My dear countrymen. Namaskar. ‘Mann Ki Baat’ means an auspicious opportunity to meet you, and when you meet your family members, it is so pleasing… so satisfying. This is exactly what I feel after meeting you through ‘Mann Ki Baat’. And of course today, this is the 108th episode of our shared journey. For us the importance of the number 108 and its sanctity is a subject of deep study. 108 beads in a rosary, chanting 108 times, 108 divine sites, 108 stairs in temples, 108 bells, this number 108 is associated with immense faith. That’s why the 108th episode of ‘Mann Ki Baat’ has become all the more special for me. In these 108 episodes, we have seen many examples of public participation and derived inspiration from them. Now after reaching this milestone, we have to resolve to move forward afresh, with new energy and at a faster pace. And what a joyous coincidence it is that tomorrow’s sunrise will be the first sunrise of 2024 – we would have entered the year 2024. Best wishes to all of you for 2024.

Friends, many people who listened to ‘Mann Ki Baat’ have written letters to me and shared their memorable moments. It is on account of the strength of 140 crore Indians that this year, our country has attained many special achievements. In this very year, ‘Nari Shakti Vandan Act’, which has been awaited for years was passed.

Many people wrote letters expressing joy on India becoming the 5th largest economy. Many people reminded me of the success of the G20 Summit.

Friends, today every corner of India is brimming with self-confidence, imbued with the spirit of a developed India; the spirit of self-reliance. We have to maintain the same spirit and momentum in 2024 as well. The record business on Diwali proved that every Indian is giving importance to the mantra of ‘Vocal For Local’.

Friends, even today many people are sending me messages pertaining to the success of Chandrayaan-3. I am sure that, like me, you too feel proud of our scientists and especially women scientists.

Friends, when Natu-Natu won the Oscar, the whole country rejoiced with fervour. Who would not have been happy on hearing about the honour accorded to the ‘The Elephant Whisperers’? Through them the world saw the creativity of India and understood our bonding with the environment. This year our athletes also performed marvellously in sports. Our players won 107 medals in Asian Games and 111 medals in Asian Para Games. Indian players won everyone’s heart with their performance in the Cricket World Cup. The victory of our women’s cricket team in the Under-19 T-20 World Cup is very inspiring. The achievements of players in many other sports added to the glory of the country. Now Paris Olympics will be held in 2024, for which the whole country is encouraging her players.

Friends, whenever we made efforts together, it has had a very positive impact on the development journey of our country. We experienced successful campaigns such as ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ and ‘Meri Mati Mera Desh’. We are all witness to the participation of crores of people in them. Construction of 70 thousand Amrit Sarovars is also our collective achievement.

Friends, I have always believed that the development of a country which does not give importance to innovation, stops. India, becoming an Innovation Hub is a symbol of the fact that we are not going to stop. In 2015 we were ranked 81st in the Global Innovation Index – today our rank is 40th. This year, the number of patents filed in India was high, of which about 60% were from domestic funds. This time the highest number of Indian universities have been included in the QS Asia University Rankings. If we start making a list of these achievements, it can never be completed. This is just a glimpse of how effective India’s potential is – we have to take inspiration from these successes of the country; these achievements of the people of the country; take pride in them, make new resolves. Once again, I wish you all a very happy 2024.

My family members, we just discussed the hope and enthusiasm about India that pervades everywhere – this hope and expectation is very good. When India turns developed, the youth will benefit the most. But the youth will benefit more, when they are fit.

Nowadays we see how much talk there is about Lifestyle related Diseases, it is a matter of great concern for all of us, especially the youth. For this ‘Mann Ki Baat’, I had requested all of you to send inputs related to Fit India. The response you people have given has filled me with enthusiasm. A large number of Startups have also sent me their suggestions on NaMo App; they have discussed many of their unique efforts.

Friends, through India’s efforts, 2023 was celebrated as International Year of Millets. This has given a lot of opportunities to the startups working in this field; these include many start-ups like ‘Keeros Foods’ started from Lucknow, ‘Grand-Maa Millets’ of Prayagraj and ‘Nutraceutical Rich Organic India’. The youth associated with Alpino Health Foods, Arboreal and Keeros Foods are also making new innovations regarding healthy food options. The youth associated with Unbox Health of Bengaluru have also expressed how they are helping people in choosing the diet of their liking. The way interest in physical health is increasing, the demand for coaches and trainers related to this field is also rising. Start-ups like Jogo Technologies are helping to meet this demand.

