Duttaphrynus India Andhra Pradesh Deccan

Smart Villages is a community based initiative of Samanvay.Com Welfare Society, primarily aimed to harness
the benefits of information technology for the rural folks. The initiative is a community effort to mobilize the collective
strengths of people from various streams and integrate it with information technology to provide benefits to the rural
community. Seventy percent of population of India lives in villages and the youth belonging to this segment are passing
through a dramatic psychological turmoil. The invasion of bedroom from the skies in the form of television and the
advancement in telephony through internet has given his mind dreams that were unthinkable few years ago. However, the
ground realities around him by way of minimum educational avenues, minimum basic needs of life and same age old
shabby surroundings are deterrent for his talent and the dreams to take shape and flourish. The ratio of school dropouts at
school or college level is quite high amongst the rural youth which is negatively impacting the education policy and targets
of the Govt. Added to this is the non-availability of vocational avenues in rural environs which is further adversely affecting
the aspirations of the youth from the rural areas. All such youth with little education, no vocational skills and passing
through utter poverty, find their way to nearest urban cities or large cities where they migrate to find some source of
livelihood. This has two major negative impacts on the county and also on the youth of rural background. The “Smart
Village- Smart Ward towards Smart AP” programme that was inaugurated in January has inspired dozens of NRIs,
businessmen, bureaucrats, politicians, celebrities and even ordinary citizens to work together with the government to raise
the living standards of the state’s rural residents.“To become smart, sustainable and inclusive, it is necessary for us to have
smart towns and villages, apart from smart cities,” Naidu said recently, referring to the Centre’s “smart cities” mission
aimed at making room for a booming urban population. “So, I appeal to NRIs, NGOs, VIPs, corporate, philanthropists,
ministers, MLAs, etc, to adopt one village each and develop our state into smart Andhra Pradesh.”