It was Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's plan to develop the role of private sector and corporate world in the country.

PRIME MINISTER Dr Manmohan Singh, who is also an economist, encouraged the development of private sector in the country. The plan, however, is only benefitting the corporate world, while the farmers and people in rural areas still remain poor. Also, his public sector development plan turned out to be a big flop as more and more of corruption scams such as Common Wealth Games and 2G spectrum cases, started happening in the country.

There’s another shortcoming in the PM’s plan - they never involve farmers and people living in rural areas. Despite the deteriorating conditions of farmers in Buldelkand, Vidarbha, Oddisha and UP, little has been done for their development.

The government has started a couple of schemes for these people, but they have not reaped good results. While the number of suicides among farmers is increasing, rural areas also remain undeveloped.

In order to tackle this problem, the government now plans to expand its National Rural Livelihoods Project (NRLP) under National Rural Livelihoods Mission. The government plans to take soft loan worth $1 billion from the World Bank to implement this plan. The project mainly focuses on poor farmers and Below Poverty Line (BPL) card holders in 28 states and 7 union territories in India. NRLP is seen as a catalyst in helping the government fulfil its Millennium Development Goals (MDG) on nutrition, gender and poverty.