The Ministry of Education (MoE), Department of Higher Education launched YUVA 2.0 (Young, Upcoming and Versatile Authors) scheme on October 2. It is a Prime Minister’s scheme for mentoring young authors and an Author Mentorship programme to train young and aspiring authors below 30 years of age in order to promote reading, writing and book culture in the country, and project India and Indian writings globally. The Department of Higher Education, MoE has launched the YUVA 2.0 scheme for significant impact of the first edition of YUVA. The first edition witnessed the large-scale participation from young and budding authors in 22 different Indian languages and English. The launch of Yuva 2.0 is in line with the Prime Minister's vision to encourage youths to understand and appreciate India's democracy.

"YUVA 2.0 is a part of the India@75 project (Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav) to bring to the fore the perspectives of the young generation of writers on the THEME: ‘Democracy (institutions, events, people, constitutional values – past, present, future)’ in an innovative and creative manner. This scheme will thus help to develop a stream of writers who can write on a spectrum of subjects to promote Indian heritage, culture and knowledge system," MoE said in a release.

"NEP 2020 has emphasized the empowerment of the young minds and creating a learning ecosystem that can make the young readers/learners ready for leadership roles in the future world. India tops the chart in youth population being 66 percent of the total, waiting to be tapped for capacity building and thereby nation building. With the purpose of mentoring a new generation of young creative writers, there is an imminent requirement to take initiatives at the highest level, and in this context, YUVA 2.0 will go a long way in laying the foundation for the future leaders of the creative world," it added.

The National Book Trust, India, being the implementing agency under MoE and it might be the phase-wise execution of the scheme under well-defined stages of mentorship. The books written under this scheme will have National Book Trust, India as the publisher, which will also be translated into other Indian languages ensuring the exchange of culture and literature, hence promoting 'Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat'. The selected young authors will interact with some of the best authors in the world, participate in literary festivals and more.

The YUVA 2.0 scheme is helpful for developing a stream of authors who can cover the past-present-future of various aspects of Democracy in India. In addition, it will also provide a window for aspiring youths to express themselves and present a broader vision of Indian democratic values at domestic and international platforms. The concept of this scheme is to groom the next generation of young authors so they can enlighten Indian literature at an early age. Considering the fact that our country ranks third in the field of book publishing and we have a wealth of indigenous literature, India should present it at the global level.