Friends, today there is a lot of discussion about physical health and well-being, but another important aspect related to it is that of mental health. I am very happy to know that Mumbai-based startups like Infi-Heal and YOUR-Dost are working to improve mental health and well-being. Not only that, today a technology like Artificial Intelligence is also being used for this. Friends, I can mention the names of only a few Startups here, because the list is very long. I would urge all of you to keep writing to me about innovative health care startups towards realizing the dream of Fit India. I also want to share with you the experiences of well-known people who talk about physical and mental health.

The first message is from Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev ji.

He will share his views regarding Fitness, especially Fitness of the Mind, i.e., mental health.

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It is our privilege to talk about mental health in this Mann Ki Baat. Mental illnesses and how we keep our neurological system are very directly related. How alert static free and disturbance free we keep neurological system will decide how pleasant we feel within ourselves? What we call as peace, love, joy, blissfulness, agony, depression, ecstasies all have a chemical and neurological basis. Pharmacology is essentially trying to fix the chemical imbalance within the body by adding chemicals from outside. Mental illnesses are being managed this way but we must realize that taking chemicals from outside in the form of medications is necessary when one is in extreme situation. Working for an internal mental health situation or working for an equanimous chemistry within ourselves, a chemistry of peacefulness, joyfulness, blissfulness is something that has to be brought into every individual’s life; into the cultural life of a society and the Nations around the world and the entire humanity. It’s very important we understand our mental health, our sanity is a fragile privilege; we must protect it; we must nurture it. For this, there are many levels of practices in the Yogik system – completely internalized processes that people can do as simple practices with which they can bring a certain equanimity to the chemistry and certain calmness to their neurological system. The technologies of inner well-being are what we call as the yogik sciences. Let’s make it happen.

Generally, Sadhguru ji is known for presenting his views in such a remarkable way.

Come, now let us listen to the famous cricket player Harmanpreet Kaur ji.

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Namaskar I want to say something to my countrymen through ‘Mann Ki Baat’. Honorable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji’s Fit India initiative has encouraged me to share my fitness mantra with all of you. My first suggestion to all of you is ‘one cannot out train a bad diet’. This means that you have to be very careful about when you eat and what you eat. Recently, Honorable Prime Minister Modi ji has encouraged everyone to eat pearl millet. Which increases immunity and helps in sustainable farming and is also easy to digest. Regular exercise and full sleep of 7 hours is very important for the body and helps in staying fit. This will require a lot of discipline and consistency. When you start getting results, you will start exercising yourself daily. Many thanks to the Honorable Prime Minister for giving me the opportunity to talk to you all and share my fitness mantra.

The words of a talented player like Harmanpreet ji will definitely inspire you all.

Come, listen to Grandmaster Vishwanathan Anand ji. We all know how important mental fitness is for our game of ‘Chess’.

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Namaste, I am Vishwanathan Anand you have seen me play Chess and very often I am asked, what is your fitness routine? Now Chess requires a lot of focus and patience, so I do the following which keeps me fit and agile. I do yoga two times a week, I do cardio two times a week and two times a week, I focus on flexibility, stretching, weight training and I tend to take one day off per week. All of these are very important for chess. You need to have the stamina to last 6 or 7 hours of intense mental effort, but you also need to be flexible to able to sit comfortably and the ability to regulate your breath to calm down is helpful when you want to focus on some problem, which is usually a Chess game. My fitness tip to all ‘Mann Ki Baat’ listeners would be to keep calm and focus on the task ahead.

The best fitness tip for me absolutely the most important fitness tip is to get a good night sleep. Do not start sleeping for four and five hours a night, I think seven or eight is a absolute minimum so we should try as hard as possible to get good night sleep, because that is when the next day you are able to get through the day in calm fashion. You don’t make impulsive decisions; you are in control of your emotions. For me sleep is the most important fitness tip.

Come, now let’s listen to Akshay Kumar ji.

