New Delhi, Feb 1 (IANS): Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said that the country's prosperity depends on adequately equipping and empowering the youth

The National Education Policy 2020 is ushering in transformational reforms, she said while delivering the Interim Budget in the Lok Sabha.

“PM schools for rising India (PM SHRI) are delivering quality teaching and nurturing holistic and well-rounded individuals," Sitharaman said.

About the outcome of Skill India Mission, she said that it has trained 1.4 crore youth, upscaled and rescaled 54 lakh youth and established 3,000 new ITIs.

"A large number of institutions of higher learning namely, 7 IITs, 16 IIITs, 7 IIMs, 15 AIIMS, and 390 universities have been set up," she said.

On the entrepreneurship front, the Finance Minister said that the PM Mudra Yojana has sanctioned 43 crore loans, aggregating to Rs 22.5 lakh crores of rupees for entrepreneurial aspirations of the youth.

“Besides that, fund of funds, Startup India and startup credit guarantee schemes are assisting our youth,” she said.

Sitharaman also said that the country was proud of the youth scaling new heights in sports. She said that the highest ever medal tally in Asian Games and Asian Para Games in 2023 reflects a "high confidence level".

Today, India has over 80 chess grand masters, she said, mentioning chess prodigy and India’s number one ranked player Praggnanandhaa, who put up a tough fight against the reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen in 2023.