@Akshay: Why are you talking about me on this thread
I see me in you. Tujhe mein Dhillon dikhta hai malik saab mein kya karun ...lol
@ALL
I am a late entrant to this thread and just started. Apologies to all other members, bear with me while I catch up, some of my post my be out of synch until I catch up.
Inline with Akshay's thoughts, I too am wondering as to how qualified I am to post here.
I can be disqualified on the basis of various things,
- my limited physical connection with India (a country I left 16yrs ago and no longer retain citizenship of)
- or my own jat villages (which I have visited may be 4 or 5 times max, no more than 2 hours in last 10years), or
- on the basis that I consider myself more of a global citizen rather than Indian/Aussie/Singaporean/jat who has been heavily influenced by Indian+western+chinese/oriental cultures and more inline with gen-Y (though older than them) in terms of thinking, attitudes, likes, dislikes, attitude towards relationship/dating/marriage/race/sexual preferences/gays/lesbians, etc.
- on the basis that this is neither an area of my formal academic studies nor my professional work experience
Having established that I am no expert in this area, I will still post as i do read and I am quiet opinionated. If still interested in the views of an "opinionated non-expert", please read on but with the pinch of salt.
I see this topic about rural development. I also see people arguing about . I am wondering the following:
1. Some of today's rural people may become urbanites due to migration, some of rural (e.g. closer to NCR) or semi-rural centers may become urban in nature.
"Are we better off discussing overall development of jat samaj and within that context focus on bridging the gap between rural-urban divide."
2. I see members arguing (with excellent oratory and prose skills), but not agreeing, about what constitutes development, anecdotes about miserable conditions in villages to usage of ac and USB in villages.
"Are we not better off agreeing to use some internationally accepted development index"
e.g. UN and World Bank's Human Development Index (HDI)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index), various agencies including UN, GOI, WB, etc collect data on thes eindexes, easier to see historical trends in development.
By establishing common definitions and baseline, we can discuss the topic itself rather than differing definitions and perceptions of development based on anecdotes and personal views <apologizes if thread has already resolved this, i will eventually catchup with you guys>.
TBC <work-in-progess>
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I am still on the 2nd page of the thread, bear with me, I will keep updating this post as I go along..