The Power of Indian Youth – a conversation with Nirmala Sitharaman

India is home to a fifth of the world’s youth demographic.

For Nirmala Sitharaman, India’s first full-time Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs, these young people are key to the country’s global growth over the next 25 years.

I spoke to Nirmala at at the India Global Forum last week.

She highlighted that in spite of the pandemic, and the subsequent lockdowns, India has produced 45 unicorns over the last two years. “That’s actually the power of the youth, the power of India, the power of showing that entrepreneurs are capable of delivering”, she said.

Nirmala is an inspiration in her own right. She was ranked first in Fortune India’s list of the 50 most powerful Indian women and is the country’s first full-time female Finance Minister.

Through embracing digitisation, sunrise industries, startups and fin-tech, Nirmala is positioning India to become the future economic superpower.

“Despite the lockdown we could still manage 45 unicorns within 2 years. That’s actually the power of the youth, the power of India, the power of showing that entrepreneurs are capable of delivering.”

She believes that championing young tech entrepreneurs is the key to the country’s global growth over the next 25 years.