days a year.  On learning that 80% of the fruit is made up of water, he hit upon the idea of freeze-drying jackfruit. Freeze-drying reduced the weight of the fruit by 82%, cutting down the huge costs of transportation and storage. A 180-gm pack of freeze dried jackfruit can be stored at room temperature for 365 days and, when soaked in lukewarm water, yield one kg of jackfruit.

• Since the glycemic load (glucose level) in unripe jackfruit is almost half that of rice or wheat, the fruit makes a potent carbohydrate substitute for diabetics. 
• Jackfruit’s high potassium content helps lower elevated blood pressure 
• Its high anti-oxidant and flavonoid content protect against cancer. 
• Jackfruit also increases the human body’s capacity to absorb iron, making it extremely effective in preventing and curing anaemia. 
• Since jackfruit blends beautifully into most recipes, it can also change the way we look at health foods and gluten-free foods in particular.
• Interesting and unique jackfruit-infused recipes include galouti kabab, biryani, masala dosa, kathi roll, panna cotta, and payasam, all made from dehydrated jackfruit!

“I don’t even consider it a crop. It just grows. When other crops fail, you can always count on the jackfruit tree.” says Joseph

Farmer Success Stories: Mr. Umesh, hailing from Kalya village of Magadi taluk of Ramangara District, Karnataka

Please read the below site for a success story

http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/generating-constant-income-imperative-for-successful-farming/article6549354.ece

Revenue Stream: Honey Bee Cultivation

Courtesy:
http://www.thebetterindia.com/65339/josephine-selvaraj-vibis-natural-bee-farm/

The Vibis Natural Bee Farm started with 10 hives

Not only did Josephine employed more than 50 tribal women from the hilly villages of Oddanchathram, Malaiyur, Ellapara and Sirumalain; she has also helped more than 300 women set up their own honey bee farms.

More than 20,000 individuals have also benefited from the free honeybee farming training initiated by Josephine under the National Honey Mission.

Her progressive efforts in honey bee farming have changed the lives of locals by improving their standard of living and by ensuring that their children have access to quality education.

Her objective is to make the sweet nectar available to each and every family for their daily consumption. She believes that honey helps boost immunity and purifies blood. Its medicinal value protects the body from major health problems like heart ailments and cancer.

Farmer Success Story: Natural Farming from barren land from villagers

Courtesy:
http://www.thebetterindia.com/66570/natural-farming-suneet-salvi-maharashtra/

“These are simple people. They grow one crop a year and either spend the rest of the time doing nothing or go to the city for menial jobs. My idea is to help them make farming sustainable and profitable. Right now, I am paying them for learning and working on our farm. In a year or so, they should be able to till their own land,” Suneet adds.

Read the article given above.

Lot of people would want to do something like this, but might be thinking of upfront cost on land. See how Suneet has progressed and did Collective Farming using natural farming techniques

Farmer Success Story: Vertical Farming and Israli farming techniques

Courtesy:
https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http://www.theweekendleader.com/Innovation/1837/fairy-farms.html

Vertical farming, drip irrigation, soil solarisation and the like were terms that mystified Deepak Khatker, a 40-year-old farmer, when he first visited the Indo-Israel Centre of Excellence for Vegetables here a couple of years ago.

Around three hectares are currently being used to cultivate vegetables using Israeli know-how. and is growing cherry tomatoes, seedless cucumbers, brinjals and coloured capsicums. The production is four to five times when compared with other farmers not using these technologies

Methods like vertical farming help save space on the ground by growing the crops vertically while drip irrigation saves almost 90 percent of water. These methods are revolutionary

Though the concept of "protective agriculture" is expensive as it requires greenhouses and poly-houses, government subsidies have ensured that interested farmers take the plunge.

