About the Book :

Rural areas currently are home to 70 per cent of India population. Providing rural India with better access to services, technology, education and health care will reduce inequality and alleviate poverty for hundreds of millions of its citizens. It is critical that rural initiatives be linked to empowerment and capacity-building, to achieve a sustainable and inclusive rural development in the context of the Millennium Development Goals. The present volume is a collection of theme papers of the Third International Conference on "Rural India: Achieving Millennium Development Goals and Grassroots Development" organized by Bhoovigyan Vikas Foundation, New Delhi. Based on specific themes the book is divided into three parts. Part I: deals with Transformative Rural Development and MDGs and consists of nine papers, Part II: deals with Participation and Empowerment and consists of five papers, and Part III: focuses on Bridging the Digital Divide and has four papers. The papers are written by well known academicians, scientists, technocrats, researchers and policy-makers. The papers review the current rural scenario, policies, programmes, and draw lessons for developing a professional development strategy to strengthen the rural base of the country. The book is useful for researchers, policy-makers and development practitioners.

About Author :

Madaswamy Moni is a senior technocrat at National Informatics Centre (Department of Information Technology, Government of India) currently working as Deputy Director General. With more than 24 years of professional experience he has held several prestigious assignments. He pioneered to establish the District Information System of  National Informatics Centre in 27 sectors of importance. His forte is ICT Diffusion and Infusion for achieving sustainable agricultural and rural development in India. He has been propagating an integrated approach to ICT and agricultural, and rural and backward area development. He is the General Secretary of the Bhoovigyan Vikas Foundation and has written several papers and edited over six books. His research interests span over a wide area of agricultural economics and informatics, micro-level planning, regional and sustainable development, information support systems and networking, decision support system and fusion of technologies for increased agricultural productivity.

Suresh Misra a well-known expert on consumer issues is currently Professor (Consumer Affairs) and Coordinator, Centre for Consumer Studies, a Think Tank and Knowledge Partner of the Department of Consumer Affairs, GoI at the Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi. He holds his Master's in Political Science from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, Masters in Human Resource Management from Pondicherry Central University, D.Phil. from Allahabad Central University and Post-Graduate Diploma in Journalism and Mass Communication from Calcutta. He had his advance training in Corporate Governance at AOTS, Tokyo, Japan; in Total Quality Management at UK Civil Service College, Sunningdale, UK; and in Public Policy Management at Development Study Centre, Rehovot, Israel. He participated in the Public Administration programme for senior officers at ENA, Paris, France and also attended advance Training of Trainers programme on Training Techniques and Methodology at Thames Valley University, Slough, UK. Prof. Misra has been associated with consumer studies for the last twenty-five years and carried out a number of research and evaluation studies sponsored by national and international agencies. Prof. Misra is a member of the Central Consumer Protection Council, GoI. He is the Project Director of the National Consumer Helpline and the State Consumer Knowledge Resource Management Portal set-up by the Department of Consumer Affairs, GoI at IIPA.