Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday made an appeal to the youth to ideate, innovate, research and make headways in the field of science and technology to take the county to greater heights.

”The use of technology will increase across all sectors in the coming times and there is a need to achieve excellence in science and technology,” he stressed while addressing the 16th convocation of the Janardan Rai Nagar Rajasthan Vidyapeeth (Deemed-to-be-University) in Udaipur.

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He made an appeal to the youth to come up with new ideas to empower the country in the field of science and technology and help the government in its efforts to make India safer, stronger and self-reliant.

Rajnath was of the view that the youth possessed a unique power to create, nurture and transform and the government was providing a level-playing field to them to ensure that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘New India’ was soon realised.

He listed a number of steps taken to tap the potential of young minds, including the National Education Policy 2020, which focuses on holistic education and lays equal emphasis on knowledge and skills. He also spoke on campaigns such as Ayushman Bharat, and the Fit India movement, which aim to create a healthy, educated and skilled workforce.

The defence minister also highlighted the steps taken by the Ministry of Defence for the youth to contribute to national security.

He also enumerated the initiatives taken to promote an entrepreneurial mindset among the youth. He stated that a culture of venture capital funding has been developed for start-ups, which was important for their hand-holding at an early stage. “The number of unicorns in the country has crossed 100 from just four or five eight-nine years. About one lakh start-ups have emerged in the last few years. It is a big proof of the success of start-up-based innovation ecosystem,” he added.

Rajnath pointed out that whether it was economy, science and technology, health or defence, India, the fifth largest economy, has emerged as a strong nation in recent years and was well on course to find itself among the top three economies by 2027.