Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh laid down a seven-point program on Tuesday to usher in a second green revolution that he said was urgently needed in India to promote integrated rural development and increased productivity.

“There is need for large scale investment in rural India and creation of a human resource base,” he said during a speech that opened the annual Indian Science Congress at Hyderabad. He said India also needed to encourage environmentally sustainable growth to absorb surplus manpower.

The three major challenges in the way of promoting rural development, according to Mr. Singh, are augmentation of agricultural productivity, availability of affordable technologies for energy and water, and efficient farm and non-farm technologies.

The prime minister’s seven-point plan includes: soil health enhancement; water harvesting and conservation; access to affordable credit; reform of crop and life insurance; improvement of rural infrastructure; regulation of the farm market; and application of science and technology to improve seed quality and productivity of livestock and poultry.

Touching on the issues facing the scientific community in the globalized world, Mr. Singh said that the “rapidly falling share” of agriculture in national income was a sign of concern. He called upon the scientists to develop appropriate technologies to create more jobs in rural areas.

Global Economy

The prime minister also addressed students from three American universities—Columbia, Wharton, and Stanford—saying India's future depends on integrating its economy with the global economy. The process of economic liberalization had helped the Indian economy to become more open and unleash creativity among Indian entrepreneurs, he added.

Mr. Singh also said that growth alone was not sufficient to mitigate poverty, and that the country needed to bridge the divide between urban and rural areas.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Singh said that rural and infrastructure development and creation of more irrigation facilities to bring additional land under cultivation were the federal government’s priority areas. “This will help to achieve the target of 8 percent annual growth rate,” he said.

The federal government has plans to bring more than 10 million hectares of land under cultivation with proper irrigation facilities.