India, Aug. 17 -- Prime Minister Modi's I-Day speech sought to place India's youth at the centre of Viksit Bharat, unveiling reforms and a series of initiatives

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address on India's 80th Independence Day - his 13th consecutive speech from the Red Fort, a record for any non-Congress prime minister - was ambitious in scope, familiar in tone. Built around the theme "Yuva Shakti for Viksit Bharat@2047," it unveiled "Shakti ki Sapta Dhara," a seven-point framework spanning manufacturing, agriculture, technology, infrastructure, defence, the green-and-blue economy and soft power, invoking the mythic "Sapta Sindhu" for a fresh current of reform.

The concrete takeaways skewed youth-first: free AI training for one cr...