There is no doubt that Indian Diaspora is extremely motivated and upbeat on the possibility of ‘A Transformed India” under PM Modi. I saw it for myself at Sydney this week

Team Modi must consider the involvement of this diaspora for rural development. No one in the upper echelons of Indian society, understands the pains and deprivement of rural India, than this diaspora, a majority of which comes from there and, has struggled its way up in their adopted country. They still maintain strong roots with their village and are looked up as role models by the youth back home

Here is my suggestion:
Create a comprehensive “Pravasi Village Adoption” scheme, that encompasses the five fingers of upliftment - Education, Health, opportunity, pride and equality
It should be a self sustainable, entrepreneur driven model like “Project Akshaya” of District Mallapuram, Kerala
It consists of three main constituents - The adopter who sets it up and manages it, the Entrepreneurs who run the various facilities and services provided by it to make it self sustaining and the beneficiaries
A number of Gram Vikas Kendra’s (Akin to Akshaya Centres) should be created in an entire district, to cover villages in a 2 to 3 Km radius (based on village density and their current development status) so that no citizen is far from modern facilities
Each GVK should have a day care centre cum school, an health facility, a skill development centre, a motivation centre and a village trade promotion centre
Government should provide the building, water, electricity and free high speed, fibre based Internet connectivity to this GVK as its contribution in the scheme
This should then be made available to the person or a group of persons or an association of this diaspora that is adopting this group of villages, with the proviso of allowing the person adopting it to dedicate the GVK to the memory of their ancestors. This then will become the prime driving force of this scheme, with the potential of spreading like wild fire
The scheme should be launched by the PM, in the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas, due in Jan 2015

The major duties of the adopter are as follows:
Create the centres in the GVK in consultation with the Gram Panchayat and the DM
Identify the entrepreneurs from within these villages (no outsider) who will the various centres and facilities provided by the GVK
Decide on the services and facilities that will be free and those that will have a nominal charge to make them sustainable
Install a Wi-Fi base station at the centre to provide direct connectivity to the selected entrepreneurs and the beneficiaries
Existing government schemes covering any such aspect, could be merged with this

The services for rural development that are possible under this are restricted only by imagination, having the potential of changing the face of rural India with minimal subsidies and government involvement more