Education only way to take country forward: Moily

Describing education as a powerful weapon to tackle any problem, Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister M Veerappa Moily said India will have a lot of opportunities upto year 2035 due to increase in working population which will give it the demographic dividend.
India has a window of opportunities up to year 2035, during which proportion of working population will continue to rise due to declining fertility rates, giving what is commonly known as the demographic dividend, Moily said at KIIT University here yesterday.
Moily, who was on a three-day visit to Odisha, also visited Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), a free residential tribal institute.

"Education is the most powerful weapon to fight any problem in the country," he said while expressing his happiness over the fact that KISS is providing free education to 20,000 tribal children.
KIIT and KISS are more developed than even the most prominent of educational institutions in South India, the Union Minister said, complimenting Achyuta Samanta, Founder of KIIT and KISS for his effort.
Outlining the employment scenario, he told the students that not everyone of the working age will be in the job market in the coming years, said a release from KIIT.

At present 26 per cent of the population in 15-24 year age group is in education, but this proportion will increase in future, Moily said.

Similarly, some adult women will stay at home, he said, adding presently only a third of adult women work in India, which is low by Asian standard. India needs to create about 100 million new jobs in the next decade, he said.
By 2020, the average Indian will be only 29 years of age, compared with 37 in China and 45 in the US, 48 in Western Europe and Japan, and thus India will have this age advantage for at least three decades, he said.