The Rurban Mission aims to develop 300 clusters across India over 3 years to drive economic, social and infrastructure development in rural areas. These clusters, called Rurban clusters, will be developed by providing economic opportunities, skills training, entrepreneurship development and basic infrastructure. The clusters will have populations between 5,000-50,000 people and will be selected using an objective analysis of demography, economy, transportation and other factors. The mission aims to balance rural-urban development by creating smart villages with urban amenities while retaining rural character. It seeks to curb migration to cities by improving opportunities and quality of life in rural areas.

1. RURBUN-2
Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission to drive economic, social and infrastructure
development in rural areas
In an ambitious bid to transform rural areas to economically, socially and physically
sustainable spaces, the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi today
approved the Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission (SPMRM) with an outlay of Rs. 5142.08
crores.
The Mission aims at development of rural growth clusters which have latent potential for
growth, in all States and UTs, which would trigger overall development in the region. These
clusters would be developed by provisioning of economic activities, developing skills & local
entrepreneurship and providing infrastructure amenities. The Rurban Mission will thus
develop a cluster of Smart Villages.
These clusters would be well delineated areas with planned layouts prepared following
the planning norms (as laid down in the State Town and Country Planning Acts/similar Central
or State statutes as may be applicable), which would be duly notified by the State/UTs. These
plans would be finally integrated with the District Plans/Master Plans as the case may be.
The State Governments would identify the clusters in accordance with the Framework for
Implementation prepared by the Ministry of Rural Development. The clusters will be
geographically contiguous Gram Panchayats with a population of about 25000 to 50000 in plain
and coastal areas and a population of 5000 to 15000 in desert, hilly or tribal areas. There would
be a separate approach for selection of clusters in Tribal and Non-Tribal Districts. As far as
practicable, clusters of village would follow administrative convergence units of Gram
Panchayats.
For the selection of clusters, the Ministry of Rural Development is adopting a scientific
process of cluster selection which involves an objective analysis at the District, Sub District and
Village level, of the demography, economy, tourism and pilgrimage significance and

2. transportation corridor impact. While the Ministry, following this analysis, would provide a
suggestive list of sub districts to the State, the State Governments would then select the clusters
following a set of indicated principles included in the Framework for Implementation.
The mission aims to create 300 such Rurban growth clusters over the next 3 years, across
the country. The funding for Rurban Clusters will be through various schemes of the
Government converged into the cluster. The SPMRM will provide an additional funding support
of upto 30 percent of the project cost per cluster as Critical Gap Funding (CGF) as Central Share
to enable development of such Rurban clusters.
To ensure an optimum level of development, fourteen components have been suggested
as desirable for the cluster, which would include; Skill development training linked to economic
activities, Agro Processing/Agri Services/Storage and Warehousing, Digital Literacy, Sanitation,
Provision of piped water supply, Solid and liquid waste management, Village streets and drains,
Street lights, Fully equipped mobile health unit, Upgrading school /higher education facilities,
Inter-village road connectivity, Citizen Service Centres- for electronic delivery of citizen centric
services/e-gram connectivity, Public transport., LPG gas connections.
The States would prepare Integrated Cluster Action Plans for Rurban Clusters, which
would be comprehensive plan documents detailing out the strategy for the cluster, desired
outcomes for the cluster under the mission, along with the resources to be converged under
various Central Sector, Centrally Sponsored and State Sector schemes, and the Critical Gap
Funding (CGF) required for the cluster.
In addition to the Critical Gap Funding, proactive steps have been taken to ensure the
success of the mission with adequate budget provisions for supporting the State Government
towards project development, capacity building and other institutional arrangements at the state
level.
The Mission envisages institutional arrangements both at the State and Center to ensure
smooth implementation of the Mission. The Mission also has an Innovation budget towards
facilitating research, development and capacity building.

3. The scheme through development of rurban growth clusters aimed at catalyzing overall
regional growth, would thus simultaneously benefit the rural as well as urban areas of the
country, by achieving twin objectives of strengthening rural areas and de burdening the urban
areas hence leading to balanced regional development and growth of the country.
LAUNCHING
On 21 Feb 2016 Prime Minister Narendra Modi
launched the ambitious 'Rurban Mission' for developing 300 villages across the country as urban
growth centres amid his assertion that his government is for the poor, dalits and other oppressed
sections of the society.
Noting that the mission was aimed at curbing migration of youth from villages to cities, he
targeted the previous dispensations, saying nobody had thought about planning and providing
facilities even as urban areas continued to expand and slum clusters continued to come up
because of migration.
While launching the ambitious scheme in this remote tribal area of Chhattisgarh, PM Modi said a
"huge country" like India cannot have proper economic development unless even the remotest
places are developed as growth centres and provided with urban facilities and "good life" like
education, healthcare and internet while retaining the "rural spirit".
"This government is for the poor, dalits, adhivasis, oppressed and deprived sections of the
society. It is for the person standing in the last row," he said.
Listing out various schemes including Swacch Bharat and Rurban Mission, PM Modi said these
are all aimed at bringing positive changes in the lives of the poor people. "This is the only way
that will benefit the country and we have started marching on this path," he said.
Under the 'Rurban Mission', he said 300 rural centres, catering to at least four adjoining villages
each, will be developed as urban clusters with modern facilities.
100 such centres are targeted to be developed this year itself, the Prime Minister said at the event
which was also attended by Chief Minister Raman Singh and Union Rural Development Minister
Birendra Singh among others.

4. "There will be big change in quality of life. Pressure on cities will reduce and new cities will be
developed, which will be planned and have good economic activity. I am sure crores and crores
of people will benefit from this," he said.
"People in villages have been sending their children to cities for good life, education, hospitals,
internet. But in the cities, jhuggi jhompris have been coming up as people continued to migrate
from villages. Nobody thought about planning, providing facilities...So even going to cities
became difficult.
"Should we then leave such people to their fate? Should we compel people to live in jhuggi
jhompris? We cannot. That is why we came up with this 'Rurban Mission'," the Prime Minister
said.
He said if such a programme had been launched earlier, so many years would not have been
wasted in developing the tribal belts of the country.
"There are small villages where even the doctor does not go," PM Modi said, adding the Rurban
Mission will at least help ensure that urban level healthcare reaches the adjoining villages of
such rural areas.
On the occasion, he also launched a 'Jan Aushadi Bandaar' campaign for providing cheap
medication to people.
Explaining why he decided to launch such major programmes in a "remote area", the Prime
Minister said it was part of his endeavour of taking governance out of Delhi to the midst of
people and villages.
In this context, he took a dig at his predecessors, saying "earlier, the governments had the habit
of doing such programmes in Delhi's Vigyan Bhavan and used to get 24-hour publicity from
media because of friendship."
He said his endeavour of taking government to the people had ensured a new direction to
development and "with the blessings of the public, development will touch new heights".
PM Modi felicitated some villagers for extraordinary work in Swachh Bharat campaign,
including a 104-year-old woman Kunwar Bai who had sold her goats to build a toilet, and said
such activities needed to be highlighted prominently.
"I tell the national media also, if you don't show my speeches, it is ok but you should tell the
nation about people like Ma Kunwar Bai," he said.