Development and Implementation of the Smart Village Concept as a Challenge for the Modern Power Industry on the Example of Poland

Nowadays, while cities are often subject to research in terms of their development, especially smart development, studies on rural areas are rare. However, the development of the latter is very important. It is important that rural areas develop economically and socially. Smart villages are a challenge for the modern energy sector. The authors of the article try to answer the question: What are the challenges for the modern energy sector in the context of rural development? The aim of this article is to identify challenges for the modern power industry in the concept of smart countryside development. The article begins with the presentation of the essence of smart villages and the essence of energy policy. The research facilitated the identification of basic challenges that prevent or slow down the development of the smart villages in terms of modern energy solutions, as perceived by experts and residents, and farmers and entrepreneurs operating in rural areas. The article identifies a number of energy challenges in the context of a smart village. They include, among others, a lack of awareness regarding the impact of energy on the environment, a low level of public knowledge about new energy solutions, and a lack of social trust in modern energy solutions in rural areas. The research was conducted in rural areas in the north-western part of Poland. At the end, the article presents a model of rural development in the context of the modern energy sector. The research also allowed the creation of a smart village development model that focuses on smart economy, intelligent environment, intelligent people, and intelligent governance. Since these are universal solutions, they can be used as a proposition for other countries.

Which Stakeholders’ Sector Matters in Rural Development? That Is the Problem

In the age of COVID, the regaining of economies appears mostly imperative, and rural areas could play a crucial role in this framework. The question of inhabitants’ dispersion and low density, and the exodus of rural people to bigger urban centers have determined an adverse effect on rural development. Rural isolation rises to be a higher order good, delivering a higher degree of security in the pandemic context for those seeking refuge from gatherings of cities. Rural areas provide food, natural environments, and resources that help occupations, development, and wealth trends and preserve cultural heritage. Consequently, rural spaces are vital for several motives and thus it is essential to focus on issue of rural development, especially since lacking rural development does not allow dialoging about development in a regional and/or national perspective. This paper investigates the stakeholders’ impact on rural development, by considering the increasing role of stakeholders as well as the specificity of the diverse objectives pursued by these groups. As there are several stakeholder groups, attention was sweeping, defining them in a sectoral way to corporate, sciences, public administrations, and society. Where there was a need to distinguish among these sectors groups of stakeholders in a more detailed way, such identification took place, for example, in relation to social leaders. The analysis of the results of the questionnaire survey performed in 2020 aimed to accomplish the identified purposes of the paper. The online survey using the CAWI method was conducted in southeastern Poland among people representing all stakeholder groups. The outcomes of the investigation indicate the great prominence of business in the development of rural areas being able to generate added value and influence the increase of entity potential.

Impact of Rural Roads in India: A Case Study Based on Spatial Data Analysis

The Government of India launched its National Rural Roads Program known as Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) to connect the 167 thousand unconnected villages in the country by all-weather roads to improve connectivity there. It is important to study the impact of such intervention on various socio-economic indicators of rural development there. This study assesses the impact of those roads on the different aspects of rural community. The assessment has been completed based on spatial visualisation of the impact created by various facility parameters in rural development using various questionnaires formed and applied on a few selected blocks. Spatial data was collected and integrated using open-source software (QGIS) and statistical analysis has been performed to understand the percentage change in socio-economic indicators related to education, healthcare, agriculture, marketing and employment opportunities which are essential elements of the integrated rural development in India. The analysis appears helpful in estimating the sensitivity of government policies in the context, and thus understanding the requirement of policy changes and implementation in rural India.

Responsiveness of rural development to budget management attributes: Evidence from Ogun State, Nigeria

The essence of local government as contained in the Nigerian Constitution is bringing government closer to the people and make them feel the impact of governance. This study examined the responsiveness of rural development to three of the attributes of public budgeting (effectiveness, openness, and adequacy) in selected local governments in Ogun State, Nigeria. The objective was to establish the functional association and interconnectedness between the explained and explanatory variables. Data were gathered through the administration of a five-point Likert scale questionnaire distributed to 800 respondents in 8 local governments in Ogun States, out of which 348, representing 43.5%, were retrieved and used for analysis. Both descriptive statistics and ordinary least square regression were utilized in the study. The result showed that three explanatory variables, namely budget effectiveness, budget openness, and budget adequacy, are positively related to rural development, although the impact of budget adequacy was shown to be insignificant. The implication is that the effectiveness of budget management and the openness of the budget in terms of transparency and accountability are more responsive and influential determinants of rural development than the adequacy of the budget estimates. The paper, therefore, recommended improvement in budget openness through more consultations and accessibility to budget information by the public as well as monitoring of projects and programs within the local council to engender development and add value to the rural dwellers.

ЗНАЧЕННЯ ІНФРАСТРУКТУРНОГО ЗАБЕЗПЕЧЕННЯ ІННОВАЦІЙНО-ІНВЕСТИЦІЙНИХ ПРОЦЕСІВ У РОЗВИТКУ СІЛЬСЬКИХ ТЕРИТОРІЙ В УМОВАХ КОНКУРЕНТНОЇ ЕКОНОМІКИ

The article provides insights into implications of modern competitive economy for the national economic development and argues that in the new business realia it is critical to search for internal reserves for socioeconomic growth at all levels of administrative and territorial entities including socioeconomic development of rural areas based on natural, technological, human and other factors aimed at attaining competitive advantages. The study demonstrates that in the context of innovation and investment processes, building appropriate infrastructure is the priority objective to boost rural areas development. Such approach will contribute to creating an attractive investment environment, shaping an innovative structure of rural areas able to provide a full chain of creating and disseminating innovations and new technologies in production, enhance investment and innovation capacity of rural areas, modernization and change of territorial industries. The study identifies the terms and determinants in building effective infrastructure support for facilitating innovation and investment process of rural development and its properties that arise within the competitive economy paradigm. Apart from that, the study presents a framework of endogenous and exogenous factors affecting the infrastructure support for innovation and investment processes to foster rural development in Ukraine. The following factors are discussed as the most critical ones: legal, financial, investment-based, organizational, managerial, psychological, motivational, economic, consulting, informational, professional, scientific, industrial, technological, marketing, socioeconomic, etc. The summary outlines the key vectors of institutional, organizational and economic transformation that will promote building effective infrastructure support for further innovative development of rural areas.

Reflections of the Funds Distributed Under the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance for Rural Development (IPARD) Program on Çanakkale

The European Union (EU) provides financial assistance to the countries that are the current candidates and the potential candidates for the development of rural areas. These countries are supported by rural development (RD), one of the five components of the instrument for pre-accession assistance (IPA). Turkey is also a candidate country to benefit from the financial assistance provided by the EU. This research aims to reveal the situation of the projects carried out with IPARD in Çanakkale province within the country. As a matter of fact, Çanakkale takes place at the lower ranks in terms of the number of projects and the number of grants. Despite its potential, the reasons for not achieving the desired results in this province are the lack of qualified consultants, insufficient access to beneficiaries, and problems in licensing of lands. This research, thus, has also put forward various solution suggestions in order to minimize these problems.