My dear friends you have been working since morning, you must be tired! We still need work for 36 hours, will you be more tired! You people might have thought that Prime Minister wouldn’t address you at the 10 in the night, you might have also thought that today is 1^st April and Modi Ji might be just playing April fool with you people. Friends, I’m really very happy to connect with you people today.

Smart India Hackathon is the biggest experiment of its kind in India. In the country, where 65% population is below the age of 35, the country that is the youngest country of the world, today the youth power of that country has been engaged in finding solutions to some of the biggest problems of this society and the country. That enthusiasm is commendable with which all of you, all the youths have been participating in this programme to demonstrate your innovation and your creativity. There is no trace of fatigue despite constantly working for 15 hours. I see smiles on your faces. One gets the results when work is done with this kind of energy and commitment.

Friends, not only in recent times but for thousands of years our country always had a distinct identity in the field of knowledge. It is said that the zero was discovered in India only. Today, India is leading the world in the field of IT knowledge. The auspicious journey from zero to Mars gives us pride. Our journey has expanded from Upnishads (scriptures) to satellites. However, it is also true that today India needs to increase the use of information technology to solve its problems, to meet its requirements. In a way modern society is a technology driven society. Innovation and technology, they are providing energy and pace to the social life. And therefore, nearly five hundred such problems were identified for this Hackathon with the help of MyGov and the solutions for those problems were to be found and the solutions were to be found by the youth, it was to be found through technology. These problems have been given to you to find solution. For you, this is a challenge and an opportunity as well. And I believe that you will get more joy in doing this thing than what you would have got for doing some job work for your exam. Because once the work is finished then you will feel that your hard work is going to benefit some poor people of the country. When you will see that the solution found by you is going to become the part of the policy of government of India then you will feel the value of your life. Success of democracy lies in people’s participation. Democracy doesn’t mean mere casting of your vote that you award the contract to someone for five years to solve your problems. And if it can’t be solved in the five years then we can say that now we will look for a new contractor. This is not democracy, democracy means people’s participation. 1.25 billion people of the country will have to take the country forward together. It is a myth that the government knows everything, it alone can solve all the problems and it alone has solutions to all the problems. The government is full of people like you only. We can only solve all the problems by working together. Those people who are not part of the government also have good suggestions, they have got talent and they have a feeling for doing something. That is why I always tried to take the things forward with the help of people’s participation. And today 10 thousand youth of engineering profession, of IT profession have come together to find the solutions for the 500 problems faced by us on regular basis. People are working without food, without water, this in itself is a proof of a new strength. And therefore, I congratulate to all the participants, I offer my respect to all of you.

Today, we will certainly get very positive results when you will channelize your energy for the process of governance. I have always believed that we can bring about massive changes in the modern society with the help of technology, with the help of information technology. Technology provides us such solutions that were unthinkable few years ago. Who would have thought that one day there will be driver-less cars on road.

Artificial intelligence is going to expand very fast in near future. 3D technology, printing of three-dimensional objects, and the making of a new future, 3-D technology is going to be a big pillar in the making of future.

It is going to be used in manufacturing sector, in designing of houses. Now, it is an era of “Internet of Things”. A system is being developed in which a lot of things will be decided by Internet of Things. Today, this technology is being used in a very big way in those cities that are being converted into Smart Cities, the technology of Internet of Things is being applied everywhere be it smart parking or be it smart lighting or be it monitoring of air quality.

Friends, technology is transforming modern life. Some new things, some new traditions are being developed and at the same time some old things, old methods are slipping out of use. You see it yourself, things like floppy drive, tape recorder, walkman appeared and disappeared in your time. They did not last long; a new technology replaced them. There was a time when radio was of the same size of a modern microwave oven. And today, a radio is the size of a match box. Technology has helped in shrinking the size of the world and in expansion of facilities. You might have seen that how fast the use of cashless transactions has grown in our country. And new solutions have continuously been developed in this sector.

Friends, innovation alone is the basis for a better future. History is written by those who challenge the established norms, who change them. And one thing is very important for this and that is perseverance, commitment, constant effort. We have heard this thing since childhood, you must have also heard this that there was an ant that was carrying its food, a grain of sugar, it slipped out her grip several time, she wasn’t able to do it, she was required to scale the wall and finally she succeeded in carrying it there. An ant can be an example of constant effort and therefore we must keep this thing in our mind that sometimes you will encounter failures on the path of innovations. But you don’t have to concede defeat, that is why who moves ahead with a determination to succeed he also knows how to struggle in difficult circumstances, he also knows how to achieve success. And when you succeed then the people would say that your way was correct, your methods were correct. However, you must keep one thing in mind that the end product of your innovation must be quality.