We get 90 percent subsidy for installing a drip irrigation as well as automatic irrigation system, while for the poly-houses, we get 65 percent rebate from the government

About the centers that are propagating this

Situated 145 km from Haryana capital Chandigarh, the centre opened in January 2011 and is spread across six hectares. Built for Rs.6 crore (Rs 60 million) by the Indian government, it was set up following the signing of the Agriculture Cooperation Agreement between India and Israel in 2008.

Experts from Israel regularly visit the centre and organize free training sessions for farmers, teaching them "protective agriculture" to increase their crop yields while using fertiliser and water optimally. The experts also visit the farms if needed.

In addition, corporates and professionals are also taught ways to produce quality vegetable seedlings at a nominal fee.

"The idea is to transfer applied research and technologies to the farmers in various states across India. While Israel has already entered into agreement with seven state governments to set up these centres, the most successful model has been Haryana," said Israeli Embassy spokesman Ohad Horsandi.

At present there are 10 such Centres of Excellence with a special focus on mangoes, pomegranates and citrus fruits. By 2015, their number will increase to 28 as they also branch out to flowers, bee keeping and dairying.

According to S K Yadav, project manager of the Gharaunda centre, over 60 farmers, not only from Haryana but also from states like Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and even Tamil Nadu, visit the centre daily. Last year, over 16,000 farmers were trained at the centre.

Diverse technologies are demonstrated to the farmers so that they can choose the technology that suits them best and maximize their yield and profits,

Rain Water Harvesting - Bhungroo

Courtesy:
http://www.theweekendleader.com/Innovation/2426/life-saver.html

 ‘Bhungroo,’ which uses pipes to filter and store rain water in underground reservoirs with capacities to hold as much as 40 million litres of  water in it. It is developed by a social entrepreneur and innovator based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, Biplab Ketan Paul who has devised an innovative and path-breaking water-harvesting community initiative led by women. Facilitated more than 14,000 farmers and transformed 40,000 acres of barren, disaster-affected or highly saline land into productive farms.

A single Bhungroo - the Gujarati word for a hollow pipe –unit harvests water for only about 10 days a year, but supplies water for as long as seven months and ensures food security for five families by irrigating two crops in two seasons for at least 25 years. Besides, this non-saline rainwater reduces the salinity of groundwater, making it fit for agricultural use.

It can be promoted as a social business model that ensures women empowerment, as each Bhungroo unit has to be owned and managed by women from small and marginal farmer families

The current Bhungroo units come in 17 designs and their prices range from Rs. four to 22 lakhs, based upon 29 variables such as rainfall and subsoil. Installation of the unit takes a mere three days.

 A one-time investment of Rs. 8 to 9 lakh in Bhungroo can generate an income of Rs. 3 lakh per annum and the investor breaks even after 36 months. It increases a farmer’s agricultural income illustratively from Rs 11,000 a year to a minimum of Rs 34,000 in three months.

Each Bhungroo unit caters to the irrigation need of 15 acres of land, making that much land productive twice a year.

Bhungroo technology has been replicated widely in Gujarat, Karnataka, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha. Internationally, Bhungroo has crossed over to Africa (Ghana, Liberia, Kenya), EU countries, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Eco-Cooler - AC from Pep Bottles

Courtesy
http://www.theweekendleader.com/Innovation/2448/cool-relief.html


Grey Dhaka, the Bangladesh wing of New York-based advertising agency Grey, in collaboration with Grameen Intel Social Business Limited (a Dhaka-based IT company), has developed ‘Eco-Cooler’, a device that has come as a gift to the rural poor in Bangladesh who suffer from power outages during the summer season when the mercury climbs to 45 degree Celsius

A brainchild of Ashis Paul, the creative supervisor at Grey Dhaka, the window-fitted device that is made of recycled plastic bottles brings down the temperature of a room where it is installed by five degree Celsius.

Grey Dhaka has claimed that around 25,000 people across the globe have successfully downloaded the technique of making eco-cooler from the Internet. It has no plans of commercializing the process as it has been invented to benefit the poor who cannot afford air-conditioners. 

