Pune (Maharashtra) [India], May 26 (ANI): The former Army chief General MM Naravane on Friday said that the student outfit Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad is making a major contribution to bringing nationalism among youth.

While speaking at the National Executive meeting of Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad in Pune, former Army Chief General MM Naravane said, "India is a country whose economy is rising at a good pace as also told by my earlier speaker Industrialists Baba Kalyani and if you see according to GDP after USA China and Japan we are in the fourth place currently. This is not a small thing. In the next 3-4 years we will further rise to come to third place.""There are a lot of reasons for this development. We have a demographic dividend advantage. Our youth and our working population bring development but this population only be good when it would be disciplined and skilled," he added.

He also mentioned that if our youth gets involved in illegal activities then the demographic dividend will not be beneficial.

"Somehow if these youth goes on to do wrong things or get involved in illegal activities like stone pelting and burning busses etc then this demographic dividend will not be beneficial," the former army chief said.

He also mentioned that during his tenure as army chief, a lot of policies were made by the Defence ministry in the central government.

"Apart from this as a former Army Chief a lot of policies were made by the defence ministry. Firstly Sainik School which are doubled, now, in fact, girls can also join it. Also, private schools can be part of Sainik School as per new schemes. Second is NCC, the government have increased the vacancy in NCC which is now 2 lakh from 1 lakh earlier. Third the Agnipath Scheme, this was also a step to bring nationalism among youth to make them disciplined and skilled and if we have such skilled and disciplined youth it will bring nationalism among them," he said.

He also mentioned many factors are involved when it comes to national security and it is not just the army's responsibility to secure the nation.

"When we speak about national security we always think of Army but it is more than that, it involves many things. There are many threats. There are external threats and internal threats, and there are threats that involved in National security like in food, health, energy, water cyber security etc these all are part of national security and everyone who's is connected contributes to securing them like a doctor secure health sector like Enforcement Directorate brings black money like a Techie secures our cyber threats so it's not just Army's responsibility it a responsibility of all to strengthen the Country," he said. (ANI)