The closing ceremony of the three day inception meeting of Y20 engagement group concluded here today.  The White Paper on the five themes of Y20 was launched by Anurag Singh Thakur, Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports. Dr. Ranoj Pegu, Minister of Education, Government of Assam presented the Research Papers on the five themes (Future of Work: Industry 4.0, Innovation and 21st century; Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction: Making Sustainability as a Way of Life; Peace Building and Reconciliation: Ushering in an Era of No War; Shared Future: Youth in Democracy and Governance; Health, Wellbeing & Sports: Agenda for Youth) to Shri Anurag Singh Thakur.

Talking about the five key themes of the Y20 under India's presidency, the Union Minister said that these themes have been carefully chosen to be deliberated upon for a shared future for the global community. These five themes present an extraordinary opportunity for the youth to create, contribute and collaborate to the development agenda of G20, he said.

The Minister further said that the Y20 India Summit this year would exemplify youth-centric efforts and showcase progressive policy measures ideated by the youth and for the youth across the globe.

In his remarks on the three day event held in Guwahati, the Union Minister said that these three-days saw invigorating ideation and spirited dialogues and deliberations on some of the most crucial issues humanity is facing with.

In his address, the Union Minister said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, peace process has started in North East and Jammu & Kashmir in the last eight years. He further added that insurgency incidents have come down in North East. Many initiatives have been taken by the Union Government for development of Northeast and to maintain peace process in the region, he added.

The Minister applauded the effort of the Government of Assam for organizing the Y20 awareness drives across the State. It is a very appreciable effort by the Government of Assam that every higher education institution in Assam organized awareness drives in 10 neighboring schools to sensitize school children about G20 groupings and functioning, he said.

The Minister urged the youth who are busy pursuing new skills, writing software and building start-ups, to take up a sport and connect to the spiritual side for a soulful life to find relief from work pressures and mental health issues.

Dr. Ranoj Pegu, Minister of Education Government of Assam delivered a presentation on research papers by students and academicians of Assam on the five themes of Y20.

Later in the day the Union Minister, Shri Anurag Singh Thakur held a press conference.

From left to right Sh. B Narayanan, Director General, NE Zone, Ministry of I & B, Government of India, Dr Ranoj Pegu, Minister of Education, Government of Assam, Sh. Anurag Singh Thakur, Union Minister for Youth Affairs & Sport, Ms. Meeta Rajivlochan, Secretary, M/o Youth and Youth Affairs.

As part of India’s G20 Presidency, the Youth20 group’s first inception meeting was held at Guwahati from 6^th-8^th February to consult the youth of the nation on ideas for a better tomorrow and draft an agenda for action on five identified Y20 themes.

In the run-up to the event, 10,000 youth in around 36 colleges of Assam participated in the Seminar, debate, workshops, and quiz competitions on Y20. Over 10 lakh students from around 4000 schools also participated.

During the inception meeting, 21 foreign delegates and 200 Indian delegates participated in the main events.

BN/PG/BM/SS