No Indian should be deprived of opportunities due to language: PM Modi

He was speaking while inaugurating the Golden Jubilee celebrations of Agradoot group of newspapers via video conferencing.

The Prime Minister spoke against limiting intellectual space among people who know a particular language and said the issue was not only of emotion but also of scientific logic.

"During the period of slavery, the expansion of Indian languages was restricted and modern knowledge, science and research were restricted to one or two languages. A large section of Indians did not have access to those languages," he said.

He added that the scope of intellect's expertise kept shrinking.

Due to this, the pool of invention and innovation has also become limited, he said.

He further said that in the fourth industrial revolution, there was a massive opportunity for India to lead the world, this opportunity was due to India's data power and digital inclusion.

"No Indian should be deprived of the best information, best knowledge, best skill and best opportunity just because of language, this is our effort. That's why we encouraged studies in Indian languages in the National Policy on Education," he said.

The Prime Minister continued on the theme of knowledge in the mother tongue and said, "It is now our endeavour to make the world's best content available in Indian languages. For this, we are working on the national language translation mission. The effort is that the Internet, which is a huge storehouse of knowledge, and information, can be used by every Indian in his own language."

He also talked of the Bhashini Platform, a Unified Language Interface launched recently.

"It is important from every aspect, social and economic, to make the Internet available to crores of Indians in their own language," he added.

Modi underlined the sterling contribution of Indian language journalism to Indian tradition, culture, freedom struggle and the development journey.

Assam has played a key role in the development of language journalism in India as the state has been a very vibrant place from the point of view of journalism. Journalism started 150 years ago in the Assamese language and kept on getting stronger with time, he added.

The Prime Minister also said that both the Central and state governments are working together to reduce the difficulties of the people of Assam during floods.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is the chief patron of Agradoot’s Golden jubilee celebration committee, was present on the occasion.