in the Central Hall of Parliament after being sworn in as thePresident of
India.
Today our country is facing challenges such as cross-border terrorism, certain internal conflicts and unemployment. To face these challenges, there must be a vision to ensure focused action of one
billion citizens of this great country withvaried capabilities. What can be that vision? It can be none other than transforming India into a developed nation. Can the government alone achieve this vision? Now, we need a
movement in the country. This is the time to ignite the minds of the people for his movement. We will work for it. We cannot emerge as a developed nation if we do not learn to transact with speed. I recall the saintly poet Kabir's wisdom to us: "Kaal kare so aaj kar, aaj kare so ab". that means, "What you want to do tomorrow do it today, and what you want to do today do it now."
Read full article
India Today COVER STORY
Fundamental flaw
Sam Pitroda
May 1, 2009
—the writer is Chairman, National Knowledge Commission
AGENDA—EDUCATION
Today it is widely recognised that the 21st Century will be driven by knowledge, and a nation’s competitive advantage in the global economy will be sustained by a focused and innovative education agenda. To meet the challenges of this century, India needs to usher in a knowledge revolution that seeks to bring about systemic changes in the education and knowledge structures of the country.
Reform in the education system is critical for meeting the challenges posed by demography, disparity and development, and for creating an empowered generation for the future.
Reforms in higher education need greater investment, an independent regulatory body and better research facilities
While our economy has made significant strides, the education system has not kept pace with the aspirations of the 550 million below the age of 25, a demographic that has the potential to constitute one-fourth of the global workforce by 2020. Consequently, we have not been able to harness our greatest asset—our human resource.
To leverage this asset, a focused education and skill development agenda is needed that provides innovative solutions to our current challenges. The vast disparity in the country today is a result of skewed access to knowledge. To address this, we need a substantial expansion in educational opportunities, with a special emphasis on inclusion so that nobody is left out of the system. Finally, to accelerate the course of sustainable development in the country, efforts have to be undertaken to create an educational system that nourishes innovation, entrepreneurship and addresses the skill requirements of a growing economy.
Prescription
• A law on the Right to Education is needed to enhance access to quality elementary education
• Curriculum and examinations should encourage conceptual understanding of subjects
• Vocational education must be made flexible and linked with school and higher education
To initiate this process of reform, the government needs a focused agenda to address the concerns of the school, vocational and higher education streams. We need to bring about a paradigm shift in our education systems with the perspective of enhancing access and employability, and generating long-term qualitative changes that enable us to compete in the global knowledge economy.
At the bottom of the knowledge pyramid, steps must be taken to enhance access to quality elementary education, given the low levels of enrolment and high percentage of dropouts at the school level.
Read full Article...
Foundation Day Lecture by the President of India, Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil, at the Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development.
Sriperumbudur, 1st September 2007
Respected Surjit Singh Barnalaji, Governor of Tamil Nadu,
Shri Mani Shankar Aiyerji, Minister for Panchayati Raj, Youth Affairs and Sports, Govt. of India,
Smt. Poonghothai, Minister of Social Welfare, Govt. of Tamil Nadu,
Ladies and Gentlemen and all the young people who are present here from different parts of the country,
I am pleased to be visiting the Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development to deliver this Foundation Day Address and to inaugurate this beautiful Auditorium and the Logo of the Institute.
Rajivji was a young man with a dream of building a modern India, but in the midst of his high promise, he was snatched cruelly from us. Rajivji had great faith in the youth of India and believed in their empowerment. He took the significant decision of reducing the voting age from 21 years to 18 years, and this resulted in almost 50 million youth getting the right to participate in elections. Rajivji always extolled the youth to come to the forefront with creative ideas for taking India ahead. Speaking in 1988, he said, and I quote, "we are one of the world's oldest civilizations and one of the youngest nations. Our country's demographic profile has undergone a major revolution. Now, there is a preponderance of youth. This is a decisive factor in determining our nation's destiny." Unquote.
Between his 1988 speech and this Inaugural address, India has grown younger still. Today, the average age of India's population is below 25 years. Approximately, 77 crore of our people, or about 70 percent of the population, fall below the age of 35 and, thus, within the ambit of our National Youth Policy. It is likely that all through the first half of the 21st century, India will maintain this exceptionally young demographic profile while all of the developed world, and also China, are expected to grow older and older. This opens up for us the possibility of a demographic dividend. It is potentially the single most important comparative advantage we enjoy which could be leveraged to catapult India to the front ranks of human civilization.
At the same time, it is possible that this demographic advantage could turn into our single greatest disadvantage if the youth of India are not included in, and harnessed to, the process of development.
Read full article
