‘India is building global competencies to fulfill 21st century aspirations’, said Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister for Education and Skill Development at 5th East Asia Summit (EAS) Education Ministers Meeting. Shri Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, Minister of State for Education and senior officials of the Ministry also attended the meeting. Speaking on the occasion, Shri Pradhan reaffirmed India’s commitment foster long-term and mutually beneficial educational cooperation in sync with the complementarities outlined in the Manila Action Plan.The Minister shared the objectives of India’s National Education Policy, including universalisation of education, ensuring equity, quality, affordability & flexibility, technology-based learning and several others which uphold the principles of the Manila Action Plan on Education.Shri Pradhan spoke about the multi-modal digital interventions, like PM-eVidya, Swayam, Diksha, etc which ensured continuity of learning during the pandemic and also on the continuous efforts to ramp up the digital infrastructure to facilitate on demand learning and bridge the digital divide.The Minister said that in line with the vision of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, India remains committed to forge meaningful partnerships in making education and skills more inclusive, affordable, equitable, vibrant and aspirational.Shri Pradhan also reaffirmed India’s support to strengthening research and academic collaborations, including in TVET, promoting student & academic exchanges for fulfilling aspirations of the students.