We urge the people living in the sub-continent and especially in developing countries to take up the idea and spread it among the rural people to help them live comfortably. 

The best thing about eco-coolers is that it is made up of just plastic boards and PET bottles, and one could make a device for as little as Rs.500.

Hydroponics for green fodder production

Hydroponics is an extremely useful method to grow green fodder, which is essential for diary farming and increasing the milk yield.

Whether you have your own dairy farming or want to sell the green fodder to small scale dairy farmers, it is worth the revenue stream if taken commercially.

Whether you grow your own green fodder through hydroponics or through naturally growing on farms, it definitely increases the yield of milk production in your dairy farming



A useful read about the same is mentioned in the below link
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/hydroponic-fodder-milk-cattle-drpcpatel-dr-pavinchandra-patel
http://www.icar.org.in/en/node/5931

Partnership - Sponsorship

Embarking on a social cause also needs effort, money and skills just like any other business. 

Only difference is goal is to make a difference in people's life with a no-profit no-loss idea.

We need like-minded people who want to embark on this journey

We need to pay them basic salaries

Smart villages transformation requires equipment, technique, skills through public, private and village level partnerships

Interested parties  who believe in this vision and want to make a difference/give back to society are requested to contact us

We can pick a village, study its demographics, come up with a charter and project plan and embark on the journey

Upcoming Posts

Upcoming Posts 

Agriculture Related::

• Rain Water Harvesting
• Water Conservation Methods - Advanced Irrigation Methods
• Digging Ponds
• Crop Rotation
• Soil Test
• Connecting to Krishi Kendra
• Fruit Cultivation
• Vegetable Cultivation
• Millet Cultivation
• Rice Cultivation
• Zero- budget Farming
• Trees needed for zero-budget farming
• Organic Farming
• Mushroom Cultivation
• Aloe Vera Cultivation
• Flowers - festive revenue generation
• Agri-Product Small Scale Industries
• Cows, Buffaloes, Hens, Lamb
• Cotton Crops
• Sweetcorn & Baby corn Cultivation
• Cold Storage and its uses
• Retail Chain Tie-ups
• Dairy Farming & Dairy Product production
• Hydrophonics for green fodder production
• Afforestation & Increasing Green Cover
• Surplus farming produce and its distribution
• Food Pyramid and linking it to sustainable production

Digital India::

• Fiber To The Premises
• Affordable Internet Connection
• Affordable Electronic Gadgets - smart phones, tablets, PCs, laptops
• Internet Kiosks
• 100% Literacy
• Digital Library
• Awareness Spiritual Texts and their knowledge

Education

• KG-PG Affordable First Class Education through local schools
• Digital School with internet access, tablets and online education access
• Digital Library
• Yoga as a physical education
• Sports as education

Energy::

• 24x7 Electricity & Self Sustainable Clear Energy
• Wind Energy
• Solar Energy
• Bio-gas Energy

Infrastructure::

• Road Connectivity
• Schools
• Playgrounds
• Community Halls
• Indoor Recreation Center - children, youth, adults, oldage
• Sports facilities
• Hospitals - Allopathy, Homeopathy, Unani, Ayurvedic
• Doorstep - Healthcare for needy
• Prayer Places - Temple, Church, or Mosque
• Nursing School
• Adult Day Care Centers
• Drainage System
• Water Distribution
• Clean Drinking RO Water Plant
• Waste Management
• Garbage Collection - Segregation - Recycling
• Recycling Paper
• Waste Segregation System from home

Revenue generation

• Sanitary Pads Production
• Tailoring as a revenue stream
• Pottery
• Agri-by products
• Social Workers for taking care of adult needs
• Nurse
• Beautician
• Local Oil Production
• Local Handlooms
• Painting
• Crafts

Our Heritage and Rich Culture - bring it back to our lifes

• Farming Techniques
• Home Beauty Techniques
• Home Healthcare Remedy Techniques

Medicinal Property Education

• Aloe Vera
• Tulsi
• Neem
• Anti-oxidants - Indian Food
• Millets
• Cold-pressed Oils
• Weight Loss Foods

Diary Farming and Dairy Products

Today, India's demand for milk is estimated at 155 mill metric ton per year. Within eight years, that is projected to grow an additional 50 percent. Large percentage of India is vegetarian population and the need for protein from diary products is huge. 

