The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) launched Vijayawada Chapter of its youth wing — Young Indians (YI) — here on Sunday. It is YI’s 36th chapter in the country headed by founder chairman Raja Harin Koneru and co-chairman Anvesh Dasari and second in Andhra Pradesh after the one at Visakhapatnam. The new YI chapter has initial membership of 42.
Participating as the chief guest, Guntur MP and past Chairman of CII-Andhra Pradesh, Jayadev Galla said Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada have been strong zones of CII and Tirupati zone has yet to catch up with its peer groups.
YI offers an excellent opportunity for talented youth to get the kind of exposure that was required to become leaders in the respective fields. For Andhra Pradesh which stood at the crossroads of history, young leadership was essential and the YI chapter would groom such leaders, Mr. Jayadev said.
“We have some of the most intelligent people in the world but they tend to become dysfunctional when taken as a group. The YI will facilitate their rise and basically instil in them a sense of pride of being Indians”.
India, Mr. Jayadev said, had successfully emerged out of the toughest times that the economy had passed through last decade and it would not be possible without the youngsters chipping in with their contributions.
YI national chairman D.N.V. Kumara Guru said the G-20 had flagged youth unemployment as a major problem facing the world and that only a concerted effort would solve it. “Young Indians will give ‘disproportionately high’ returns on the little investments that members have to make in it”, he said.
Chairman (South) Prasanna Rajagopalan, CII Vijayawada Zone chairman V.V.M. Krishna and vice-chairman L.V.S. Rajasekhar were among those present.