Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday called for accelerating the process of linking the country’s education sector to the real world economy, while sharpening focus on subjects like artificial intelligence and automation.
Addressing a post-budget webinar, Modi also said that fulfilling aspirations of the people is the resolve of his government and education, skill development, health, tourism, sports and culture are some of the sectors that act as a medium to fulfil them.
“Fulfilling the aspirations of the people is not just a subject, but it is the core objective and the resolution of this government,” he said at the webinar which was attended by stakeholders from different government ministries, departments and experts from private sectors.
The prime minister said education, skill, health, tourism, sports, culture are fundamental sectors and major means of fulfilling these public aspirations.
“We will need to accelerate the process of connecting our education system to the real world economy even further. On topics like AI and automation, the digital economy, and design-driven manufacturing, we will need to increase our focus even more,” he said.
The prime minister said another important sector is STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
“It is heartening to see that the daughters of our country have a great interest in STEM. Today, when we talk about futuristic technologies, it is important that no daughter is held back due to a lack of opportunities. We must create a research ecosystem where young researchers get ample opportunities to work on new ideas,” he said.He said the health sector has been strengthened, the Ayushman Bharat Yojana and Arogya Mandirs have led to greater penetration of health services in rural areas.Referring to the ‘care economy’, through which trained caregivers help senior citizens, Modi said as the senior citizen population increases, the demand for caregivers will also rise.
“I request that new training models should be developed,” he said.
The prime minister said India is working on a vision of preventive and holistic health today and in the past few years, the country’s health infrastructure has been strengthened.He said new medical colleges have opened in hundreds of districts and through the Ayushman Bharat scheme, access to health services has been extended to villages via wellness centres.Modi also talked about the “youth power” of the country and said it becomes “national power” only when it is healthy, disciplined, and brimming with self-confidence.“That is why, in the past few years, sports have been viewed as an important stream of national development,” he said.
The prime minister said initiatives like Khelo India have infused a new energy into the country’s sports ecosystem and sports infrastructure is being strengthened across the country.