Young generation should share new ideas and solutions with the United Nations: UN veteran Ramu Damodaran

KOLKATA, India, Oct. 28, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today's young generation should come up with new ideas and solutions to address the future concerns of the United Nations. "We are often told to think global and act locally. In many ways we can reverse that. If you think locally of changes that you can bring to your family, homes, schools, communities, these can be elevated to a global level through the United Nations," said Mr Ramu Damodaran, a United Nations veteran who has worked in various UN departments for the past 25 years. Mr Damodaran was addressing school students across India via online session of Muskaan to observe the 76^th United Nations Day, observed each year on 24^th October. The event was organized by non-profit organisation Education for All Trust in association with Prabha Khaitan Foundation of Kolkata, India, and supported by Shree Cement. Muskaan is a pan-India initiative to promote skill development among children.

Alluded to some of the key ideas that would define the United Nations in the next 25 years, Damodaran said there would be a need for global governance in areas of global public good like health, sustainable development beyond 2030, artificial intelligence, use of digital technology, peaceful use of outer space, creation of emergency platforms and so on.

"It is appropriate that the country that brought `Surya Namaskar' (sun salutation) to the world should lead the global initiative on solar energy working with the United Nations. India is now going to ask the United Nations for observer status so that countries can pool in their intellectual and entrepreneurial abilities to harvest solar energy and also create bilateral platforms blending creative solutions with financial mechanisms," he said.

Referring to the UN Security Council, Mr Damodaran said to the young audience, "India will certainly become a permanent member of the United Nations and this will happen in your lifetime and the Security Council will be enriched by it."

Mr Ramu Damodaran joined the United Nations Department of Global Communications in 1996. His responsibilities included relationships with civil society, the creative community and celebrity advocates, publications (as Chief Editor of the UN Chronicle), the Dag Hammarskjold Library and the United Nations Academic Impact. He has also been the Secretary of the United Nations General Assembly's Committee on Information since 2011.

SOURCE Prabha Khaitan Foundation