Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said the voice and aspirations of India’s youth would prevail over ‘jhooth ki goonj’ (echo of lies), in a swipe at Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ student outreach campaign.
Addressing the ‘NaMo for Viksit Bharat’ event in Vadodara, PM Modi said, “You will find people at every street corner trying to mislead you with the clamour of lies. But the youth of India move forward driven by the resounding call of truth; they march with that call and strive for it.”
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He highlighted the completion of the final three sections of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC), which he inaugurated, saying the project reflected the transformation in India’s work culture over the past 12 years.
The three WDFC sections — New Sanand (N)-New Makarpura, New Umbergaon-New Saphale and New Saphale-New JNPT — cover 326 route kilometres and were developed at a cost of more than Rs 20,700 crore. They were among the development projects worth more than Rs 35,000 crore that PM Modi inaugurated, dedicated or laid the foundation stones for during his Gujarat visit.
“The Dedicated Freight Corridor stands as a testament to how the country’s work culture has transformed over the last 12 years,” PM Modi said, recalling that the project was first mooted in 2004 and a special company was formed in 2006 to execute it.
“Yet, until 2014, the files merely shuttled back and forth; they were just travelling from one table to another. And look at the irony — even these files did not get the benefit of a dedicated corridor,” he said.
PM Modi then turned to the youth, saying India needed to prepare its younger generation for an economy increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence.
“We want our young generation to be prepared for the age of AI,” he said, stressing that AI skills would not be restricted to the IT sector. Young people with expertise in different fields, he said, could use AI to develop solutions in healthcare, improve productivity in manufacturing or launch robotics startups.
“It is essential that we have young people who understand and can use AI for the industries of India and the world. The government is going to launch a major campaign in this direction,” the Prime Minister said.
PM Modi also highlighted the expansion of rooftop solar, saying 5.5 million families across the country had installed solar plants, including 1.1 million families in Gujarat.
“So many families here have become electricity producers; this has created employment opportunities for countless young people, spanning everything from production to installation and service—and has brought in numerous new vendors,” he said.
Pitching India’s manufacturing push, PM Modi said the country was now scripting a new chapter spanning “chips to ships”, with domestic supply chains being developed to strengthen self-reliance.
He said India had developed domestic capacity of more than 200 GW for manufacturing photovoltaic modules, which he linked to the expansion of the PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana.
The Prime Minister also pointed to the country’s rail manufacturing capacity, saying India had manufactured around 50,000 modern rail coaches since 2014. “The previous government couldn’t even build 50,000 toilets in 10 years,” he said in a dig at the UPA government.
On freight infrastructure, PM Modi cited the operation of a double-stack container train from JNPT in Mumbai to Vadodara, saying a single trip carried a volume of cargo equivalent to more than 250 trucks.
He also said the government was focusing on developing an electricity ecosystem for emerging sectors such as chips, data centres and AI, while working to secure uranium and critical and rare earth minerals. “All this effort is being made day and night to secure the future of the nation’s youth to secure your future,” he further said.
– Ends
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
