Digital divide is rapidly shrinking and innovation is ensuring inclusion in the country: PM Narendra Modi
New Delhi, February 21
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said the youth are the future leaders of the country, as well as nation builders.
Addressing a webinar on Budget announcements in higher education, Mr. Modi said empowering the young generation means empowering India’s future which is why there has been a lot of focus on the education sector in the Union Budget.
He said a lot of emphases has been laid on five areas related to the education sector and Universalization of Quality Education is the first among these. He said important decisions have been taken to expand the country’s education system, improve its quality and increase the capacity of the education sector.
The second area is Skill Development. Prime Minister said digital skilling ecosystem should be created in the country, and skill development should be done according to the demand of the industry. He said the Budget has focussed on making industry linkage better. The third important aspect is urban planning and design. Mr Modi said it is necessary to integrate the ancient experience and knowledge of India in this field in education.
The fourth important aspect is Internationalization. He said world-class foreign universities should come to India. He added that in industrial areas like GIFT City, institutes associated with FinTech should come and this has also been encouraged in the Budget. The fifth important aspect is (AVGC) Animation Visual Effects Gaming Comic, all of which have immense employment potential with a huge global market.
Prime Minister Modi stressed that it is digital connectivity that kept country’s education system alive in the time of global pandemic. He noted that digital divide is rapidly shrinking and innovation is ensuring inclusion in the country. He said initiatives like e-Vidya, One Class One Channel, Digital Labs, Digital University are going to help the youth a lot. This is an attempt to provide better solutions for education to poor, Dalit, backward, and tribal youth in the socio-economic setup of India.
Mr. Modi said National Digital University is a unique and unprecedented step of its kind in the education system of India. He said digital university has the power to completely eliminate the problem of seats in the country.
Greeting the nation on International Mother Language Day, Mr. Modi said mother tongue is related to the mental development of children. He said teaching of medical and technical education in local languages has started in many states.
The webinar was part of the new practice of discussion and dialogue with the stakeholders before and after the budget. The webinar had sessions on different themes of relevance and witnessed the participation of government officials of various ministries and state governments, industry representatives, skill development organizations, educationists, students, and other experts.
The session with the theme, Strengthening Industry-Skill Linkage in AVGC was co-chaired by Secretary Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Apurva Chandra and Additional Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Atul Tiwari.
In his opening remarks, Mr. Chandra said that the announcement on AVGC Task Force in the budget speech is a momentous event that recognizes the importance of the AVGC sector and the role it plays in creating employment in the country. Mr Tiwari gave a brief roundup of the activities being undertaken by the Ministry of Skill including PM Kaushal Vikas Yojana, both short and long-term training under ITIs and PM Kaushal Kendra Centers et al. He assured the audience of any support that may be required for skilling in the sector.
Experts from the sector weighed in with their thoughts on education and skilling around the AVGC sector. Need for skills for this sector at an early age in schools, the future growth and employment potential, and career options in the sector were also discussed.
In his remarks during the concluding session of the webinar, Minister of State for Education Dr. Subhas Sarkar appreciated the presentations of all the seven sub-themes. He said that the webinar aims to develop a comprehensive strategy for implementing various budget announcements. Making his observations, Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rajeev Chandrasekhar stressed that the endeavors under Skill India need to be integrated with education, ensuring students can easily access the skill ecosystem. He said, stronger employment and entrepreneurship outcomes need to be the by-product of the skill initiatives synergizing with the dynamic demands of the rapidly changing industries- local and global. The Minister said that we should be able to boost the skill development framework with the launch of DESH Stack e-portal, ensuring India becomes a leader in world-class technology.