By IANS,
New Delhi: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes by companies are not enough to uplift rural masses and various stakeholders must collaborate for their development, experts at the national rural development summit here said Tuesday.
“What is required is an approach that is collaborative rather than competitive amongst stakeholders. Initiatives should include private-private in addition to the public-private partnerships that are already popular. The ITC e-chaupal, The Hindustan Unilever Shakti women village entrepreneur, the Tata Kisan Sansar were are successful examples of this,” said D.S. Gangwar, joint secretary of the rural development ministry.
Others said only CSR or public-private-partnership (PPP) models are not enough to bring rural India into the mainstream.
“In order to create largescale impact, the industry involvement cannot be limited to just Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR),” said Arvind Mayaram, additional secretary in the ministry.
“The Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA) scheme was structured based on this realization,” Mayaram added.