Felicitaion of Kuldeep Sharma by Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh

Dear all,



Prof. Prem Kumar Dhumal, Chief Minister Himachal today launched an ambitious Rs. 300 crore NABARD funded Operation Doodh Ganga Project, by lighting the ceremonial lamp to make Himachal Pradesh self sufficient in milk production and to mark commemoration of the birth anniversary of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhayaya at a remote village Paplota in Arki Sub Division of Solan district today.It became a great day for us as I was felicitated by the chief minister for advising and setting up the first milk processing plant for a woman SHG enterprise in the state. This project is also the first organic milk production and processing plant in Himachal Pradesh. The project is being done for Jagriti Mahila Kisan samiti under the stewardship of its yound and dynamic leader Ms Kiran Koundal. Ms Kiran is also a recipeient of many state level and national awards for her contribution of developing SHG and providing livelihoods to hundreds of woman in the area. Taking it further the project Doodh Ganga is being implemented by the State Government in collaboration with the Animal Husbandry Department of Himachal Pradesh, targetting 10,000 woman Self Help Groups (SHGs). The project aims to transform them into micro-enterprises engaged in dairy farming and to empower 50,000 rural households economically.



Addressing a public meeting on the occasion, Chief Minister said that the Doodh Ganga project would be initially launched on pilot basis in the districts of Solan, Sirmour and Mandi and would be extended to rest of the State to achieve the objective within the fixed time frame. He said that all eligible SHGs would be provided interest free loan under the Project for dairy farming activities for a period of five years subject to a maximum of Rs. 3.00 lakh, through various nationalised banks all over the State. He said that 10 percent of the project cost would be borne by the members of SHGs out of their savings.



He said that Operation Doodh Ganga would be generating livelihood opportunities to the members of SHGs on a sustainable basis encouraging them for taking up income generating activities and setting up rural micro enterprises in dairy by imparting training for acquiring/upgrading relevant skills and entrepreneurial abilities and also infusing fresh capital through Venture Capital Fund.



Chief Minister said that Himachal Pradesh and NABARD were closely inter-related as both had jointly achieved the objective of constructing 13,672 new rooms to provide every government primary school with three-room accommodation under Sarswati Bal Vidya Sankalp Yojna at a cost of Rs. 126 crore during the earlier term of the government in the State. He said that the State had successfully achieved the target of constructing 13,672 rooms within a period of three years.

He said that NABARD had been funding various road construction projects to strengthen the communication network in the State. He thanked the NABARD authorities for their cooperative and helping attitude towards the developmental requirements of hilly State. He said that Himachal Pradesh was primarily a agrarian State and 92 percent of its population was rural based. He said that there was necessity to strengthen the basic amenities and infrastructural facilities in rural areas so that migration to urban areas was checked. He said that the State Government was committedly moving ahead to achieve the objective of road, education, health in every village thereby generating self-employment avenues for rural youth to make them self reliant to ultimately live with self respect and dignity.



Prof. Dhumal said that the State had already launched Rs. 353 crore Pandit Den Dayal Kisaan-Baagwan Samridhi Yojna to motivate farmers to go for modern farming in controlled climatic conditions. He appealed the farmers to avail upto 80 percent subsidy over the total cost of the poly houses and micro-irrigation schemes. He said that women empowerment was on the top agenda of the State Government and was committedly implementing various schemes aimed at their socio-economic upliftment.

He said that the State Government had also announced awards to the people informing the local authorities of any female foeticide which had emerged a big challenge before the State Government. The State Government had already decided to provide 50 percent reservation to women in all the panchayati raj institutions with a view to provide them population proportional representation for the policy formulation at the grass root level institutions of democracy. He said that besides implementing various programmes effectively mass awareness was being created amongst the awakened society, especially amongst the women and NGOs could be instrumental in bringing the sex ratio in the State at par, he added. He said that the gram panchayat with highest female birth rate was being awarded an additional development grant of Rs. 5 lakh as an incentive.

Chief Minister said that Himachal Pradesh was known for its quality milk production which required to be revived. He said that the State Government had already enhanced the procurement price of milk by Rs. 4 per litre during past 20 months to motivate farmers for taking up animal husbandry activities. He appealed to the rural masses to adopt dairy farming as their self employment venture, and earn livelihood for themselves and their families, at their door steps and also meet the milk demand available in State itself and make white revolution endeavours a dream come true in the State. He assured the people of providing them at home veterinary services promptly. He said that nodal officers had also been appointed in every district of the State. The deliberation of the chief minister not only unleash his noble intentions to support the 90 % of population of the state who live in the rural areas but also the role and support of NABARD in non farm areas like education and roads. I wish all the stakeholders a great success. I feel this is a true epitome of inclusive marketing in non farm sector to give a fair chance to everyone to grow.


I feel our contribution and for that matter of the state government also as a drop in the ocean to bring prosperity for all in the world.




With best regards

First Things First

First Things First
For the last few days I have been finding myself blessed as well cursed the most. Seems to be a paradox but it is true and such is the state of most of us but we are not courageous enough to accept it. A man of our generation takes around 15-20 years for an overnight success. In my case it is slightly more than 22 years. One actually starts to feel the success and the fragrance is shared amongst all the members of his community in the environment around. Every one you meet is ready to do a project with you and every call is getting converted into sales. Your time become completely booked for the year and your scope of earning just gets seized as there is nottime left in the calendar to spare. This becomes the blessed part but simulatenously with the commitments come the responsibilities also. God the greteast socialist of the world has actually given 24 hours to everyone in the world. Same was done with me also. Now the curse started to play its role when I began to struggle to meet the timelines for various projects which I undertook and committed to deliver. At that junction of time I contacted various time management experts but most of them told me about those stale theories of prioritising the work and activities. Suddenly I got suggested by my friend Amardeep about a book by Stephen Covey i.e First Thing First. Amardeep also was undergoing a program on I Can I Will by some motivation training group in Delhi. I was watching him becoming more comfortable in delivering the jobs at hand in time and with least of stress. I read and heard Covey for his famous book on seven habits and also remembered the habit of First thing First but was unable to identify on what else could he elaborate in a dedicated publication on this habit. Then one day while I was at Ahmedabad airport and waiting for my flight that I found this book on the book store. I started to read this book and belive you me by the time I reached Delhi I had almost finished half of this book. This book though was having some practical templates and more cases and anecdotes to get the point through but I feel the lesson which I got was much more relevant then all the theories on job and activities prioritisation.
This book talked about prioritising the role before prioritising the jobs or activities. Friends that has become the turning point in my life. Since then I have been identifying various roles which I live and also trying to prioritising them. I suggest all of you to buy and read this book to become more effective in whatever you are doing.

Cheers Kuldeep