India has more diary cows than any other country. However the yield of milk per cow is only one tenth of elsewhere. 

We need to educate our farmers on good animal husbandry practices, how, what and when to feed animals, breeding management, sanitation and animal health and proper nutritious feed to cows.

We need to arrange for training sessions on these to increase the milk to as much as 36 ltr. per cow per day.

An interesting read about Cargill Food for cow feed has reportedly increased the average yield of a cow per day is 36 ltr. They train people on best practices and arrange training sessions along with providing the feed.

Looking at this, Diary Farming can be a lucrative revenue stream for smart village which adopt this.
Our smart village can choose to simply send milk to local diary, or be a local brand in itself defying the retail giants costly products/ no control over quality,

We can get loans from government to invest in more cows, or procuring the nutritious feed for cows, as returns are higher. But again this is a combined exercise where trainings has to happen, practices has to be changed, avoid ill health of animals etc.. http://www.agrifarming.in/dairy-farming-subsidy

As a by product, Bio Gas energy can be generated out of the cow dung contributing towards clean energy

As a change, we can setup milk products plant in the village, to develop other diary products like, full cream, yoghurt, cheese, cartoned milk, ghee, paneer, sauces, milk powder, butter, milk shakes etc.. 

Cow urine can be sold for ayurvedic medicinal value. Gomutra as health drink can also be produced which has 5%. It can also be used in a floor cleaning agent.

Cow dung and urine can also be used in zero budget farming. Like in olden days, we used to have lots of cows and buffaloes at home, not for milk, but because of their usage of cow dung as manure in their farms. We can definitely bring it and along with it, flourishing dairy farming

Farmers growing 2-5 cows per household can now grow to more than 10 and become financially better placed and everyone is an entrepreneur.

Village can consume all the diary and diary products it needs at affordable rates and not adulterated, before it distributed to neighboring villages, or retail giants. Health of villagers should come first before making a profitable business out of it. In olden days, all the laborers used to get dairy products like buttermilk from the owners for lunch. None of them had lifestyle diseases like today. 

Community Dairy Farming is beneficial if we want to make this as one of the prime revenue generation of our smart village

Hence the most environmentally, socially and economically sustainable solution to meeting the massive need of India is to help smart village and its small diary farmers get more milk from every cow

A good reads on entrepreneur journey of dairy farmers in India

http://www.forbes.com/sites/cargill/2016/08/18/indian-dairy-dynasty/#522e949a4680

https://yourstory.com/2013/09/amrutha-dairy-farms-journey-it-to-dairy-farming-santhosh-d-singh/
http://www.gowardhanindia.com/infrastructure_dairy_farm.html
https://yourstory.com/2016/02/akshayakalpa-farms/
http://www.agricultureinformation.com/postings/fortune-dairy-organic-buffalo-cow-milk-complete-automation/
http://www.ecoideaz.com/expert-corner/dairy-farming-in-india

USEFUL LINKS

http://www.agrifarming.in/dairy-farming
http://www.agrifarming.in/dairy-farming-subsidy

What an ideal village needs?

India comprises of many villages where majority lacks the basics. Smart Villages are needed like Smart Cities.

Wish my country India transforms many villages into Smart Villages.

Smart Villages need the following to be looked into from basic needs to employment to all.