No compromises should be made in terms of quality, and it can’t be done in any case. Quality is something that people remember. The change that your product, your innovation brings in other’s life, in the quality of their life is very important. Friends, your innovativeness, your energy and your approach to solve the problems of the country, to solve the problems of the society are going to strengthen the New India. As technology is changing several times faster in comparison with the earlier time, similarly today’s generation also thinks, also acts many times faster than the earlier one. Some people say today’s youth ask too many questions, it’s not a bad thing. It’s something that is very good. Today’s youth is not carrying any baggage, he wants to grasp everything from the beginning, from his point of view. Some people say that today’s youth are impatient.

And I tell this thing that this thing (impatience) becomes the basis for innovation in today’s generation. There should be patience in life, nobody can lead an impatient life, however, your patience should not prevent you from thinking new, it should not lead to stagnation. That’s why they are working faster and it’s my experience that this kind of youngsters are able to produce results. Some people say that today’s youth doesn’t like monotonous work, he doesn’t like it; he wants change. I believe that it is this thinking that is producing new ideas in automation. Had he wanted to lead the life as per the old ways then how new things could be developed? The person who wants to break out of the old, it is the same person who provides the new things. Some people also say that today’s youth want to do many things simultaneously. Some people think that this person is wasting his time.

However, sometimes I think that there are some youth who can handle multiple things simultaneously; I don’t consider it wrong. Now people should prepare themselves for multitasking. And everybody should try for this and should encourage who tries for this. Some people feel uncomfortable with the ambition of youngsters. They say that today’s youth want to progress very fast. Friends, I’m in favor of progress but some people want to earn a lot of money in very short time; this kind of people hardly succeed in life. Those who move fast and do things before time to achieve something they are able to do something for themselves and for the world. And when I talk about New India then talk about this thing with the same spirit.

The youth of my country wants to find solutions very fast, he wants rapid progress and I think these things are good. Today’s youth wants to develop himself in a way to offer jobs to other instead of working for others. He certainly needs capital for this purpose but what is more important is to have a purpose in life, to have a sense of mission and there is no dearth of these things in our youth. They want to implement their ideas, their innovation solutions on the ground in a way that things become more efficient and economically viable. The government has been running this Start-up India project due to this amazing capacity of millions of youths like you. The loans worth crores of rupees have been disbursed to millions and millions of youths like you without bothering them to worry about bank guarantee.

Friends, everyone is capable of dreaming. So many of you are sitting here, some of you must be able to dream a new thing every day. Everyone is capable of this thing. But you must have the capacity to convert dreams into goals. And one must be able to put his entire energy to achieve that goal.  There are some people whose dreams, whose goals and achievements provide inspiration to others. You must have seen this thing in the IT field that several big innovations took off from a small room, they started off from a garage from a very small level. People initially rejected them, but these people continued to work hard, continued to work with full force to realize their dreams and eventually they succeeded. Those ideas that were once considered worthless, today these ideas are driving billing dollar companies. That’s why I advise to you people that you have a lot of time and you have to achieve a lot. And you should not waste a good idea in your journey. It’s very much possible that one of your ideas grows into a billion dollar company tomorrow and can bring about changes in the lives of a billion people.

Friends, you people must understand the difference between knowledge and skill in today’s fast changing world. There is a huge difference between the two. Knowledge is all about understanding a concept, about understanding the basics of something, it’s about how an electric circuit functions, however, skill is all about applying that concept. There will be lot of people who have studied electronics or electrical engineering but they call mechanic from outside if the fuse burns out. Skill is all about sharpening and applying the knowledge. That’s why today the skill must grow as fast as fast knowledge is growing therefore I tell about Skill Engagement Optimization (SEO). The entire world of internet is revolving around search engine and Search Engine Optimization plays an extremely important role in that.

Yours and our world revolves around the pivot of public welfare and public participation that is why skill engagement optimization is very important in that. And the world needs those people who know how to apply knowledge, those who can engage the client with their skill. When you people will pay attention to skill engagement optimization then the demographic dividend of the country will also convert into development dividend. It will further strengthen the path for New India.

Friends, in the next few hours you are going to solve a part of the task that was given to you, however, we don’t have to stop at this only. Twenty-nine ministries of Government of India are participating in this programme and it is their responsibility to take all the solutions that will be found through this Hackathon to take them to the last stage, take them to their logical end. If there is a scope for improvement then after modification they must be implemented in the system. I convey my best wishes to all of you to succeed in today’s effort so that you can give some new solutions.

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AKT/KT/SK/AK

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