New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday emphasised on the need to have a strategy to unleash the potential of the youth to provide meaningful opportunities in Startup ventures.
Noting that innovation is the antidote to stagnation, the President said with rapid changes occurring in science, education and research, only those countries having a technological edge will emerge successful in the fiercely competitive global market.
He said with over 4300 Startups, India is the third largest start-up eco-system in the world today and almost 72 per cent of its founders in India are below the age of 35.
"The youth of our country are brimming with ideas and enterprise. They are harnessing technology to find solutions to day-to-day problems of the common man. Ingenuity aided by technology can bring substantial welfare benefits.
"India must have a strategy to unleash the potential of the youth to provide meaningful opportunities for their participation in the start-up system. This will help us reap the benefits of a favourable demographic transition currently underway.
"It will also help provide direct and effective intervention to uplift the quality of life among millions of marginalised citizens," Mukherjee said.
He was speaking at National Technology Day event organised by the Ministry of Science and Technology. On this day, India achieved a technological feat after successful nuclear tests in Pokhran.
Asserting that the possibility of 11,000 start-ups by 2020 is real, he said Start-Up India and Stand-Up India schemes have the potential to trigger another round of socio-economic transformation similar to the initiatives of last decade when rights to job, education and food were provided, backed by legal guarantees.
"However for such an eco-system to thrive, government efforts are not enough. It requires the contribution and eager participation of stakeholders at various levels," Mukherjee said.
The President said India is gradually inching towards becoming one of the leading countries in the field of scientific research.
He also lauded the space community over its success for launching a 1,425 kg satellite into the orbit. This was the seventh and the final satellite in the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System enabling the country to enter an "exclusive club of nations".
The President, however, emphasised that scientists must not rest on our laurels as this achievement should propel to further up-grade existing technologies.
He appealed to all countrymen to rise to the occasion and make innovation a way of life.
Union Minister Harsh Vardhan said that the 1998 Pokhran tests changed the perception about India's technological capabilities.
