Puna, July 14: Spelling out his 10 point agenda for 2014 general elections that is linked to education for the youths, Gujurat chief minister Narendra Modi stressed on the need of linking research and education to development of this country.

Striking a chord with the students during the inauguration of 101 year old NM Wadia Amphitheatre at Fergusson College, here on Sunday, Modi said, "We are the youthful country of the world with 65% of its population below 35%. But this youth needs a leader who will take them along with him/her, trust them. Everyone in this country is frustrated and full of negative thoughts. It is the need of the hour to raise above this and education system and we can do so. We had rich tradition of education system. The first reference of convocation is found in Tetreye Upanishad." 

Modi stated, "After independence, the leaders failed to vision the policy of the development and education in 21st century. Instead of making the education man making it has become money making. But we can change this situation and human resource development is the first step towards it. In US a research is linked with policy making. In Gujurat we have done the same thing. Gujurat is the state which has 45% of its share in Pharmaceuticals in the country. This happened as long ago, Gujurat was the first state to star a Pharma college."

He added, "This could be true about every field. We are fastly growing towards urbanisation, but is there any university or college that gives training for urban management, resource management in urban areas and so forth. We are agri economy, but did we ever linked agriculture with the technology? We spend thousands of crores of Indian currency on petroleum products and buying of defence weapons. Can't we create our own colleges/training centres to groom our youths in that direction. Certainly we can", Modi said. The tourism industry across the world is 3 trillion dollars. But I doubt if I put a wish to roam across Pune city, I will not get a good guide who would tell me the glorious history of this city. We need to look into this, this will remove unemployment and will take our country to new heights. I believe in empowerment unlike other people who believe in power."

Also present on the dais were Deccan education society vice-president Vikas Kakatkar, secretary Shrikrishna Kanetkar, Shyam Jaju and college principal Ravindrasingh Pardeshi. 

Sidelights of the speech
* A social media active politician Modi said, "before coming to Pune I had asked through my Facebook page as what should I speak on and I received over-whelming response. "I prepared my today's speech after studying the reactions of over 2,500 youths from this country. The youths of this country spread across length and breadth, are concerned with the happenings in the country", Modi said. 

* We must understand the difference between building university and university building", Modi said. In 2000 we had two universities among best 500 in the world, while China had none. Within 10 years, China had 32 universities while we have reduced to two. They were poor in English, but here every person speaks in English Hello. 

* In Gujurat first of its kind 'I create institute", is coming up under the guidance of Infoysis founder chief Narayan Murthy. Here we will groom students for the professions they have aptitude in. If I ask what is the biggest concern today for parents, it is that their child should get a good teacher. We have huge youth power, but no liking towards teaching profession. Gujurat is coming up with first of its kind Teachers training university. Then there is one Forensic Science university too is coming up.

* We don't need bookish education but skill to apply this knowledge for betterment of the society.

Taking pot-shots
* We failed to link sports with education. But South Korea which was host to Olympic and is as big as Gujurat state, wins gold medals. But we instead of winning gold medals we tarnished our image in the world when we organised Common Wealth Youth games.

* When I approached Narayan Murthy to head an institute in the country, he took six months to take the decision as he was scared that he received invitation from Modi, will it land him in any trouble. An IT raid probably.

* I am saying that a Forensic Science University is coming up. Tomorrow my Congress friends will say that there are many Forensic science courses, but remember I am saying university.

What the youths felt
Second year Science student Ajinkya Kakade, Pankaj Divate, Uday Kukade and Arts graduate Sameer Patankar felt that this was golden day of their life. We were reading and hearing about Modiji being the PM candidate and it proved that he is fit to be PM of this country. The thought of his that HRD is the important point that needs to be focused was right. He recognised the strength of the country. The students need not to go abroad for studies as we can have similar studies here", they said. We are thankful to FC for providing us this opportunity to be here.

Modi visited Swantraveer Savarkar room in the college. He stood there silent for few minutes and then wrote his thoughts in Gujurathi in the suggestion book. He said, "I speak in Hindi but write in Gujurathi", informed vice-president of Deccan Education society Vikas Kakatkar and principal Ravindrasingh Pardeshi.