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Over 5,000 school students take part in NYP's Budget Dialogues 2022, Harivansh Singh shares message for India's youth
Rajya Sabha deputy chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh urged India's youth to be 'aware of their constitutional rights and duties" during his inaugural address at the event held between January 9 and 11.
The National Youth Parliament (NYP) held a three-day event called ‘Budget Dialogues 2022’ recently. The event began with the unveiling of the economic survey and online Halwa ceremony on January 9, followed by budget session on January 10 and 11 that saw Rajya Sabha deputy chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh delivering the inaugural address.
Over 5,000 school students from more than 100 schools across India participated in the preliminary stages of the event, following which as many as 150 best school students were selected as School Student Parliamentarians.
“These Student Parliamentarians were assigned different ministries and mandated to prepare, present, and deliberate on a model Union Budget of India from the perspective of school students. A copy of this budget shall also be presented to finance minister (Nirmala Sitharaman) to provide the Indian government with the perspective of the youth on the budget,” a statement by the NYP read.
At the end of the Budget Dialogues session, NYP secretary general Mehak Yadav announced the winners of the 2022 event.
Best Youth Budget:
First prize: Hiya Paul and Sameer Kumar who presented the budget for Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship.
Second prize: Eshwar Ankid and Sri Manasa Reddy who presented the budget for Ministry of Rural Development.
Third prize: Nishta Goel and Om Kapoor who presented the budget for Ministry of Science & Technology.
Best Youth Parliamentarian:
First prize: Sanvi Mohapatra
Second prize: Siddharth Kumar Gopal
Third prize: Ayushman Koul
During his inaugural address, the Rajya Sabha deputy chairman urged India's youth to be “aware of their constitutional rights and duties.” He also lauded the startup India scheme, a visionary entrepreneurship development programme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Harivansh also noted that before the British came to India, the country was a “Sone-ki-Chidiya” with the largest share of the world gross domestic product (GDP).
At the end of his speech, he lauded NYP founder and president Kartikeya Goel for conceiving Budget Dialogues event that Harivansh said offers a platform for the youth to “involve themselves in the process of nation-building,” according to the statement.
Goel, meanwhile, informed that this year's Budget Dialogues was the second consecutive event of the type since starting in January last year. “We feel that the Union Budget for 2022-23 is extremely crucial for India. In a post-COVID world order where India has shown leadership in vaccine production to stem the global pandemic, it is time for India to project itself as an alternative to China and become the lynchpin of global supply chains,” he said.
The NYP chief further stated that the provisions of this year's Union Budget can lay foundation for India to regain its position as the global economic powerhouse by focussing on “developing skilled manpower, and reliable infrastructure.”
Notably, the NYP was founded in 2019 as an initiative to provide the country's youth with a platform to “discuss, debate and deliberate on social, economic, and political issues facing India.”
The organisation's belief is that citizenship and citizen engagement must not be restricted to only voting but should also include every individual's voice in all aspects of policymaking and nation-building.