* All households should have own house with bathrooms, proper drainage system, drinking water, 

* All households should be powered by clean energy like Solar, Wind, Bio Gas

* Government schools should be setup in each village. Schools should be digital, which has internet connections, laptops/PCs/tablets to each student for availing online education sites like Khan Academy for math and science for strong foundations. 

* Rapid English Proficiency courses should be mandatory for ability to assimilate the knowledge from world and also to have equal advantage like city kids in communication. Regular camps of 2-3 month camps to be setup specifically for improving English proficiency

* Yoga as compulsory physical education daily. This helps in a healthier India than having lifestyle diseases

* Compulsory sports class (cricket/ football/ volleyball/ chess/ badminton/ tennis/ kabbadi/ hockey/ baseball/ basketball/ athletic, gymnastics, swimming etc..) daily encouraging sports talent from rural areas. Talent should be recognized at Mandal level screenings at regular intervals and send for specialized training. Olympic medalists from India will be topping in all areas. Government appointments of sports in-charges to happen along with kits to be given in public/private sponsorship

* All children need to complete mandatory 10+2 education which produces an educated youth for future generations

* Internet powered villages, subsidized electronic equipment like smart phones, tablets, laptops, PCs, internet connection, at affordable rates to all  households in village. Villages to use the information to increase their crop production and different employment generation ideas within.

* 100% Literacy rate among young, adult, old and have basics of math, english, accounts etc.. from the village. Never too late for education like in advanced countries

* Malnutrition awareness should be spread and all children have access to healthy food at homes and schools

* Sustainable farming to ensure malnutrition is wiped out of village. Produce should be consumed in villages before the surplus is sold in markets

* Spend lot of time building rain water pits/stretches for 6 months a year, sponsored by govt. employment scheme or panchayat funds - to save rain water and be less dependent on river/lake/canal dependency and inter state water wars.

* Agriculture and agri-product manufacturing, to be profitable engine to increase the standard of living in villages

* Should have 3-4 crops a year and increase farm income to villagers. Ponds with water is important for this.

* Soil tests to be done to each piece of land and what can be grown should be given to villages. 

* Plant lots of fruits tree, flower plants, produce lot of vegetables including leafy and fiber food, healthy grains, golden millet, roads with trees on either side etc...healthy percentage should be grown to sustain the consumption for a healthy life within village and surplus be stored in cold storage and sold on profitable market rates

* Coconut, Amla, Mango, Palak, Neem, Guava, Pomegranate, Grapes, Lemon, Tomatoes, Onions, Potatoes, Carrots, Papaya, Banana, Sugarcane, Custard Apple, Bamboo, Teak, Rice, Wheat, Millet, seasonal fruits etc...all the healthy nutritious foods to be home grown in villages depending on soil type

* Flowers trees for god, hair, festive, medicinal uses.

* Get trained on different farming techniques on crops like following and have a healthy monthly income for women and men in the villages - aloe Vera, mushroom, sorghum, millet, flowers, coconuts, mangoes etc...

* Each village to have granaries and cold storage to the their production sizes

* Cement roads or plastic roads, that don't wear off by rains are needed in villages. Go away from mud roads. Have proper drainage / rain water harvesting mechanisms for rain water.

* Solar powered street lights and without electricity power cuts

* Adult day care centers with an agenda to keep the elders busy to avoid falling into Alzeimers/ Parkinsons. Utilize the knowledge of elderly to power the youth, as well as some employment to elderly if body permits. Well taken care adults who shaped us.

* Each village to have a hospital. 

* Each village to have ambulances, and roads built for speedy passage of ambulances

* Encourage Homeopathy, Ayurveda, Unani along with Allopathy in each village, and provide affordable healthcare at doorstep within the village and best hospitals at mandal level for complex ailments.

* At India level, have medical schools that promote Homeopathy, Ayurveda, Unani education.

* Waste Management should be properly implemented. Good sanitation is needed. Waste segregation at home is required. Proper waste disposal, bio degradation, etc...good practices from across world should be implemented at village level. 

