‘Financial inclusion important for achieving economic empowerment of women’

New Delhi: The first meeting of Youth20, a platform to take India’s G20 presidency to youngsters across the country, will be held from February 6 to 8 in Guwahati, Information and Broadcasting, and Youth Affairs Minister Anurag Thakur said here on Friday.

He said the inception meeting of Y20 in Guwahati has identified five areas for discussion Future of work: Industry 4.0, innovation and 21st century skills; Climate change and disaster risk reduction: Making sustainability a way of life; Peacebuilding and reconciliation: Ushering in an era of no war; Shared future: Youth in democracy and governance and health, well-being, and Sports: Agenda for youth.

“We will take this initiative to every corner of the country, to almost every university. This will bring the voice of the youth to the deliberations,” Thakur told reporters on the sidelines of FICCI Ladies Proactive Wellness Conclave here. Addressing the conclave, the minister said financial inclusion was critical to achieving the economic empowerment of women, which is one of the targets under the Sustainable Development Goal on gender equality.

“Women’s role in leading the national transformation has been a defining feature under the present regime in the country.

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we have prioritised women’s development and also women-led-development,” Thakur said. Around 12,000 students from more than 50 colleges and universities across the 34 districts of Assam will deliberate on the five themes of the summit.