On January 12^th 2025, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spent the entire day with young leaders from across the country at the Viksit Bharat Young Leaders Dialogue 2025. A unique program (as with many of his programs), this program had multiple stages to it.

The first stage was a Quiz, the winners of which will participate in the second stage- an essay competition. Students could choose from 10 different tracks (Topics ranging from Tech to Infrastructure to Sustainability to Startups and more) to write in detail about their thoughts and ideas. In the third stage, students with the best essays across these tracks were then given a chance to discuss their specific ideas (in the form of a presentation) with a panel of domain experts and leadership moderators. Selected students from each state would then go on to represent their state in New Delhi in front of our Prime Minister!

I had the wonderful opportunity to be part of the leadership moderators for Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and interact with bright young minds from these two states. In addition to their ideas on the topic/track they chose, I was further particularly interested in understanding the source of their idea. Was it borne out of a personal struggle? Was it developed because of a passion in that particular area? What inspired this passion? And many such questions around the how and why of the idea (in addition to the what of the idea).

A young woman, who was brought up by her mom alone, emphatically ascertained that it is her responsibility to contribute to women’s empowerment. Her choice of words and the conviction in her tone were really inspiring. In fact, many female students and young women narrated stories of how inspiration for their ideas was borne out of the comments they heard growing up (No male child in the family; no one from the village ever did this etc). A girl from a remote village is now pursuing a nursing course in the capital city of the state; a girl from the capital city was ruing about the bad influences the youth is going through nowadays and what she needs to do about it; there was this daughter of a woman politician who elucidated how her conversations with her mom from a very young age inspired her with many ideas.

Many students and youngsters narrated stories of how their families’ lost crops because of lack of information and then discussed ideas on how AI can be incorporated to make better choices of crops and therefore ensure a better life for the farmers! Students who grew up in small towns narrated stories about how they overcame communication and confidence problems, and now want to design specific training mechanisms that can empower youth to become more innovative and confident. A student prepared a video for Viksit Bharat 2030 itself because he didn’t want to wait till 2047!

Many youngsters spoke about their insecurities and how they evolved into better people by playing sports, learning yoga, changing diet etc to remain fit and discussed ideas as how sports can play an important role for a Viksit Bharat 2047. Being excited about startups is one thing, but what was more impressive was how youngsters discussed specific problems in our system (education, support, finance etc) that are possible impediments to soaring high in startups and even in manufacturing (the clarity on China was amazing!). Some youngsters were brilliantly articulate in Telugu in different tracks. It again was a reminder of how knowing good English alone is no prerequisite to contributing to the growth of our country.

Every single inspiration for the nearly 100 ideas in all the tracks was unique. There was no anger in them. There was no despondency in them despite facing severe struggles while growing up. There was clarity, hope and most importantly determination in them to achieve a Viksit Bharat by 2047.

In this era of constant outrage on social media and TV media, these enlightening conversations with youngsters were a very good reminder of the irrelevance of the outrage. These conversations are proof that the youngsters of Bharat are more enthusiastic about finding solutions than indulging in indignation. The rooted nature of these conversations is something I will never forget. Some of the students got selected for the finals in New Delhi, some didn’t. After all, it’s a competition. But all of them made a great impact on me.  And all of them were determined not to let go of their ideas and passion irrespective of the result of this particular competition- Viksit Bharat 2047

Image source: PM India