Tripura Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma, who also holds the Science and Technology portfolio, on Friday said that the State government is keen to link technical education with the industrial sector.

Speaking to media persons on the sidelines of an event related to a student project programme organized by the Science and Technology Council, Varma described India’s demographic dividend as “a blessing” and said that any progressive government should be in tune with the youth to understand their aspirations.

“This is an annual programme, where the Science Technology department invites projects from the students and one selected project is forwarded to the central government for funding. A total of 58 projects have been submitted this year and all the projects shall undergo thorough scrutiny,” the Deputy Chief Minister said.

“We are eager to link the technical education sector with the government as well as the industries for better results,” he added.
According to the minister, this year’s topic for projects is ‘Clean Energy, Green Energy’.

“Sustainable development is the need of the hour. We have to be very careful about our choices in the energy sector and thus it is quite interesting,” he asserted.

On the state budget slated to be tabled in the middle of this month, he said, “The main spirit of the budget will be development and simultaneously welfare-centric.”

Earlier addressing the inaugural session at the programme, he explained the dire need for sustainable development for peaceful co-existence. He said, “Earlier the Western countries used to fight for spices. They created colonies in India and other countries to export spices to their countries. Now, all the new age wars are being fought for fossil fuel. This justifies the need for renewable and clean energy sources for industrial and other sectors.” (ANI)