NEP ensures greater freedom for youth to take decisions: PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that the new National Education Policy ensures greater freedom for youth. He was speaking at the 42nd Convocation at the Anna University in Chennai. Quoting Swami Vivekananda, Modi highlighted the importance of youth in nation building and said that the entire world is looking at India's youth with great hope "because you are the growth engines of the country, and India is the world's growth engine. It is a great honour. It is also a great responsibility, which I am sure you will excel in."

He said Indian youth have unique opportunities in the era of tech-led disruptions because of three factors favouring them. The first is the taste for technology. There is a growing sense of comfort with the use of technology, he said. The PM said that from digital payments to farmers using apps to children using tech platforms for education, the country has been responsive in terms of adoption of technology.

The risk-taking ability of youth in their career is what the PM described as the second important factor. Gone are the days when getting settled meant getting a job, he said. "Now, the situation is the opposite. People ask whether you have tried to start something on your own. Even if one is working in a job, it is seen as cooler to work for startups," he said. He said the temperament for reform is the third important factor. "Earlier, there was a notion that a strong government means it should control everything and everyone. But we have changed this. A strong government does not control everything or everyone," Modi said. "It controls the system's impulse to interfere. A strong government is not restrictive but responsive. A strong government does not move into every domain. It limits itself and makes space for people's talents. A strong government's strength lies in its humility to accept that it cannot know or do everything."