Diary of a Rural Manager!

Rural tourism has a chance to tap the potential of India’s unique heritage through rural tourism development for inclusive growth and poverty reduction. Even rural tourism can be divided into three main components: 1.  Fair trade tourism is about ensuring that the people whose land, natural resources, labor, knowledge, and culture are used for tourism activities actually benefit from it. 2.  Community-based tourism is tourism in which local residents (often rural, poor, and economically marginalized) invite tourists to visit their communities with the provision of facilities and activities. 3.  Ecotourism is tourism that unites conservation, communities, and sustainable travel. It implies responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people There is a need for comprehensive research in finding out suitable locations, ascertaining market size, tourist profile, perceptions, and expectations, demarcating ro...

Ethiopian officials announced that the country had surpassed its goal and planted over 353 million trees in 12 hours . This massive project is done to tackle the effects of climate change. This is a well-intentioned action but will not be converted into a tangible impact. Why? Two reasons: Design Flaws and Corruption. This project is prone to corruption by design. Is this the right intervention for the problem in the first place? The mass plantation approach for afforestation efforts seems to overlook previous afforestation issues by encouraging mass plantings to meet a national quota. Afforestation must be done by planning long-term duration and phase-wise distribution. The mass plantation drive is an event management and PR scenario form of intervention. The approach tackles neither development nor conservation goals without ensuring the long-term sustainability of the development or conservation impacts. Each state like Maharashtra , Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, etc. has don...

On 30th June 2019, I had an esteemed opportunity to participate in Industry Connect Talk of Xavier School of Rural Management. The talk was conducted for the Rural Management batch of 2019-21. Truth be shared, this is the first time, I’ve given a talk in public place and that too a batch of aspiring rural managers. The speech revolved around exploring diverse opportunities in two years of college stay. I also gave a brief overview of the skills, students are expected to acquire before they venture into their careers in the respective domains of their choice Career or academic goals may vary from time to time yet few qualities always help in gaining new heights. These three qualities were insights of a colleague ( Subash Kumar ). These are: Relationship Management, Deep commitment to Work and Always remembering 'Bad times will last longer than good times'. Interaction with students was really good but student debt was on the mind of each & every rural manager. PS: ...

I have been working in the development sector for six years, longer if you include student life in my alma mater’s rural management program. So, would you believe that I have never, not once, had a meeting with an ecologist? I had only attended a small talk by Mr. Pankaj Sekhsaria in the  early monsoon of 2011 . I accompanied office colleagues to a meeting at the Aravalli Biodiversity Park . We met Mr. M. Shah Hussain, Scientist In-charge, and Ms. Aisha Sultana, Field Biologist. It was a worthwhile experience to understand the technical process that went into setting up the whole park. The ecological conservation and restoration started in 2004 and 450 acres (a total area of 700 acres) have been completed by now. The whole area was Acacia acacia-dominated forest with mesquite (Vilayti Babool trees) as a dominant species. The team of ecologists replaced mesquite with forest communities present in the Aravali range in Haryana, Rajasthan, and Gujarat. Their efforts have converted...