Page:SELECTED ESSAYS of Dr. S. S. KALBAG.pdf/250

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In my opinion, performance indices, accounts, including stock and inventory, profit and loss are the essential data. Yet, we ignore this basic lack of facility. How does one weigh the fodder in bulk, by bundles or by weight? Weighing is such an important part of industry. It is an equally important part of agriculture, but the facilities are lacking on every farm. It is a pre-requisite for our development process. Rural Business Centre Information is another scarce resource in the rural setting. We are talking of the coming electronic age as the Information Technology age. In the beginning, land was the main resource; this gave rise to landlordism, land being the source of power. Then, with the industrial revolution, capital became the key resource. Capitalism gave power to those owning the capital. In the coming years, information technology, access to information and skills in using it, will be the key. We have to give the rural section access to the world of information, otherwise the backwardness will continue. We have talked about arithmetic, accounting and result-organising skills; but these can be used effectively only when you have access to your own as well as external data and information. We must have access to the world of commerce. The rural society must be able to communicate. They must have telecommunication facilities, trade journals and secretarial services. If secretarial services are important to company executives, because their time is valuable, they are important to the rural farmer as well, because he does not have the skills to write and express and so needs help in form filling, letter writing and documentation work. With the present level of education, where many farmers cannot write at all, where even those who can write; cannot write and express properly and the writing is often illegible, secretarial services Rural Development Through Education System 237