Promoting entrepreneurship in rural areas crucial for achieving Viksit Bharat: Uttarakhand CM Dhami

New Delhi [India], July 27 : Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami participated in a NITI Aayog meeting in New Delhi on Saturday and said that the state is committed to achieving the vision of a 'Viksit Bharat' and emphasised the importance of promoting entrepreneurship in rural areas to realise this goal.
The 9th NITI Aayog's Governing Council meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and was held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Centre in the national capital today.
CM Dhami said that for a 'Viksit Bharat', there is a need to promote entrepreneurship in rural areas, for which cluster-based incubation centres and growth centres will prove to be important. Two rural incubation centres and 110 growth centres have been established in Uttarakhand as a pilot project. He requested the Central Government for technical and financial support to set up incubation centres.
To meet the energy shortage, the Chief Minister requested that the states allow the approval and implementation of hydropower projects of less than 25 MW capacity and implement the proposed 24 per cent capital subsidy for the construction of small hydropower projects in the Himalayan states along with the North-Eastern states. The Chief Minister also requested to include lift irrigation in the guidelines of 'PM Krishi Sinchai Yojana'.
The Chief Minister said that we also need to pay special attention to important topics like global warming and climate change. In view of this, the Uttarakhand government is paying special attention to running development schemes in coordination with ecology and economy. The issuance of GEP on the lines of GDP has been started in the state.
The Chief Minister said that in any developed nation, its urban areas make a special contribution as a growth engine. It becomes difficult to provide basic facilities in these cities due to excessive population. To solve this problem, 'counter magnet areas' will have to be developed between different cities of the country. He said that there is a need to pay special attention to AI readiness and quantum readiness for the concept of Viksit Bharat by the year 2047 for research, development and innovation.
The CM also thanked the Prime Minister for making special financial provision in this year's Union Budget. He also said that Uttarakhand has secured the first position in the recently released Sustainable Development Goals Index ranking, which is a matter of pride for the state.
The Chief Minister said that a serious crisis of drinking water has been seen in many cities of the country, to solve this problem, there is a need to work on water conservation along with increasing the ground-water level. For this, Spring and River Rejuvenation Authority has been formed in Uttarakhand, which is working on the project of water conservation, reviving water sources and connecting snow-based rivers with rain-based rivers. He requested special financial assistance and technical support from the Central Government for this.
This year's theme of NITI Aayog's meeting is 'Viksit Bharat@2047', with a central focus on making India a developed nation. The Governing Council Meeting will discuss the approach paper for the vision document on Viksit Bharat @2047.