Stressing the need for the uplift of the common man in terms of education and employment, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Parliament Varun Gandhi said a new national employment policy and investment in research and development are the needs of the hour.
Speaking at Techfest, the annual technology festival at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) on Saturday, Mr. Gandhi highlighted the urban-rural divide in the country, terming inequality a “critical issue of our times”.
Mr. Gandhi called on the youth to come up with out-of-the-box ideas and participate in elevating literacy levels in the country.
“Teaching in new ways and imparting skills that could be utilised to earn bread and butter are important. Even if every unemployed postgraduate student goes to a village school to teach, our shortage of teachers will be wiped out. The government is investing enough in education, but we as citizens need to participate too,” he said.
According to the minister, a new national policy was required to improve the employment and earning scenario. “Science and technology will draw in most numbers of jobs, but we need to spend enough on research and development. Amazon spent seven years understanding the Indian market before entering the country. We need to focus on quality and holistic research,” he said.
He said that employment generation needs to be accompanied by a focus on how the country can pay its people better. “I went to NASA and the canteen had Telugu-speaking first-generation Indians. If we pay our people well, why will they leave us for elsewhere?”