* Litter free roads. Spit free/Ghutka free roads. Fine for spitting or littering

* Plastic free village. Any packing should be into cloth bags or worst case paper. Paper should be properly recycled back

* Village should be dowry free

* Men and Women should be equally be employable

* Ban Lavish Weddings and save those expenses for future kitty

* Ban Liquor sales and educate the health complications and educate on the addiction both liquor and cigarette causes. 

* No smoking. Ban smoking and educate on health hazards

* Respect women and elderly culture to be taught through our vedic text and other educational means. Male supremacy, female submissive stereotypes to be abolished

* Ban ragging and bullying in schools and colleges and make it a punishable acts.

* Compulsory player places like Temple, Mosque, Church and preach peace and spirituality and inculcate the daily visit to prayer places.

* Villages to have activity areas like playground and indoor game halls like a miniature version of clubs

* Cheap and innovative air cooling techniques - both during building of houses and through indeginous ways like water bottle cooling mechanism

* Each house to install rain water harvesting systems and encourage store and use water.

* Library and Digital Library be available to all the people in Village. Remember we are talking about 100% literacy rate and reading will be at accelerated pace

* Utilize the health insurance policy of government to have everyone insured and health issues should not pinch common man pockets and lead to deaths

* Utilize the crop insurance and ensure farmers are not at loss due to natural calamities or no rains scenarios

* All have bank accounts open and savings at the following order of priority - retirement corpus, healthcare corpus, children education corpus

* Banks to sanction loans to needy and maintain good bank practices. Avoid corruption and loitering of public money of schemes and benefiting private greedy individuals

* Internet center/post office/courier service as mandatory connecting the world

* All get accounting and saving 101 courses

* Road connectivity to rest of India through best roads, which dont get washed off by rain and with technology to build roads faster

* Village/Panchayats to have enough community fund/maintainance to govern the villages and take care of basic necessity like, clean roads, garbage collection, infrastructure maintainance, setup of necessary things for the smart village, employment generation

* Everyone above 18 yrs should be employed and useful to society and no one sits idle at home

* Go back to farming basics - organic farming only (avoid being a slave to pesticide companies) - enough cows, buffaloes, hens, sheep etc... and use zero budget farming techniques. Taking good care of soil, increases crop productivity. 

* Crop rotation also needed and take care of soil based on soil test results

* Next level to install sensors in farms for better monitoring of soil properties and usage of pesticides, water etc...controlled. Precision farming is not distant with adoption of sensors and technology, giving a better crop yield and safeguarding the soil

* Dairy farm to be setup in village, avoid adding water and use purity meters of milk. Use internally first, and then send it to local dairy farms. Invest and produce dairy products for internal village use and external selling of the same. Dairy product revenue can be used to fill village corpus funds

* Small scale poultry farming / home hens - to encourage enough protein intake for nutrition, if needed

* Barber shops, dhobi shops, beauty parlors (herbal only and educate home beauty techniques to creams),  chappal repair, electronic repairs, computer and electronic repairs, clean roads etc...community needs are taken care and also employ youth

* Local transportation to use e-rickshaws with less pollution

* Buses are reachable to villages connecting the other places. Avoid car culture and pollution that comes with it. Public transporation network to nearby places should be good

* Create a network of networks for each of these for more revenue generation mechanism

* Encourage artisans and hand looms for local needs of bed sheets, saris, blouses etc...basic day to day should suffice locally

* Growing shoes to kids for allowing a solid, flexible shoes for all kids. All adults should use Shoes/chappals.

* Plant trees all along the village

* Develop road map to convert barren lands to forests nearby to ensure rains come and enough ground water is available.

