Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today said that the first-time voters who have attained the age of 18 are the children of the Modi era and that is their greatest blessing and advantage.

Addressing a congregation of First-time Voters at Hasanpur Assembly constituency, Amroha district, Uttar Pradesh, Dr Jitendra Singh said that as these new young voters are getting the opportunity to exercise their franchise, they will be voting for the Modi led dispensation in an India which is full of optimism and upward journey. He said that this is something quite in contrast to the plight the earlier two generations of youth after independence went through, when there was an atmosphere of pessimism and lack of esteem. Many of the youth went aboard during this time as they were not able to find any future hope for themselves by staying back in the country, the Minister remarked.

Dr Jitendra Singh said that whereas now the trend has shifted. Not only the Indian youth are looked up with esteem but the youth who have gone out of India are looking to come back and explore the opportunities in front of them.

The Minister mentioned that those who vote for the first-time now will have the opportunity to become key voters and opinion makers of the Indian society at a time when India celebrates 100 years of independence 25 years from now as they would be at the prime of their age.

Quoting Prime Minister when he said at a Youth Convocation Ceremony that "The whole world is looking at India's youth with hope. Because you are the growth engine of the country and India is the world's growth engine”, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the New India is open, futuristic and known for its progressive views and the development of our country is on the shoulders of the youth.

While highlighting the various schemes and initiatives of the Government over the past 8 years, Dr Jitendra Singh said that firstly all these schemes are youth centric and secondly they all took care to provide level playing field to all youth whether it was introducing the practise of self-attestation and ending the practise of attestation through gazetted officers or whether it was abolition of interview so that there was no room for any misappropriation in the job recruitments.

Dr Jitendra Singh gave full credit to the futuristic vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had given a call for "Start-Up India Stand Up India" from the ramparts of Red Fort in his Independence Day address of 2015 that initiated a mass interest, as a result of which the number of Start-Ups in India has increased from mere 350 in 2014 to over 80,000 in 2022 with 85 unicorns (with the $1 billion valuation and above). This has tremendously widened the avenues for the youth.

Dr Jitendra Singh said that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a futuristic vision and that is the reason he has given a special focus to the new generation which is coming up in India.

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