Be torchbearers of developed India in 2047: Dr Jitendra Singh to DU students

New Delhi, Oct 16 (PTI) Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Wednesday asked students of the Delhi University to act as “torchbearers” to lead a developed India in 2047.

The reforms brought in the last 10 years have given self-confidence to Indian youth and raised their esteem globally, he said.

Addressing Delhi University students, the minister called them “torchbearers of 2047 India” and exhorted them to lead the “Viksit Bharat 2047″, envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi”, according to an official statement.

Singh, the Minister of State for Personnel, was addressing a certificate distribution and felicitation of young minds at Daulat Ram College here.

He shared with the audience information about the various steps taken by the government in the last 10 years benefiting the youth and students.

“It has been an amazing journey as India comes a long way from fragile five before 2014 to become top five,” Singh said.

Within 100 days of taking charge, this government-sanctioned infrastructure projects worth Rs 15 lakh crore, and decided to develop 12 industrial nodes in which 40 lakh youths will be employed, said the statement issued by the personnel ministry.

Singh recalled the initiative of self-certification by the prime minister a few months after taking charge, saying, “Youths (now) no longer have to go to any gazetted officer for certification of documents” which shows the kind of faith this government posed on the youth.

“There had been allegations that despite getting good marks in written examination, government service aspirants were getting subpar marks in the interview,” he said.

To tackle this, the government came up with a solution. “In the Group C service and below of the government of India, the provision for interview was done away with,” he was quoted as saying in the statement.

Speaking about start-ups, Singh said, “Our government incubated and accelerated this concept in the country. There were only 350-375 start-ups before 2014, which have now reached around 3.75 lakh. We are now third in the world in terms of start-ups.”

If India wants to become developed by 2047, it has to have global benchmarks and the country has started going in that direction rapidly, he added.