Tremendous yearning among youth to transform the country: PM

There is "tremendous yearning" among Indian youth to transform the country and they are willing and prepared to participate in shaping polity and society in a way which responds to their aspirations, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said.

Singh said it was an extremely positive development as an aware and engaged youth is a force that can truly transform the country and enable it to get rid of poverty, disease, underdevelopment and ignorance.

Addressing the annual National Cadet Corps rally, he urged people to follow the dictum of Mahatma Gandhi that 'we must become the change we want to see'.

"We are living in a rapidly changing and increasingly interconnected world. It is only natural therefore that there is tremendous yearning amongst our youth to transform our society for the better," he said.

The event, Singh said, has been an annual rite for the past 10 years and it renews his faith in the country, "in the values we stand for and in the youth "I see before me getting ready to assume tomorrow's responsibilities and therefore in the future of our country".

He lauded NCC cadets for their brave work in the relief operations in Uttarakhand and Odisha last year and their voluntary contribution of Rs 50 lakh towards the PM's relief fund.

"NCC makes the nation justly proud.... It has brought together people from diverse backgrounds, religions, cultures and languages and inculcated in them the common values of humanism, patriotism and selfless service. It truly symbolises the philosophy of unity in diversity, which forms the foundation of our nationhood," he said.

He urged the youth to join the NCC and experience a life of "camaraderie, adventure and discipline".