New Delhi, May 16: India Inc. has finally warmed to the idea of a rural “marriage” with the government.

Top business houses in the country, including the Tatas and Reliance, have responded positively to the government’s request to be a partner in urbanising rural India, a concept A.P.J. Abdul Kalam had repeatedly stressed on when he was the President.

Sources in the rural development ministry said nearly 100 companies had responded positively to a notice issued last month inviting “expressions of interest” for implementing the Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (Pura) scheme under a public-private partnership (PPP) framework.

It is learnt that companies like Tata Power, Tata Realty & Infrastructure, Jindal Steels & Power, cement manufacturer ACC and Reliance Energy have sent proposals to the government under the business model circulated in connection with the Centre-sponsored rural development scheme.

“The response that Pura has got is a good sign that corporate India is gradually waking up to something called corporate social responsibility,” said an official with the social justice ministry.

Encouraged by the response to the scheme, the social justice ministry, too, has sought the support of corporate India to develop 1,000 model villages where 50 per cent of the residents belonged to either the Scheduled Castes or the Scheduled Tribes.

Earlier, too, governments had tapped the private sector for help. Under the culture ministry’s National Cultural Fund initiative to conserve heritage structures, the government had asked companies to either adopt or maintain monuments and offered 100 per cent tax exemption for the money spent on conservation. They were also promised advertising spots at sites they agreed to maintain. But not many companies had responded.

“Corporate heads are very busy people and to get them initiated in these kinds of activities is an uphill task,” a culture ministry official explained.

Officials with the rural development ministry said the response to the Pura scheme had a lot to do with the model’s viability.

“The USP of Pura is the emphasis on convergence of several rural development schemes under a single project and the marriage between the public-interest orientation of the government and the profit orientation of the private sector. The unprecedented interest shown by the private sector validates the credibility of the scheme,” said an official.

Under the scheme, the private partner will be allowed to choose the villages it wants to develop and generate revenue in return for anchoring development projects.

The scheme involves development of livelihood opportunities, urban amenities and infrastructure facilities of prescribed standards and responsibility for maintaining the facilities for a period of 10 years.

The selected private partner would be required to provide amenities like water supply and sewerage, streets, drainage, streetlights, telecom links and electricity. The selected partner would also have to provide “add-on” revenue-earning facilities such as village-linked tourism, markets and rural-economy based projects.

The implementation of the scheme is expected to begin from January next year after the process to select the partners is over. The only condition was the bidder should have a minimum net worth of Rs 25 crore and experience in developing infrastructure projects with a cumulative value of at least Rs 50 crore.

A time frame of 13 years has been set for the success of the scheme.