Dictionary of land revenue terms in India

74 per cent Indians live in rural areas. Agriculture employs 66 per cent of her workforce. Although the share of agriculture in GDP has declined, amounting to only 28% in 1997-98, agriculture con tinues to be the mainstay of the economy and therefore demands focussed attention of aspiring administrators. Most crucial the issue of poverty, still endemic in our villages. There is a rising con cern for uneven distribution of land assets. There are the problems of illiteracy, malnutrition, paucity of rural housing, burden of dis eased life years, unsatisfactory sanitation, a shortage of potable drinking water, all factors in problems of inequality, social frag mentation and a general lack of opportunity for growth.

These are among the foremost of the myriad challenges that a young administrator must face. He needs sagacity embellished no doubt with the skills of state-of-the-art technology, but the founda tion must rest on a grasp of the accumulated administrative acu men built over centuries. A deep insight into land, issues concern ing it, its influence on social relations including such as tenancy and share cropping, its primordial conditions, in face of growing markets for rural products and the various factors of productivity are a prerequisite for success as an administrator.