Youth Affairs and Sports
           THE Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports functioned under the overall guidance of the
      Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Youth Affairs and Sports during the year. In April,
      2008, two separate Departments, namely, Department of Youth Affairs and Department of
      Sports, were created under the Ministry.
           The youth represent the most dynamic and vibrant segment of the population. India is one of
      the youngest nations in the world, with about 65 per cent of the population under 35 years of age.
      The youth in the age group of 1529 years comprise 27.5 per cent of the population. It is
      estimated that by the year 2020, the population of India would have a median age of 28 years
      only. This ‘demographic dividend’ offers a great opportunity. In order to capture this
      demographic dividend, it is essential that the economy has the ability to support the increase in
      the labour force and the youth have the appropriate education, skills, health awareness and other
      enablers to productively contribute to the economy. The Government of India makes significant
      investment on programmes for the youth, through various ministries/departments.
      Relevant Website: www.yas.nic.in
      National Youth Policy
           The National Youth Policy, 2014 (NYP-2014) was launched in 2014, replacing the
      erstwhile National Youth Policy, 2003. NYP-2014 has been finalised after extensive
      consultations with all the stakeholders. The Policy defines ‘youth’ as persons in the age-group of
      15-29 years.
      Schemes for Youth
           The Department of Youth Affairs was operating a number of schemes for development and
      empowerment of youth. Some of the schemes had annual outlay of less than ₹ 10 crore. In order
      to improve the effectiveness of these schemes, it was considered necessary to merge these
      schemes into a single scheme, which can act as the flagship scheme of the Department. This
      would help in achieving better synergies between the schemes and thereby, improve their
      effectiveness and help in achieving better outcomes with the available resources.
           The Department undertook a comprehensive exercise to re-structure/consolidate all the
      schemes which are now being operated by Department of Youth Affairs into 3 flagship schemes
      as follows:
       S.
              Names of Old Schemes                  Names of New Schemes
       No.
             Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan           Merged into a new ‘umbrella’ Scheme called
       1.
             (NYKS)                                “Rashtriya Yuva Sashaktikaran Karyakram
                                                   (RYSK)”.
       2.    National Youth Corps (NYC)