Bhubaneswar, Apr 29 (Bureau) India’s youth have the talent and ability to take the country to great heights with proper encouragement and guidance, Odisha Governor Raghubar Das said on Monday. “The youth today are closely linked to the country’s development and have been proving their mettle in different spheres on the global stage,” Das said while speaking at the inaugural function of the Odisha chapter of Youth for Nation (Y4N) at the SOA Deemed to be University here. The Governor, who was the chief guest on the occasion, said the launching of the state chapter of Y4N would go a long way in encouraging the young people to excel in various fields and help inculcate the spirit of nationalism in them. Stating that India was the youngest country in the world with an average age of 29 years, Das said 65 percent of India’s population was below the age of 35 years.
The Governor released a book titled ‘100 Great IITians’ written by Chancellor of Uttar Pradesh Technical University and Working President of Y4N, Commander V.K. Jaitly The book focused on those IITians like Nandan Nilekani, Narayan Murthy, Damodar Acharya, and Gopal Chandra Mitra who were not lured by great careers abroad but chose to serve their motherland with distinction. The Governor said the New Education Policy (NEP) enunciated by the government was designed to skill and equip the students to face future challenges and create more opportunities for them. He said “Swami Vivekananda dreamed that India should lead the world and the young people need to be guided in that direction,” Das said India had already become the 5th largest economic power in the world leaving behind the British who ruled the country for 200 years.
In a competitive world, the country that has knowledge and competence will go forward, he said. Addressing the gathering comprising mostly students and faculty members, Prof. Damodar Acharya, former Director of IIT-Kharagpur said the biggest need today was to skill the young people to empower the country. While in the eligible age group only 30 percent of about 150 million students were in the higher education system, the remaining were outside it, he said. “We have to make them skilled and productive. These students with the right type of attitude, training, and ethics can accelerate national growth and make India the third largest economy in the next ten years,” he said adding national pride has to be inculcated in them. President of the Odisha chapter of Y4N, Prof. Durg Singh Chauhan, said the Y4N initiative would be reaching out to students in all universities to connect with the students and help them imbibe the nationalist spirit. Chauhan said that people in their 70s were also involved in the Y4N movement to provide experience. The organization, which has senior people drawn from the ranks of retired bureaucrats, technocrats, academicians, and entrepreneurs, was working on the principle ‘Old for Youth, Youth for Nation,’ he said.