The Hindu : New Delhi News : Youth pins hope on Budget

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 06, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Youth pins hope on Budget

By Sandeep Joshi

NEW DELHI, JULY 5. As the Union Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, gives the finishing touches to the Union Budget, the younger generation in the Capital want the Government to address some of their pressing concerns about the ailing education system and declining employment opportunities. "After over five decades of Independence we still lag behind in the field of education, particularly higher education. And the Government has also failed miserably in providing enough employment opportunities to the ever-growing educated mass in the country" is the common refrain from this section of society which forms almost 50 per cent of the population.

The younger generation after going through the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government are however "optimistic" that some clear cut strategies would be adopted and special measures announced in this year's Budget to cover areas which are crucial for the future of younger and upcoming generations.

Pointing towards the proposal to raise public expenditure on education by the Centre as well as the State Government to six per cent of the GDP that has been hanging fire for the last several years, Nisha Prakash, a final year student in the Delhi College of Engineering, said, "The need of the hour is to not only strengthen our primary and secondary education but also the higher education. We need more quality institutions covering both academics and vocational training."

"Apart from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), the Government has failed to establish more such good quality institutions in the country. We need more such institutions of global standards. The Government should also encourage private sector to step into the field of higher education in a big way," she opined.

Expressing similar sentiments, Aishwarya Pathak, a Class XII student of Queen Mary's School, who wants to be an engineer, said: "I am really worried about the growing problem of unemployment as we find even professionally qualified people either underemployed or unemployed. Barring the information technology sector, other sector of the economy are lagging way behind in employment generation. The government must seriously look into it."

Happy over the tremendous progress the nation has made in the IT sector, Anil Kumar, a software professional working for a US multinational, hoped that the Budget would announce additional sops for the IT industry. "India should have more centres of excellence that have come up in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Gurgaon. At least every State Capital should have a high tech centre with offices of all major IT companies. India should further consolidate its position as world leader in this sector."

However, the youth also want that the Government should concentrate on economic and industrial development. Narender Kumar, a commerce graduate who has been searching for a job for the past six months, said: "Over the years we have seen several big manufacturing plants close down. Only services sector cannot provide enough employment, we need industries and strong infrastructure to cover this gap. Rapid industrial and economic growth are the key to strong and prosperous nation, and China is the good example to imitate."

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