In a Facebook video, Chairman of Delivering Change Foundation and Managing Director of Sakal Media Group, Abhijit Pawar interacted with netizens on the topic ‘Smart Village’. The video went viral and was viewed by over 12,002 Facebook users.
Pawar explained the idea behind ‘Smart Village’ and answered the questions by Facebook users regarding the same. He said that basic idea is to create a system to train farmers to do better farming, to sell their produce and what sort of vegetables and crops they should select.
“Most of the time the farmers are unaware of these issues. Our newspaper, Agrowon reaches 80 per cent farmers across Maharashtra. But, we also want to actively demonstrate this and go one step closer to the farmers. We are expecting to increase their per capita income four times more. That will make the villages smart villages,” said Pawar.
He underlined that the concept of Smart Village will tackle the problem of migration.
“We are hoping to encourage reverse migration. We want people to go back to the villages. Today, lot of land of the villages has been taken by the cities. Our main objective of ‘Smart Village’ is to turn them into smart cities,” he added.
Answering one of the questions, Pawar said that the main objective of Smart Village is holistic development of the villages.
“We want to strengthen the connectivity of the village along with the economy of the village. We want them to be on par with the cities. If we dream to have a developed country, we should also focus on changing our villages,” said Pawar.
Answering a question, “How do we sign up for Smart Village services?” Pawar mentioned that Young Inspirators Network (YIN) will be involved in this regard.
“Many of our students have already started the work. We will be getting in touch with those who are interested after the colleges resume with the classes. We will also announce the projects soon,” said Pawar.
He argued that the reason for unemployment is the dearth of right skill sets. He mentioned that Sakal International Learning Centre (SILC) focuses on programmes to provide right skill sets via various activities.
He underlined that through a competition in Maharashtra, Sakal Media Group has identified clusters and villages for the project of Smart Villages.
