To mark  158th Birth Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda more than annual ritual on January 12, the theme of 2021 National Youth Day “Channelizing Youth Power for Nation Building” calls Indian youth to stand up, wake up and claim one’ right as advocated by thirty years young Sannyasi  Vivekananda on December 27, 1892. Indian youth have to be alert, aware, and awake with vivek (rationality) to accept the realities of life and adopt 4S model of satyam, shivam, sundram and samyam for enlightenment and empowerment.  According to Dale Carnegie “Don’t be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves”.

To progress in life, we need to develop youthful enthusiasm as a lifestyle as youthfulness is a state of mind. We need to attribute our youthfulness for remaining happy and making others happy.

Being needonomist and teacher, I do care about our youths, our future. We have to learn to appreciate youthfulness and empathize with Indian youth for making them really educated through proper, productive and practical (3P) use of hands, head and heart (3 H) in our educational programmes mentioned in National Education Policy 2020. Youth have a special role to play for the sustainable development of the Indian economy for atmanirbharta. They are the harbingers of change. It is they who have to lay the foundations of a new and just social order. Their vast energies have to be tapped and channelled for the task of nation-building. We need to follow the teachings of the great Indian personality Swami Vivekananda for all times to come. There is a strong case for proper utilization of time by saying that an hour spent in worthwhile actions there can be a gain of 1000 times and a waste of one hour in useless actions there is a loss of 1000 times.

Do good and have good is the best policy for all of us not only on social, moral and political grounds but economic considerations as it is the most rational behaviour not only for the self but is altruistic in nature.

To cultivate patience as dynamic form among youth, we need to understand ‘haste makes waste’. The quickness and hurry lead to delay most of the time with the exception of getting up early in the morning which is necessary and sufficient to enhance working time for oneself. Let us understand the realities of livelihood which is being made difficult fueled by so many things including inflation, unemployment and corruption.

There is a strong case for enhancing defense expenditure in the forthcoming Union Budget 2021-22 which is justified to face the multifaceted challenges caused by internal threats and terrorism of various kinds including unemployment, unrest among farmers and above all crimes on women. The only practical solution of these problems is to make military services compulsory for five years for the youth which will bring discipline to the Indian economy in one sense or the other. The domain of military activities will have to be increased to include agricultural industry for ensuring 3P use of 3H of the unemployed youth of India.

For stopping the conversion of demographic dividend into demographic disaster, we need to learn walking before running in the rat race of competition ( healthy as well as unhealthy) wherein survival of the fittest is the mantra but weak can also survive, exist and excel by becoming unique.

 To maintain democratic values is a challenge calling for the motivation of intelligent ethical youth to accept politics as a career mandated in National Youth Policy 2014. Indian youth have to become street SMART (simple, moral, action-oriented, responsive and transparent) in attitude and behaviour. They have to develop soft skills as the software of information technology which is equally if not more important than the hardware.

We need to develop the abilities of head and heart, skills of morality with credibility and accountability and possess knowledge including spirituality for the success and happiness in all walks of life as consumer, producer, distributor and traders. We need to adopt “Needonomics” (economics of needs)   based on the logo of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India ‘Yogakshemam Vahamyaham’(Your welfare is our responsibility) which is ethical, nonviolent, environmentally friendly and spiritual in nature.

 We have to follow the message of  Swami Vivekananda in our lives to make the nation great with our behaviour by changing our looks, actions and words (LAW) to make it the real law of the land which will be the greatest tribute to the great man of his times.

{The author is Former Vice Chancellor and Needonomist Professor presently Advisor (Public Finance) 6th State Finance Commission Haryana }  www.needonomics.com