The 15 day lecture series of Disha Bharat today featured Hon. Finance Minister of India Smt Nirmala Sitharaman. She spoke on the topic of ‘India – Today and Tomorrow.’ She addressed the audience through Disha Bharat’s Facebook page.
Nirmala Sitharaman said that Demography, Democracy, focus on economy of Bharat in today’s context will help the country to shape up for a stronger Atma Nirbhar Bharat of future. The Minister provided some interesting demographical numbers to support her argument. The average age of Bharat at the moment being at 29 years and China being at 37 and Japan being at 48 was a clear indication that demography would benefit the development she said. She admitted that the onus will be on the Governments to generate jobs to the youth. She also said that there is a mixture of urban and rural masses but the density of the youth is a healthy mix. A number of educated engineers, IT consultants, scientists, doctors and paramedics are contributing in Bharat and outside of the country she said.
Nirmala Sitharaman said that the way Bharat was geared up for the pandemic in being assertive, confident and portraying cordial relationship itself is a great indicator of sustained global leadership. From delivering the HCQ to various countries, zero production of PPE kits before pandemic to 5 lakh kits and exporting them only shows the commitment of Bharat she said. Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) has been something the country is to be proud of for its assistance in responding to the needs of the world. The humility in its response and never being expansionist has helped it take all the countries into confidence she added.
Bharat has always stood by law both within and in relationship amongst other countries. The contentious issues like the Triple Talaq, construction of Ram Mandir at Ayodhya have been taken up through the judicial process and it denotes the display of strong democracy. The democracy we have is vibrant, decentralised. The panchayat, states have their powers through people she said.
65% population relying on the agriculture have produced the sobriquet to India as ‘food basket’ The production of pulses, cereals, jute, rice, sugarcane, cotton have either been at the highest in the world or closest to its competitors she said. The under utilization of the natural resources hitherto like the mineral wealth will help make Bharat self reliant in the days to come she said.
The country has been spearheading in the Digital India and digital revolution she said. Tele Medicine which became a new norm during pandemic is also rapidly growing and we have succeeding to a great extent. The potential of Bharat being the Dhanwantari could be attributed to the positives of cost and quality. Bharat leading the world as Vishwaguru is what we have envisioned and it is our goal to help succeed it. She called the youth towards filing patents, encourage and enabling startups, entrepreneurial growth, move towards better marketing to obtain GI tags in the fields of agriculture, manufacturing, handicraft, natural and food stuffs. In comparison to competitor countries we stand way below but once the youth makes up its mind we cannot be stopped she said.
Concluding her talk she urged youth to acquire the skills with the help of the available technology which would make Bharat Atma Nirbhar. The civilizational advantage Bharat possessed has culturally enriched the world and we will continue to spread peace and goodwill she ended her talk.
