With an endeavour to reach students who have “never been spoken too” and establishing a network into the depths of the country, Minister of Human Resource Development Smriti Irani on Tuesday collaborated with Microsoft’s YouthSpeak programme and announced a slew of schemes linking technology to education.
While primary and secondary education was Irani’s area of focus, she also declared open a few projects for the higher education sector in terms of innovation, research and knowledge building. Some initiatives that the Minister plans on starting off right away are two new programmes called Udaan and Pragati which would entirely focus on setting up of information technology (IT) in all districts of India and providing funds for the successful distribution of understanding through it.
With the Udaan scheme, Irani said that the Government would provide all the resources necessary for establishing IT support in secluded areas and interiors and to supplement that would be Pragati, which will give funds to help students attain education with tech support.
While addressing various students from different universities at an event, Irani emphasised upon bridging the gap among the IQ, EQ and GQ, with GQ being the “Government’s quotient”.
She said, “The youth makes us nervous because they hold the future of the country in their hands. However, it is the youth population in our country that has placed us at the threshold of envisioning something better and bigger. They not only hold opinions about politics but about policies and the Government is now pricking up its ears to their views to bring in a better tomorrow. I want to reach to those too who can’t be heard and those who haven’t been spoken to in the interiors of the country.” Additionally, Irani also focused on the benefit that women would get from the IT expansion.