As we celebrate India’s tremendous growth rate in various sectors in the past 60 years of Independence, we proudly acknowledge that India is blessed with rich cultural heritage, tradition and human values.

But our youth, including the new generation of engineers, doctors and scientists don’t take sufficient interest in their heritage, culture and values, and exhibit contempt for the Indian way of life.

Mark Twain said, “India is the cradle of the human race, the birth of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend and the great grandmother of tradition”.

Globalisation is an undeniable factor in life, which is bringing in sweeping changes in the lives of nations and societies and fundamentally altering the socio-economic paradigm as well as the key success factors for any individual, society or nation. This is compounded by the fact that technology has empowered human beings and societies like never before.

Although we have globalised the market economy, including technology, fashion, food and music, we have yet to globalise values. There is something in the human psyche that always aspires towards the greater light, greater consciousness and that is important in promoting value education, communal harmony, human right, freedom of religion and peace.

There is only one light that does not cast any shadows that is the inner light. Bernard Rusell said: “Science, by itself, cannot supply us with an ethic. It can show us how to achieve a given end, and it may show us that ends cannot be achieved”. We have to learn to use wisely the knowledge that we generate.

There is a universal concern in respect of erosion of values, promoting values and culture, which fit in with the needs of the modern times. But it is more acute for our country, which has led its own distinct culture, values and tradition. The process of developing into a modern India, with new social, political and economic institutions, and with emphasis on science and technology, has thrown up many new values.

It is important that we examine these challenges and prepare our youth to face and resolve them. Our emphasis should be on value education, promoting ethics and human values by highlighting the need to make education a forceful tool for cultivation of social and moral values.

Our culturally plural society education should foster universal and eternal values, oriented towards the unity and integration of our people. We must broaden our vision and readjust our strategies in order to foster mutual respect and understanding among different cultures and civilisation, enabling the achievement of harmonious co-existence among diverse peoples.

Multi-cultural, multi-religious education is needed to bring people together and foster harmony in diversity, especially among children and youth. We must foster the creation of new role models among teachers in order to re-awaken human values in children and youth.