National Youth Day: Commemorating Swami Vivekananda and contributing towards the Making of a Nation

Since 1984, India celebrates National Youth Day on January 12. This date was chosen to honour the birthday of Swami Vivekananda, one of India’s greatest spiritual and social leaders and to encourage the youth in the country. He saw promise for the future in every child and believed that with “muscles of iron” and “nerves of steel” they could bring about the social change required for the sustainable growth of this great country. Swami Vivekananda himself personified the eternal energy of the youth and a restless quest for truth. In a country like India, where almost 50 per cent of its population is under the age of 25, making celebrations that empower young people is essential because the country’s future rides on their shoulders.

Swami Vivekananda was a Hindu monk from India, who shook the world with his knowledge, wisdom, positivity and affection. He played a significant role in the development of Indian nationalism during the 19th and 20th century. His teachings and philosophy made the people rethink various aspects of education, faith, character building, as well as social issues pertaining to India.

According to Swami Vivekananda, a country’s future depends on its people.” Vivekananda believed education is the manifestation of perfection already in men. He thought it a pity that the existing education system did not enable a person to stand on his own feet, nor did it teach him self-confidence and self-respect. To Vivekananda, education was not only a collection of information but something more meaningful; he felt education should be man-making, life-giving and character-building. To him, education was an assimilation of noble ideas. He also told the youth- Set yourselves to the task of spreading education among the masses.

SRM University-AP, Andhra Pradesh, a multi-stream research-intensive university, came into being with a vision of making nation builders. SRMAP has always put its students first. That is the reason the students have come up with transformative ideas and challenging developments. The students of SRMAP is globally recognised for their intellect and brilliance. During the COVID-19 wars, our student developed cost-effective face-shield to support his nation. The applications developed by our students for various societal well-being are recognised worldwide and celebrated with prizes and accolades. The budding entrepreneurs of SRMAP have founded a start-up- OurEye.ai, which enhances surveillance by enabling CCTV cameras to produce actionable insights using AI-ML technology. The nascent university also has a student who holds a Guinness World Record for art and creativity.

Furthermore, not only students but also the young faculty members of SRMAP are very enthusiastic about making a change for good for their nation. Our faculty and students have published 350+ papers in reputed journals in two years along with 27 funded projects and 16 patents. Our young faculty is recognised among the world’s top 2% biotechnologists. The tool developed by our faculty engineer is being used and applauded by senior NASA scientists.

Following the path as shown by Swami Vivekananda, SRM University-AP sets on a voyage to Channelising Youth Power for Nation Building. The university focuses on the overall growth of the students as advocated by Swamiji. SRMAP inspires students to follow their dreams and prepares them to be able enough to live their dream. The passion and dedication of its faculty members are touching the lives of the students. The nascent university has just begun its journey and will not stop until we meet our goal to make India greatest of all. We are confident that with the right mindset and guidance, India will again retrieve its former glory and SRM University-AP aims to be a proud contributor in the process.