Modi urges Gen Z to solve problems, embrace change

New Dehi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday urged graduating students at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD) to keep learning, question ideas that are accepted without thought and have the courage to find solutions to problems. Addressing the institute’s 57th convocation, PM Modi told students that the challenges they would encounter after leaving campus would differ from the structured problems they had faced in their academic careers.

“Life’s most critical challenges” would be “out of syllabus”, he said, urging the graduates to identify problems that society had stopped questioning rather than simply solving problems already defined for them. The Prime Minister said the ability to continuously learn would be crucial as rapid technological advances reshape the global landscape.

“Keep your curiosity alive in life, keep your learning instinct,” he said, according to the speech released by the Press Information Bureau.

Modi also said an IIT degree should be viewed as more than a high academic score or a lucrative placement, describing it as evidence of an ability to solve difficult problems. The remarks come as Modi steps up his outreach to India’s Gen Z, days after a youth-led agitation by the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) over alleged examination irregularities culminated in the resignation of then Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The protests, which drew thousands of young people to Delhi’s Jantar Mantar and surrounding areas, were seen by participants as a rare show of sustained youth pressure on the government.