Development of villages important to achieve Vision 2020: Nair

Bangalore, May 11 (UNI) Developing cities and metros only will not help the country achieve the Vision 2020 as envisaged by President A P J Abdul Kalam, ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair said today.

Delivering the valedictory address at a workshop on 'Delivery Systems to Promote Science and Technology among Rural People', organised by ISRO and DAVP here, he said 'wealth and knowledge should be first taken to villages.

"We have to find ways to eradicate illiteracy, as 70 per cent of the people live in villages and half of them are illiterate. We have to take as a challenge to find a sure way to convey the message of knowledge to the rural areas," he added.

Mr Nair regretted that the media was merely highlighting the negative incidents. "The front page carries negative incidents while the inside pages just have obituary, engagements and career opportunities. Most of the pages carry advertisement. What are we trying to tell the people. We have to use the media for positive communication. But are we doing this," he questioned.

Saying that ISRO had good coverage but most of the other scientific institutions were ignored by the media, he said that "I visited BrahMos Corporation yesterday. What a tremendous achievement they have done. Unfortunately they end up in a remote corner of newspapers that too occasionally," he added.

He called for better use of satellite technology in rural areas as concepts like tele-education and tele-medicine can go a long way in making adult education a better success. Similarly audiovisual media was a better way to transfer knowledge in villages, he felt.

"We have to select a proper medium to attract the attention of different types of people in the society. Understand the mood of the people and tap on that," he told DAVP officials attending the workshop.

UNI