BHUBANESWAR: Young people will have a major role to play in making India a country of 5 trillion dollar economy, said Union Human Resources Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank here on Monday.
Delivering the first lecture of SOA Lecture Series on ‘A New Education Policy for a New India’ at SOA University here, Pokhriyal said, “With more than 33 crore students pursuing education in over 1,000 universities, 45,000-degree colleges and 16 lakh schools, India is a country of youth and a lot hinges on our young generation.”
“A new education policy is therefore of paramount importance in strengthening our educational system to guide our youths in the right direction,” the Minister said. The proposed National Education Policy, which is at the drafting stage, will be finalised soon, he added.
“The proposed policy had been put through much scrutiny and was designed to strengthen academics so as to influence the world through India’s age-old value system. The policy has been subjected to intense consultation as it was put in the public domain for suggestions. In fact, it has been the biggest ever consultation taken up in the world where we have received more than 2.25 lakh suggestions,” he said.
The Union Minister said the new policy is being framed after a gap of over three decades and will be based on India’s ethics and value system and has the objective of strengthening the nation while making life meaningful.
Referring to the Centre’s Make in India, Digital India, Skill India and Start-up India programmes, he said the endeavours would take the country to the top and the new education policy will encourage more such initiatives.
The Union Minister also released a book titled ‘Samayara Chitralipi’ that comprises selected stories authored by him and translated into Odia by one of the SOA directors Mahendra Prasad. The Minister was felicitated by SOA founder president Prof Manojranjan Nayak.SOA Vice-Chancellor Prof RK Chauhan was also present.