Focus on youth as Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2025 kicks off

Plenary session on “Beyond Borders: Diaspora Youth Leadership in a Globalized World”, which was moderated by Binny Bansal, co-founder of Flipkart. / X/@MEAIndia

States that invest in their youth and stay focused on trade, technology, and tourism are bound to succeed in the present competitive world. These inferences were drawn at the preliminary session on "Beyond Borders: Diaspora Youth Leadership in a Globalized World” and the joint business session with the host Odisha government on Jan. 8, the opening day of the 18th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, at a sprawling tented township at Janata Maidan.

India’s External Affairs Minister Jaishankar, who was the guest of honour on the inaugural day, focused on the transformative role the Indian youth could play in various key areas of development. “It is critical to invest in our youth in order to achieve their full potential,” Jaishankar said, adding that maintaining their role is important in key areas like AI and EV, innovation and start-ups, space, drones, and sports.

More than 3000 delegates drawn from all over the world are participating in the annual three-day event dedicated to Indian Diaspora. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will formally declare the convention open in this historic city of temples on Jan. 9.

Odisha's government has put its best foot forward to showcase its development to the elite of the Indian Diaspora while seeking FDI in various projects, including tourism.

“We have been overwhelmed by the reception we got on our arrival here,” says Professor Indrajit Saluja, a US delegate. All delegates were accorded a traditional welcome at Biju Patnaik International Airport. Bhubaneshwar has been given a facelift, as most of the official and commercial buildings have been decked out and illuminated at night. from San Francisco was all praise for the organisers for taking delegates to various shrines, including famous Jagannath temple at Puri.

Ravindra Jain, who has made Myanmar his second home, also lauded the Odisha government for holding the event. “Last year, I played a role when the PBD was held in my home town of Indore,” he said. “The youth have an important role to play in the present-day competitive world which is fast becoming a global village,” he said, revealing that his son, now settled in British Columbia, had the distinction of becoming President of the Kelowna University Students Association in 2019.

Though there are not many youth delegates attending the convention, yet their growing participation in the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is encouraging, says Naresh Chavda, a delegate from Canada. “Efforts of the Indian government to encourage youth of Indian origin to discover their roots and stay connected with the motherland of their ancestors is a welcome sign. India leads the world with its growing and empowered youth force,” he added.

A large part of the government's actions was to give the right motivation to the younger generation to accelerate their efforts, External Affairs Minister Jaishanker said, holding that  “while development itself is a very complex task, it becomes much easier when we are confident that nothing is beyond us."

He also highlighted an observation by badminton star PV Sindhu, on why Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a youth icon. “She summed it up as his attitude which moved our nation from ‘chalta hai’ to ‘badal sakta hai’ to ‘hoga kaise nahin’,” he recalled.

Jaishankar believes this is the spirit which has driven India’s achievements in recent years, from supplying vaccines and medicines to the entire world during COVID-19 to undertaking missions like the Chandrayaan landing, the Aditya L1 observatory and the proposed Gaganyaan human spaceflight endeavour.

Ambitious visions need strong foundations to be realized, EAM Jaishankar remarked, stating, “It is critical to invest in our youth in order to achieve their full potential." He also referred to transformational efforts of campaigns and programmes like Swacch Bharat, Beti Padhao, Awas and Anna Yojana, Mudra, Swanidhi, Ayushman Bharat, and Jal Jeevan. 

“If you were to see them in their entirety, connecting those dots will give you an appreciation of how we are securing the future of our youth. They will help bring their skills and creativity to the fore, ensuring that India’s talents are fully available to the global workplace,” he stated.

Later speaking at the Joint Business Session with the Government of Odisha on the side-lines of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, Jaishankar highlighted the role of the 3Ts -Trade, Technology, and Tourism - for a state like Odisha.

Odisha has resources which need investments, connectivity, and value add to increase Trade and leverage the state's location, he stated. He referred to the Bali Yatra, Odisha’s historical connection with Southeast Asia. “Whether it is orthodox shipping, whether it is green shipping, whether it is power grids, whether as I say it is resources to value add on it, the potential for trade based from Odisha is enormous,” he noted.

On Technology, he emphasised that it was increasingly associated with trusted talent. “The talent of Odisha, the fact that today you have young demography, you have a strong education backbone of the state. Today, technology also offers a lot of possibilities for collaboration,” he said.

Odisha is simply incredible in terms of what it has to offer when it comes to Tourism, EAM Jaishankar remarked, adding that tourism is the biggest employer generator and multiplier in the world. “Those who will invest in tourism in this state are actually contributing to development and inclusive growth in the state in a very powerful way,” he pointed out. 

The External Affairs Minister also highlighted the Modi Government’s commitment of Purvodaya or the renaissance, revival and rejuvenation of the East. He pointed out that India was historically at the greatest point when the eastern parts of India were at the height of glory. In this context, EAM Jaishankar noted that one of the earliest commitments in this third term of the Modi Government was to make the practical decisions to enable the Purvodaya to happen. “A crucial fulcrum of that in many ways is the state of Odisha,” he remarked. 

Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, presided over the plenary session on “Beyond Borders: Diaspora Youth Leadership in a Globalized World”, which was moderated by Binny Bansal, co-founder of Flipkart.

Y B Prabhakaran - Malaysian Politician and Member of Parliament for Batu and Member of the People's Justice Party (PKR); Eeshaanee Shandilya - Business Analyst, HSBC Global Services; Don McLain Gill - Lecturer, Department of International Studies, De La Salle University (He specializes in Philippine foreign policy, India-Southeast Asian security relations, and maritime security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, and India-Southeast Asian relations);  Revathy Pillay - IT Business Analyst and Southside Radio FM Presenter and  dynamic youth ambassador and radio personality dedicated to empowering youth voices; Mohiuddin Mohamad Ali-Ali, vice-chairman of Galfar Engineering and contracting SAOG and president of the Oman chapter of the Indo-Gulf & Middle East chamber, Muscat;  Mickela Panday daughter of former Prime Minister of T&T Basdeo Panday. Political Leader of the newest political party in T&T- the Patriotic Front, launched in 2019 and a former MP were the panellists for the plenary session.