New Delhi, Aug. 15 -- Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday put youth at the centre of India's next phase of development, calling for "next-level reforms" in education, skills, technology and the economy and laying out a seven-pronged growth strategy to take the country to a higher global scale by 2047.

In his 13th Independence Day address from the Red Fort, Modi called upon political parties to work towards reservation of women in Parliament and state assemblies, while announcing the creation of a new civil defence network.

The address marked a shift in the government's Viksit Bharat narrative from the delivery of basic infrastructure and welfare outcomes of the past decade to a new goal centred on global competitiveness, self-relia...