Programme will ensure benefits to youth: Narendra Modi

New Delhi: The “Start-up India, Stand-up India” plan is aimed at promoting bank financing for start-up ventures and offer incentives to boost entrepreneurship and job creation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his 20-minute address, said the government will design the programme in such a way that the country’s needs are best served.

Giving an indication, he said if some young person develops something through innovation to make a poor labourer’s life comfortable, he would ask the banks to help such people.

“This ‘Start-up India, Stand-up India’ should not be limited only to cities but spread to every nook and corner of the country.

“In this context, I urge states also to push this campaign. On January 16, I will be with you to give a detailed overview of the campaign,” he said.

Mr Modi also coined a new term — “Divyang” (people with extraordinary capabilities) in place of “viklang” (handicapped) — saying it was often found such people had capabilities which even so-called normal people did not.

He said the National Youth Festival, on the theme of “Indian youth on development skill and harmony” will be held in Raipur from January 12 to 16, and will coincide with the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda.

Mr Modi also extended Christmas greetings to all Indians, and hailed the country’s diversity, saying that due to this the nation gets to celebrate festivals one after another.

“India is full of diversity. There are a host of festivals. Even before one festival ends, another comes.

“Sometimes, it seems India is a ‘festival-driven economy’. They are the reason for economic activity for poor people,” he added.

The Prime Minister also greeted fellow citizens on the occasion of the coming new year, expressing the hope that it brings all Indians happiness, new hope, new enthusiasm and new resolve to touch greater heights.

He said festivals and the New Year celebrations drew a lot of tourism, and urged people to keep all tourist destinations clean so that a good image about India presented to the world.

Referring to the direct benefit scheme for LPG subsidy, Mr Modi said 15 crore people were benefiting from it, and the “Pehal” scheme had made it to the Guinness Book of Records.

Meanwhile, while the country was listening to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s words praising him on Sunday, 65-year-old Dileep Singh Malviya, a mason living in a village nearly eight hundred kilometers from the national capital, was busy in his mission of building toilets.