Claiming that India was the land of possibilities having vast potential to emerge as a world leader, noted economist and senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy today asked the youths shake off their present mindset to usher in a new age of thinking.
"Though the young people in India are capable, they need to transform their thinking to effectively contribute in nation building", Swamy said on 'Role of the youth in nation building' at the Institute of Technical Education and Research (ITER), the faculty of engineering of the SOA University.
Students who take admission into the IIMs today compete for a seat there only because they want a good and secure job, Swami pointed out adding that "The British education system had inculcated into our minds that we should not take risks and play safe."
"Indians do very well in their pursuits all over the world except in India," he quipped.
Swamy said India did not allow the western world to impose on it the family planning programme while China pursued a very rigorous one-child norm. "Today China is regretting this mistake and as a consequence, the average age of China is 35 while the average age of all Indians stood at 26. The average age of USA is 37 followed by Europe (46) and Japan (50)," he said.
There is a need for providing primacy to agriculture, Swamy said pointing out India had the climatic advantage of growing three crops a year while advanced countries could raise only one because of snowfall for four to five months.
"Unfortunately, we can grow three crops only in 25 per cent of the agricultural land while the per-acre yield also remained low," he observed.
Asking the young generation to learn taking risk, Swamy said they should go beyond the books and expand their knowledge.
