New Delhi, March 24 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday met a delegation of leading Sikh intellectual voices from across the country at his official residence here.
The meeting witnessed freewheeling interaction by the Prime Minister with the delegation on diverse topics like farmer welfare, youth empowerment, drug free society, National Educational Policy, skilling, employment, technology and Punjab's overall development trajectory.
The Prime Minister, while expressing his happiness at meeting the delegation, said the intellectuals are opinion makers of the society.
Urging the members of the delegation to engage and educate the public and work towards making the citizenry properly informed, he emphasised the importance of the spirit of unity which acts as the central pillar amidst the wide and beautiful diversity of our country.
The Prime Minister talked about the significance of education in mother tongue.
"Efforts are being made to develop professional courses in Indian languages so that higher education in mother tongue becomes reality," the Prime Minister said.
It is learnt that the delegation thanked the Prime Minister for the invitation and said that they had never imagined that the Prime Minister of the country would engage with them in such an informal setting.
They also appreciated the continuous and multiple steps taken by the Prime Minister for the betterment of Sikh community.
Narrender A Mangalam had checked into the Taj Mansingh hotel in Delhi's Lutyens around 2.30 am on November 7 and was to check out on November 8, they said.
Japan is funding 80 per cent of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project through a soft loan of Rs. 79,000 crore at an interest rate of 0.1 per cent, with a tenure stretching over 50 years and a moratorium period of 15 years.
The Moscow-format meeting on Afghanistan will be held on November 9 and representatives of the Afghan Taliban radical movement will take part in it, the Russian Foreign Ministry had said last week.
