New Delhi, Apr 28: Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Anurag Singh Thakur Friday said that India’s rich art, culture, and heritage had left a lasting impression on G20 delegates from across the world.
An official spokesman in a statement issued on Press Information Bureau (PIB) issued here said that addressing a news conference at the conclusion of the Y20 summit, Thakur said that G20 under India’s Presidency had set new milestones.
He said that the discussions and deliberations were going on successfully.
Thakur said that around 103 delegates participating in the Y20 summit in Leh were mesmerised by the monasteries, sangam, and landscape of Leh and they wanted to return to Ladakh again.
He said that despite statements by many that the G20 pre-summit should not be organised in Leh and creating confusion about it, the Y20 summit had concluded successfully.
Thakur said that as an outcome of the pre-summit in Leh, there was a consensus on the five themes of the Y20 summit among the participating countries and international organisations.
He said that important suggestions had come on the future challenges including reskilling and upskilling.
The three-day Y20 summit concluded in Leh on Friday.
The meeting focused on the five Y20 themes of Shared Future: Youth in Democracy and Governance; Future of Work: Industry 4.0, Innovation and 21st Century Skills; Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction: Making Sustainability a Way of Life; Peace Building and Reconciliation: Ushering in an era of No War and Health, Wellbeing and Sports: Agenda for Youth.
Earlier, Thakur held Yuva Samvad with the delegates and said that the runway was ready for youth to take off, whether it was for economy or education, sports or entrepreneurship, skill development or digitisation, and the youth now had a mission to make a global impact.
“The Y20 summit is providing an extraordinary opportunity for the youth and the world alike to shape their national as well as international discourse and in many ways be proactive in finding solutions to problems our respective regions face,” he said.
Thakur said that this was a historic time when optimism and opportunity were coming together.
“Alliances of tomorrow are being formed at forums like Youth20,” he said.
Thakur also asked youth to discover new ideas, develop new ties, and drive change.
“Change is the only constant. So, you stay ahead of the curve, anticipate change, and drive it,” he said. “We are living in the greatest era of human history, you know that you have inherited a world which is equipped with more comforts, opportunities, structure, systems and order for you to make something of yourself and your surroundings than ever before.”
Thakur said that he was confident that the young generation would make the advancements of the last century look miniscule compared to the milestones that this new youth generation would discover.
“Young people should know that you are living in the greatest time to be alive,” he said and encouraged them to – dream, read, write, think and act fearlessly.
Thakur said that the Y20 themes had been carefully selected to empower young people to create, collaborate, and contribute to the G20’s development agenda and the global community as a whole.
“We firmly believe that at the end of this decade, emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the Internet of Things will have evolved significantly, and data science will have occupied much deeper parts of our lives,” he said.
Thakur said that youth should be prepared with these skills.
He urged that youth must move away from the constraints of the past and exploit the opportunities of the present to unleash the potential of their countries in the future.
Thakur asked youth not to be bogged down by the prejudices, preconceived notions and entrenched bi-polar worldview of the past.
At the Yuva Samvaad Thakur interacted with the delegates from the participating countries and held discussions on various issues related to youth, start ups, women, skill development, and education.
Later in the evening, he participated in the closing ceremony where two short videos on ‘Azadi Ki Amrit Kahaniyan’ were launched.
On the occasion, Modi@20 book was also released in presence of LG of Ladakh Brig (Retd) B D Mishra, Chief Executive Councillor LAHDC Tashi Gyalson, and Member of Parliament, Ladakh, Jamyang Tsering Namgyal.