RAIPUR: America’s Harvard University will extend cooperation to the Chhattisgarh government’s ambitious ‘Rural Industrial Park’ (RIPA) scheme. A two-day workshop is being organised to develop ‘Community Design Facilitator’ by Harvard University’s Design Lab on Thursday and Friday at the Planning Commission building here as a part of MoU signed between the State Planning Commission and the Transforming Rural India Foundation.
The workshop was presided over by Advisor to chief minister Pradeep Sharma. Ajay Singh, deputy chairman of the planning commission, Dr Andre Nogueira from Harvard University, Gaurav Singh, Nodal Officer of RIPA and Anish Kumar, Managing director of TRIF expressed their important views.
Sharma said that RIPA is a scheme to give a new dimension to the prosperity of the village. Paying attention to its diverse aspects, special emphasis is also being laid on non-farm activities under this scheme. For this, Harvard’s help will be important for planning implementation using ‘design thinking’. He said that priority is also being given to diverse sectors like forest produce, service-based industries, FMCG etc. under the RIPA scheme.
Dr Nogueira explained how the ‘design thinking’ framework can be used in social and public policy in detail to the Gothan committee members from the districts and the nodal officers accompanying them.
Deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Ajay Singh gave important suggestions to the participants to have a better plan for RIPA’s success. An important aspect of this scheme is to include those who have been left out of the mainstream of development, he said.
Members of selected Gothan committees from Raipur, Raigarh, Kanker and Bastar districts, entrepreneurs and members of SHGs, Bihan CEO Alice Lakra, and SPM and DPM gave a briefing on the current situation.
