Foreign institutes should enjoy our demographic dividend:Sibal

"India is going to play a significant role in the years to come because the human resource is here. You have 400 million people under the age of 14 and when they grow up, you can imagine the unmatched workforce they will provide to the world. What we need to do is to empower them," he said at an educational summit here organised by University of Cambridge.

In this context, he said that if the country is able to empower the children and give them quality education by 2020 by when the average age of an Indian would be 29, "they will really be able to provide the solution to the world. So India has an enormous role to play".

Sibal said it is in the interest of the foreign institutes to come and train students in the country, with focus on skill development.

"People are graduating in BA and BA (Hons). What is their contribution to economic growth," he wondered while pressing for skilling the graduates for the economic growth.

Noting that Internet is a great medium for the masses, Sibal, however, regretted the fact that it is increasingly being used for terror activities, for sale of spurious drugs and by children to watch porn content.

Emphasising on skilling the youths, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar suggested setting up of skill varsity and labour. (MORE)