NEW INDIA CONCLAVE 2018 - ‘AB BARI HAMARI’
PRIME MINISTER NARENDRA MODI ADDRESSES
THE NEW INDIA CONCLAVE IN NEW
DELHI
Monday, July 16, 2018: NEW INDIA CONCLAVE 2018 - ‘AB BARI HAMARI’
PRIME MINISTER NARENDRA MODI ADDRESSES
THE NEW INDIA CONCLAVE IN NEW DELHI
Monday, July 16,
2018: New India Conclave held today at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi, saw
the successful culmination of the last few months of the biggest non-government
rural outreach programme. This platform brought together multiple stakeholders
to deliberate upon the need to focus on strategies to bridge the gap between
rural and urban India, and empowering rural India to be the country’s growth
engine. This nationwide initiative was spearheaded by Y4D Foundation in
association with Dalmia Cement, a leading Indian cement supplier and reputed
NGOs - Avanee Foundation and Aga Khan Rural Support Programme.
The Conclave began
with an inaugural speech by the Hon’ble Vice President, Shri Venkaiah Naidu. He
began by remembering Mahatma Gandhi’s post-Independence call of ‘back to
villages’, which was a thoughtful suggestion as most of the country lived in
villages. He observed that even though a majority of India’s population lives
in rural areas, yet the country has largely remained focused on industries,
organized sectors and urban population. He stressed the need to bridge the
rural and urban gap and focus equally on the development of agriculture and
industry so as to enable India to become the third largest economy in the world
over the next 10 to 15 years.
He also spoke of
people migrating to cities from rural areas for the sake of employment,
education, entertainment, economic upliftment and enhanced medical facilities
and thus the need to create these 5 E’s in rural India. According to him it is
imperative to make agriculture profitable, so that farmer’s children choose to
pursue farming rather than look to other vocations. Several schemes have
been launched by the Govt. with a vision to double the farmer income by 2022;
however, the country needs a multi-dimensional approach to ensure that the
farmer gets the right price for his produce.
Additionally, Shri
Naidu stated that in his opinion loan wavers were not a long term solution.
Instead, providing the farmer the right infrastructure, right price,
encouragement, support with marketing for their produce was more important.
Similarly, populist schemes like free power were a short term solution. He
stressed the importance of skill development, focusing on research and
scientific progress as well as women empowerment by providing them with equal
opportunities.
The
Conclave upholds the sentiment of making rural transformation everyone’s
business. A report by KPMG and Y4D on the theme states that growth and
development of rural India will increase purchasing power of the population and
can positively contribute to National Economic Development. Particularly with
majority of India’s population (69%) residing in rural areas and a high
percentage of them poor, rural development assumes strategic importance for
nation building and its failure stalls national progress.
In its first year itself Y4D
has successfully achieved their goal of reaching 50,000 villages across the
country. The Conclave has created a platform to recognize and felicitate the
efforts of young rural achievers and bringing their success stories to the
limelight. These included success stories about model villages, rural
entrepreneurs, NGOs working with the community – all with an aim to inspire a multitude of stakeholders to continue to contribute
towards rural development. The
forum stressed on the need for mapping private sector capabilities to rural needs, where the areas of
collaboration could range from on ground collaboration; advisory, research and
policy level support to most importantly, private investments and fund
mobilization.
The Prime Minister addressed the concluding session
of the Conclave and began by appreciating the initiative of the New India
Conclave and committed the support of the Government along with his blessings.
The country has been undergoing a transformation and over the past four years
the nation has made progress towards scaling new heights in the 21st century.
He reiterated that India was no longer amongst the Fragile Five. Today India is
the fastest growing economy in the world. Poverty is declining in India at a
fast pace; 5 crore people have moved out of poverty in the last 2 years. He
stated that the Government can only play the role of the enabler. He credited
the power of the youth to bring about much needed change and developing a New
India created by Young India. Young people in India have the will to
change things. Citing the example of more than 3 crore children having been
vaccinated; 1.75 lakh km of roads built and 18,000 villages having received
electricity over the last 4 years; 85 lakh homes have been electrified since
October 2017; 4 crore and 65 lakh gas connections reach the poor – all with the
effort and commitment of Indian youth.
Prime
Minister Modi appreciated the Conclave’s
tag line, ‘Ab Hamari Bari’, as rightly applicable to the youth as well as the
country. Shri Modi spoke of new India being a country of opportunities for all. Anything
is possible; everything is achievable – the PM stated that this spirit will
drive the growth of India. Several persons who have achieved a lot in
life and are winning accolades for the country come from small towns of India.
He cited examples of those topping 10th and 12th exams
coming from small towns of the country; Hima Das who captured the attention of
the entire world was from a small town in Assam.
These people represent new India.
The New India
Conclave aims to bring about a paradigm change in how corporates and other key
stakeholders look at the attractive and emerging opportunities offered by the
emerging rural sector to make a difference in many of these areas. The day long
Conclave witnessed opinion leaders of the nation discussing opportunities and
the enormous untapped potential of rural India through a series of insightful
panel discussions on “Youth participation in rural development”, “Skilling
needs and business opportunities in rural India” as well as “Sustainable growth
in rural India”. The panel discussions were led by speakers from varied
backgrounds like Mr. Pankaj Kumar Bansal - Managing Director, Chennai Metro and
Mr. Yogeshwar Dutt – Indian Olympian amongst others, to discuss how existing government
policies can be improved to benefit rural India. The Conclave was also
addressed by Dr Anil Jain, Rajya Sabha MP.
The Hon’ble Prime
Minister Shri. Narendra Modi awarded national winners under several categories,
namely – Modern Farmer, Model Village, Village Friend, Inspirational Youth and
Village Entrepreneur as well as the Dalmia Dil Jode Desh Jode award.
Runners-up in these
categories received awards from Shri Narendra Singh Tomar – Minister of Rural
Development and Panchayati Raj and Chief Minister of Maharashtra Shri. Devendra
Fadnavis. Subsequently, State winners were awarded by Col. Rajyavardhan Singh
Rathore – Minister of Youth Affairs, and Shri. James Sangam – Meghalaya Home
Minister.
A key associate and
event partner of New India Conclave, Dalmia Cement has been intensively
involved in creating work opportunities for urban as well as rural youth to
provide them with the right foundation and right education, ultimately
realising their vision of transforming an entire nation. Managing Director,
Dalmia Bharat Group Mr. Puneet Dalmia said: “Dalmia Cement has been at the
forefront of empowering the youth through skill training programs and building
rural infrastructure over the past many years. Rural India has immense
potential if the farmers and youth are linked to technology and provided with
basic infrastructure. New India Conclave is a first of its kind initiative that
recognises young rural talent that is making a difference and contributing to
nation building. Dalmia Cement is delighted to partner with Y4D to support
discovery to rural talent and support them in nation building."
Commenting on the
success of the inaugural edition of the New India Conclave, Mr. Praful Nikam,
President, Y4D Foundation said, “We are pleased with the response we have
received for this initiative. We believe this initiative will change the lives
of millions of our fellow citizens in the rural areas of the country. In the
coming years, we aim to create a stage that will give the achievers an
opportunity to showcase the work they have done, and become an inspiration to
others to follow”.
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