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A plenary session on India and the Generation Next on the final day of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2005 saw a range of young speakers spell out what they saw were the challenges and the opportunities in modern India.
Starting off the Panel discussion, the Pro-Chancellor of the University of Guyana Prof. Premnarine Misir said it is important that NRIs and PIOs strive to retain their culture, their identity while at the same time assimilating the values of the host nation. The young Lok Sabha MP from Mumbai Shri Milind Deora said creating opportunities is crucial to building the capability to retain talent . He wondered why India cannot build institutions comparable with NASA and hold back young minds from transmigrating to America’s premier space agency.
Shri Vigneswaran, the Malaysian Member of Parliament and Parliamentary Secretary for Ministry of Youth and Sports called for a higher degree of interaction between the Indian generation next and the diaspora youth. The Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament from Orissa, Shri B. J. Panda said confidence is the single term that characterizes modern India. He said the perception that the political leadership can be a problem is only partially true because politicians are also part of the solution.
It is not generation Next, it is generation Now--this is how UK based management consultant Shri Dharmesh Mistry said he saw the new generation around him. He said the strengths in health care, education, infrastructure and reforms can propel India to a higher orbit. Shri Mistry said by not providing a tool to engage the youth, society does injustice to them. Shri Manavendra Singh, Lok Sabha MP from Rajasthan said the new crop of political leaders are different from the past in that they come from professional backgrounds. He said the spate of economic reforms in the last fifteen years has de-conditioned the new generation from the baggages of the past.
NASA scientist Dr. Amitabha Ghosh held forth on what he felt should be the focus of new India. He said there is a crying need to involve the private sector and NGOs in the delivery mechanism of the country. Dr. Ghosh pointed out the need to streamline the paper work before going for e-governance; he said the spin-offs of globalization should reach the common man.
Summing up the cerebral discussions, Shri Prithviraj Chavan, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office said brain drain is a misnomer; it is actually brain bank. Shri Chavan said there is nothing wrong with going abroad for higher education and then returning to enrich the motherland.
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