Insights

India is considered a bright spot in the global economy, though economists differ on measures required to maintain this status. While the government's initiatives such as Smart city, Make in India, Digital India, and Startup India along with reforms are likely to have a positive impact on the economy, the key is to harness the untapped potential of rural areas and Tier II and Tier III towns. It's time to transform villages and small towns as sustainable model villages and towns through a combination of several initiatives such as creating handicrafts corridors across the country or introducing Make in rural India . Handicrafts and cottage industry corridors can not only help revive many such industries facing risk of extinction, but also help counter dumping of cheaper products by other countries.  We need not need more schemes and programmes. The central government or state governments can customize existing schemes for towns and rural areas such as  Swaach gram progra...