The Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan arrived in Indore on Jan. 7 to host the 17th Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas Summit. He praised the Indian diaspora for being the most successful community in different regions of the world, and said that they have integrated with their adopted countries while maintaining close relations with India.
The Minister that said youth are the major driving force in India and overseas. The youth of India and diaspora community have made a remarkable journey in innovation, technology and creativity. They need a platform to connect, assist each other and share their challenges. Working with youth diaspora will expand India’s reach in the diaspora community. In an exclusive interview with New India Abroad, he highlighted Indian government’s focus on education policy, skill development and its plan to become a global leader with the help of the diaspora.
The government of India has been making efforts with the focus on skill development. “We are having facility partnership with various countries in the world through which we feel that we can help the diaspora, we can engage with them, and which will contribute to the development of India as per less the welfare of Indian diasporas,” said Muraleedharan.
He referred to the United Nations Development Programme report that has projected that by 2050, India would dominate the growth in the Asia Pacific region as its working age population of over a billion people would contribute to the country’s growth.
“In the next 20 years, the labour force in the industrialised world would decline by 4 percent, but in India it would increase by 32 percent,” the Minister emphasized. “If the work force is trained well with effective skill development programme, there would be a surplus of around 47 million skilled workforces. We have the opportunity to become the skill capital of the world. There is a huge opportunity to invest in education and skilling.”
“The government of India has introduced new education policy which is bringing about a great shift. There is a shift from learners’ base approach to the skilled based approach and that’s going to bring a great change in the lives of people, and in the development of the education state of India,” he mentioned.
