One cr youth to be trained, employed every year: PM

New Delhi, Aug 15 (UNI) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today announced schemes to offer employment to 10 million students every year, invest Rs 25,000 crore in agriculture and pay pension to senior citizens above 65 and below poverty line.

Life and disability insurance cover would be provided to the heads of all poor families or to one earning member in each family so that they and their families can get over the consequences of injury or death, Dr Singh said in his address to the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort here.

The government was also working on a health insurance model so that ''our poor do not have to bear the high cost of medical care.

These programmes will be launched shortly.'' Further, the government would pursue policies to promote ''rapid industrialisation'' in every region as there was no ''magic wand'' for poverty removal, which ''is now a feasible goal,'' The Vocational Education Mission, announced by him the same day last year, ''is ready'' to be launched to open 1,600 new industrial training institutes (ITIs) and polytechnics, 10,000 new vocational schools and 50,000 new Skill Development Centres, he said in his 40-minute address, delivered in Hindi and telecast live.

The government would also ensure that annually over 100 lakh students get vocational training which would represent a four-fold increase from today's level.

The active help of the private sector would be sought in this initiative to provide training and employment, he clarified. This is Dr Singh's fourth Independence Day address since becoming Prime Minister in May 2004.

''We will soon launch a special programme to invest Rs 25,000 crore in agriculture, to enhance the livelihood of our farmers and increase food production,'' he said, keeping the main focus of his address on farming, education, employment and economic growth.

Acknowledging that there ''is more to be done and more will be done'' for the farming community, Dr Singh said ''in the coming years our main emphasis will be on agricultural development.'' The Backward Regions Grant Fund would help 250 districts to catch up with other parts of the country.

''Every State, every district, every village, every person must be touched by the hand of progress,'' he said.

Dr Singh said since Independence India's development process had ''empowered the workers and farmers; it has made our citizens skilled and energetic; and, has made our business class dynamic.

''They are driving higher economic growth through their creativity and enterprise. Our economy is now growing at historically unprecedented rates. This enables us to generate the resources required for eradication of poverty, for education and health care for all. Poverty eradication is now a feasible goal.'' The Prime Minister carefully avoided referring to any of the ongoing controversies, including the nuclear deal and touched upon foreign policy only briefly. There was no mention of Pakistan.

He said it was necessary to ensure that every Indian was educated and skilled so that all of them benefited from new employment opportunities that were being created across the economy ''Towards this end, our Government has decided to invest in setting up good quality schools across the country. We will support 6,000 new high quality schools - one in every block of the country.

Each such school will set standards of excellence for other schools in the area.

UNI