PM Modi to inaugurate National Youth Festival in Karnataka's Hubballi on January 12

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to inaugurate the 26th National Youth Festival at Hubballi on January 12, to commemorate the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda. Making the announcement, Union Minister for Youth and Sports Affairs Anurag Thakur said that the event will be held from January 12 to 16, and will be organised by his ministry with the government of Karnataka.

Thakur said that the Festival was part of the Y-20 series, which are a series of events the ministry is focussing on the engagement of the youth as part of the events of India’s G20 presidency.

Meeta R Lochan, secretary of the Department of Youth Affairs said that more than 30,000 young people will attend the inaugural function and the five-day event will see the attendance of over 7500 youth delegates from India, as well as leaders who have excelled in their own fields of activity. The theme of the festival, Lochan added, is ‘Viksit Yuva Viksit Bharat’.

As part of the festival, there will be exhibitions of traditional sports like Kalaripayatu (Kerala), Silambam (Tamil Nadu), Gatka (Punjab), Mallakhamb (Maharashtra) are being organised, adventure sports activities like scuba diving, and discussions on student centric themes. Apart from that, competitive cultural events on folk dances and songs will be organised, where troupes from different states will participate. Non-competitive events include social development fair ‘Yuva Kriti’, ‘Adventure Festival’, ‘Suvichar’, ‘Young artists camp’ among others.

Officials said that most of the programmes will be livestreamed. And that, the whole event will be celebrated as Green Youth Festival, where only reusable cutlery, napkins will be used. Additionally, the mementos, medals, and stationery are of reusable material. Apart from that, the ministry has also planned a Yogathon where 5 lakh people from all the 31 districts of Karnataka will participate.

Additionally, the summit will include two way discussions on themes such as ‘Future of Work, Industry, Innovation and 21st Century Skills’, ‘Climate change and disaster risk reduction’, ‘Peace building and Reconciliation’, ‘Shared future-youth in democracy and governance’, ‘Health and Wellbeing’.