‘Youth at 2023 will define India @ 2047’, says Union minister Jitendra Singh

New Delhi, Apr 19 (PTI) Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Wednesday said “youth at 2023 will define India @ 2047” and highlighted the various steps taken by the Narendra Modi government for the youngsters, especially those from northeast and Jammu and Kashmir.

Speaking as chief guest at the ‘Youth 20 Consultation on Peace-Building and Reconciliation: Ushering in an Era of No War’ at the University of Jammu via video conference from here, he said three generations have passed since Independence and there was no dearth of talent or capabilities but the favourable milieu was lacking which has now been made available by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“So this is a great opportunity but at the same time also a challenge and privilege because the same youth will be deciding the face of India@2047. Those who are thirty today will be the prime citizens,” said Singh, the Minister of State for Personnel.

He said 2023 is a very important year for the country as India is holding the G20 presidency.

In this auspicious year, one can reasonably say that the prime minister has given a model of governance which is sustainable, which defies the principle of diminishing returns and which grows stronger with each new challenge, he was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the Personnel Ministry.

“Youth at 2023 will define India at 2047,” Singh said.

The minister said just after forming the government in May 2014, Modi had said that this government will be dedicated towards the upliftment of the poor, empowerment of women and the betterment of the youth.

“Before 2014, the environment in the country was one of desperation and hopelessness,” he said.

Singh said, right from the beginning, the prime minister has given the highest priority to the issues and concerns related to youth.

He said Modi has constantly sought to create new avenues and opportunities for livelihood, government jobs and income for the youth.

Singh recalled that it was Modi who, in his Independence Day address of 2015, gave a call for “StartUp India StandUp India”, which soon turned into a countrywide movement.

The result of this is that the number of StartUps in India has gone up from 300 to 400 in 2014 to more than 75,000 today and India ranks third in the world in the StartUp ecosystem, the minister said.

“Moreover, the number of Biotech StartUps in the country has increased from 50 to over 5,000 in the last eight years because of the support and enabling milieu provided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi ever since he took over in 2014.

“It is expected to cross the figure of 10,000 by 2025. Bio-economy before 2014 was just USD 10 billion, today it is USD 80 billion and the target is USD 100 billion by 2025,” he said.

The minister said Himalayan states, including Uttarakhand, have become the fountainhead for aromatic start-ups.

He said “Purple Revolution” or Aroma Mission is Jammu and Kashmir’s contribution to “StartUp India”.

Singh said the prime minister has given the highest priority to the growth and development of the northeastern region and it was a path-breaking decision under his leadership to exempt homegrown bamboo from the purview of the 100-year-old Indian Forest Act.

This helped in bringing ease of doing business in the bamboo sector for the young entrepreneurs, he said.

Earlier governments never cared to explore India’s vast ocean resources and it is for the first time after Modi took over as prime minister that there is a serious effort to explore and harness the ocean of resources and give priority to the blue economy of India, the minister said.

In the field of conventional education, at the start of 2014, there were 725 universities and now 300 more have been added in the past nine years at the rate of 1 new university every week, he said.

The minister said 145 medical colleges were opened in the country between 2004 and 2014 while “more than 260 medical colleges have been opened from 2014 to 2022 at the rate of one college of medicine per day and at the rate of two degree colleges per day so that every youth get accessibility to education.”

“He/she should not be deprived of receiving education simply because it’s not available,” Singh added.

The minister recalled that recently, the Central University of Jammu has opened North India’s first teaching department of space.

Highlighting that one of the objectives of the National Education Policy 2020 is de-linking degrees from education, Singh said linking degrees with education has taken a heavy toll on our education system and society as well.

One of the fall-outs has been an increasing number of educated unemployed, he said.

The minister concluded by saying that the onus lies on the youth of today, those who are in their thirties and who are going to be prime citizens in 2047, the statement said.

“How best they can use this opportunity depends on them,” Singh said.

The minister said he hoped that the youth at that time will be able to say that “I’m the architect of India@100″ and therefore we of the earlier generation have the responsibility to induce that capacity building of the youth of today”.