* Encourage greenery and support wildlife

* Educate on medicinal uses of our fruits, vegetables, trees, spices, etc...from childhood along with food pyramid, also educate elders in the literacy drive on nutrition values

* Avoid processed food, and over processed oils etc...and maintain healthy lifestyle

* Preserve traditions and have cultural activities marking our various festivals of all religions

* Peaceful co-existence of religions and avoid conversions of faith. Forceful/brainwashing techniques of faith conversion should be abolished. Right to practice religion of choice is advocated. Hatred in the name of religion should be condemned

* Energy saving bulbs in all house holds

* Bathrooms/toilets in all house holds

* Awareness of government policies, schemes, insurance, subsidies, healthcare, financial health, regular health checkups should be part of community drive

* Avoid self medication and reach out to medical professionals in identifying and curing illness and achieve long ages

* Walking/ Yoga/ Running etc...healthy lifestyle should be encourages

* Positive lifestyle should be encouraged

* Competition should be avoided, co-operation encourages in moving the entire village towards a positive stride

The list might look long, but many have in cities, so why deprive it in villages where majority of Indians live? We should avoid migration of people to do medial jobs in cities because agriculture is not profitable and standard of living in village is low.

My smart village idea can avoid the corporate rat race we face, avoid tension and stress life we face unnecessarily and live a better indian life with job, prosperity and happiness with families, relatives and neighbours.

Smart Villages

India is focusing on creating 100 smart cities. Gujarat want to setup 300 self-reliant smart villages. Each state is moving towards setting a smart village as pilot.

70% of India is rural population and dependent on agriculture. They need infrastructure to be developed but right now taxes they pay is less compared to urban population. We need more revenue generation avenues in this side of India which can bring in more money into spend for uplifting the villages

For the villages Indian Govt. is focusing on few very good schemes that have been missing since independence to help

• The farmers not fall into debt trap by providing crop insurance. 
• For them to get affordable healthcare through affordable health insurance. 
• For them to benefit of subsidy to open bank accounts and the cash to get deposited directly into their bank account.
• Electrification plans to provide 24x7 electricity.

As part of various development activities, we are also rapidly cutting down green cover, trees, forests.

• Enough of afforestation is not being done
• Enough of rain water storage is not being done
• Enough of water for 3-4 crops a year for agricultural villages is not being done

I might be wrong in few things, but key is enough sustainable villages are not being developed.

India to be prosperous and super power, our agriculture and village focus is a must.

Transforming all our villages and remote places to be self-sustaining and revenue generating smart villages is an absolute must.

Government and Agriculture centers have enough information and the know-how to transform into smart villages.

It needs to be revolution and road map to transform India into smart villages interconnected, for trade to flourish and keep inflation under check

Few Pioneers are needed who should reverse migrate to villages and make them living heaven amidst healthy pollution free environments. Energy we corporate put in rat race or survive the fires of corporate rat race and get stress related ailments can be easily overcome, if we transform few of the villages into smart villages and bring livelihood to villages and make them into living heavens.

Water - Crops - Standard of Living is interlinked. 

• Better water year round leads to more crops per year
• More crops per year leads to more revenue at hand
• More revenue at hand and few innovative ideas of more revenue generation leads to more jobs and more income to households
• Healthy eco-friendly environment land ancient living techniques leads to better health
• More income leads to better education
• Better education and better revenue generation avenues leads to employment to all
• Standard of living automatically increases
• More money will accumulate on taxes to government
• More money to spend for people leading to flourishing country

There are good number of examples where villagers have taken the issue into their hands and transformed their villages from drought hit places to 'sasyasyamalam' or flourishing with crops year round. With this inspiration, I am creating this blog where we can chalk out ideas and go to governments/private individuals/corporate to bring prosperity to India

We should be able to use our corporate project management and engineering degree to practical use for social cause and social innovation to transform our Indian villages to Smart Villages connected to rest of the world (yeah even connected world in terms of IoT and digital india) help other developing countries around the world to follow the path and vision of our visionary and honorary PM of India.

What all India and Indians can do - sky is the limit