Pallam Raju says Armed Forces produce best thinkers

New Delhi - Minister of State for Defence MM Pallam Raju on Thursday hailed the Indian Armed Forces for grooming some of the finest professionals.

Addressing a National Seminar of the NCC on 'Empowering Tomorrow's Leaders for Nation Building' here today Pallam Raju said: "I have the good fortune of working at the MoD and interact with some of the world's best thinkers practising morality and military ethics. ... The true virtues at the core of the profession of arms are the cardinal virtues - of wisdom, justice, courage and temperance."

Pallam Raju said that the aim of the NCC should be not just to provide the youth of the country with military skills, but rather to teach them basic life skills that are required in a work environment with the military environment used as a platform to instill discipline, routine and work ethics.

Pallam Raju said that the country is poised at a moment in history when a much brighter future for its entire people is within its reach. He said: " Without doubt the 21st Century is the best period to be an Indian. Never before has the level of confidence in us been as high as it is today. Fifty percent of all Indians are under the age of 35; that's more than 500 million youngsters raring to take India to the top of

the world."

"Young Indians have achieved professional and personal excellence on a level unseen before and this is only the beginning," he added.

The Director General of NCC, Lt. Gen PS Bhalla, speaking on the occasion said that the NCC -  the largest uniformed youth organization in the world -- is motivating more than 1.3 million enrolled boys and girls in carrying out the message of education, hygiene and sanitation and environmental consciousness to the villages during the National Integration Camps and other mobilization camps across the far corners of the country.