Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday spoke about the importance of education, research and skill development in helping the country become self-reliant. After health, the Prime Minister said, this year’s budget also focused on education, skill, research and innovation with Rs 50,000 crore earmarked for research to be spent over the next five years. He further said the National Research Foundation will give a boost to research in India.

Highlighting the National Education Policy, Modi said it will help to build a self-reliant India. “In the area of Research and Development, women’s presence has also improved. Moreover, the hackathon’s culture will encourage young minds,” PM Modi said while addressing the inaugural session on ‘Harnessing Education, Research and Skill Development for an Atmanirbhar Bharat’.

He also said the new National Education Policy has encouraged the use of local language and now it is the responsibility of all academics and experts of every language to prepare the best content available in the country and the world in Indian languages. “This is definitely possible in this era of technology,” he said.

“The Union Budget has broadened our efforts to link education with employability and entrepreneurial capability,” he said. As a result of these efforts, India today is among the top three countries in terms of scientific publications, Modi said. Limiting knowledge and research is a big injustice to the country’s potential,” he said. “With this thinking, doors of several sectors such as space, atomic energy, DRDO, agriculture, are being opened for our talented youth,” Modi said.

Param Shivay, the first supercomputer assembled indigenously, was installed in IIT (BHU), followed by Param Shakti and Param Brahma at IIT-Kharagpur and IISER, Pune, respectively. Modi informed that more than a dozen institutes in the country are proposed to get such supercomputers.