Like many youngsters of the time and armed with a degree from a prestigious institution, I always had a penchant to serve society and the larger cause of national development. Being in the higher education space gave me a chance to travel the length and breadth of the country, meeting students from all strata of society, and truly experience the grassroots transformation taking place in far flung corners of this country. The changes that I witnessed and the experiences narrated by the youth I interacted with forced me to delve deeper into the phenomenon that was taking the country by storm Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

His commitment to make youth the drivers of Viksit Bharat inspired me to volunteer for his campaign and take his vision across the country to make it a people-powered movement. Through innovative measures spanning more than a decade, the Prime Minister has ‘reformed’ our youth, by giving them ample platforms to ‘perform’. This has led to the ‘transformation’ of the youngest nation of the world. From the very first speech that Prime Minister Modi delivered from the ramparts of the Red Fort after assuming charge, his intention was clear to enable the youth. He acknowledged the contribution of youth in nation-building and proposed a two-pronged vision for the youth in the coming years – to become job creators or to be skilfully-abled to add value in the growing economy.

The real magic created by the government along with the announcement of these novel innovative schemes/policies is the holistic approach adopted which is reflective of the farsightedness of the Prime Minister. If one were to closely analyse the various measures undertaken to empower the ‘Y’outh in GYAN in the last decade, one can see a well-balanced strategy at play to create both demand and quality supply. While on the one side, the government has increased demand by making India the third largest startup ecosystem in the world, a global manufacturing hub through the ‘Make in India’ initiative, and transformed the country’s digital economy through ‘Digital India’, on the other hand through various innovative measures like skilling, equitable access to quality education, and increased employment opportunities, it has created an effective supply chain.

‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’ is now a movement synonymous with our Prime Minister. This all-inclusive approach is evident in the various measures introduced by this Government to not only enable a section of the youth but to provide specialised measures to cater to different demographics of the youth of the country. To build an effective supply there seems to be a short term as well as a long-term strategy at work. The introduction of the National Education Policy will help revolutionise the Indian education system and strengthen the tertiary education sector of the country. In the longterm, the NEP will help create professionals who will benefit from the liberal education model and a work force with the requisite knowledge+ skills+ attitude along with being nationally inclined. This long term measure is also supported by increased establishment of public institutions like IITs, IIITs, IIMs, NLUs, AIIMS, PM Shri Schools etc. along with increased access to education loans for greater access to quality education.

Immediate measures have also been deployed in abundance for employment generation for the youth. To start with the PM Kaushal Vikas Yojana, initiated in 2015, has helped skill more than 10 million youth and has given a huge jump to vocational education in India. In fact skilling was also given centre stage in this year’s Union Budget with a target of 20 lakh youth being taken for skilling over the course of the next five years. Special schemes like the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana were introduced in 2014 to skill rural youth at the bottom of the pyramid and the PM Vishwakarma Yojana was launched to skill youth from families of Vishwakarmas. Over the years, tremendous work has been done to improve employment and bolster short-term supply measures. The Prime Minister launched India’s largest employment platform, National Career Services (NCS), in 2015. Currently, NCS has 3600+ career options and 53 industry sectors for the youth to find suitable employment opportunities.

The government through the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) introduced in 2016 and the New Internship Policy proposed in this budget has created effective mechanisms to bridge the transition of students from universities to the professional world while financially supporting them. These measures have also helped enhance the employability of our youth. The scale of the PM’s vision lies in the fact that he is thinking beyond creating a generation of job seekers and creating a generation of job creators. Implementation of schemes like Start Up India and Stand Up India have helped create more than 13,00,000 direct jobs.

India’s Gross Enrolment Ratio has climbed from 23.7 in 2014-15 to 28.4 in 2021-22, but there is still a long way to go. Nonetheless the Prime Minister has introduced the Agnipath scheme to allow the youth to serve the nation by joining the services on a short tenure basis, which has given access to employment opportunities to those who may not have availed formal higher education. Options beyond the conventional have also been given adequate importance. These include opening up opportunities in sunrise sectors, space industry and new emerging sectors. With the strong emphasis on Khelo India and TOPs, there has been a huge difference in facilities, training and support available to budding athletes.

(The writer is a lawyer and Trustee, IFIM Institutions and Vijaybhoomi University/)