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Hello, I am Akshay Kumar. First of all, I would like to thank our respected Prime Minister for getting me a little chance to share my thoughts with you in his ‘Mann Ki Baat’. You guys know that much as I am passionate about fitness, I am even more passionate about staying fit in a natural way. What I like more than a fancy gym, is swimming outside, playing badminton, climbing stairs, exercising with a mudgar club bell, eating good healthy food… like I believe that pure ghee if eaten in right quantity is beneficial for us. But I see that many young boys and girls do not eat ghee because they fear that they might become fat. It is very important that we understand what is good and what is bad for our fitness. You should change your lifestyle on the advice of doctors and not by looking at the body of a film star. Actors are often not what they look like on screen. Many types of filters and special effects are used and after seeing them, we start using wrong shortcuts to change our body. Nowadays, so many people take steroids and go for this six pack or eight pack. Friend, with such shortcuts the body swells from outside but remains hollow from inside. You guys remember that shortcut can cut your life short. You don’t need a shortcut, you need long lasting fitness. Friends, fitness is a kind of penance. It is not instant coffee or two-minute noodles. In this New Year, promise yourself… no chemicals, no shortcut exercise, yoga, good food, sleeping on time, some meditation and most importantly, happily accept the way you look. After today, don’t live a filter life, live a fitter life. Take care. Jai Mahakal.

There are many other start-ups in this sector, so I thought of discussing it with a young start-up founder who is doing excellent work in this field.

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Hello, my name is Rishabh Malhotra and I am from Bengaluru. I am very happy to know that fitness is being discussed in ‘Mann Ki Baat’. I myself belong to the world of fitness and we have a start-up in Bengaluru named ‘Tagda Raho’. Our start-up has been created to bring forward the traditional exercises of India. There is a very amazing exercise in the traditional exercises of India which is ‘Gada Exercise’ and our entire focus is on Mace and Mugdar exercise only. People are surprised to know how you do all the training with a mace. I would like to tell you that mace exercise is thousands of years old and it has been practiced in India for thousands of years. You must have seen it in big and small akhadas and through our start-up we have brought it back in a modern form. We have received a lot of affection from the entire country and a very good response. Through ‘Mann Ki Baat’ I would like to tell you that apart from this, there are many ancient exercises in India and methods related to health and fitness, which we should adopt and teach further in the world. I am from the world of fitness, so I would like to give you a personal tip. With mace exercise you can improve your strength, power, posture and even your breathing, so adopt mace exercise and take it forward. Jai Hind.

Friends, everyone has expressed one’s own views but everyone has the same mantra – ‘Stay Healthy, Stay Fit’. What could be a bigger resolve than your own fitness to start 2024?

My family members, a few days ago an experiment took place in Kashi, which I want to share with the listeners of ‘Mann Ki Baat’. You know that thousands of people had reached Kashi from Tamil Nadu to participate in the Kashi-Tamil Sangamam. There I publicly used the Artificial Intelligence AI tool Bhashini for the first time to communicate with them. I was addressing from the stage in Hindi but through the AI tool Bhashini, the people of Tamil Nadu present there were listening to my address in Tamil language simultaneously. People who came to the Kashi-Tamil Sangamam seemed very excited about this experiment. The day is not far when an address will be delivered in one language and the public will listen to the same speech in their own language in real time. The same will happen with films also when the public will listen to Real Time Translation with the help of AI in the cinema hall. You can imagine how big a change would take place when this technology starts being widely used in our schools, our hospitals, our courts. I would urge today’s young generation to further explore AI tools related to Real Time Translation and make them 100% fool proof.

Friends, in the changing times we have to save our languages and also promote them. I now want to tell you about a tribal village in Jharkhand. This village has taken a unique initiative to provide education to its children in their mother tongue. Children are being imparted education in Kudukh language in Manglo village of Garhwa district. The name of this school is, ‘Karthik Oraon Aadivasi Kudukh School’. 300 tribal children study in this school. Kudukh language is the mother tongue of the Oraon tribal community. Kudukh language also has its own script, which is known as Tolang Siki.

This language was gradually becoming extinct; to save it, this community has decided to educate children in their own language. Arvind Oraon, who started this school, says that the tribal children had difficulty in English language, so he started teaching the village children in their mother tongue. When his efforts started yielding better results, the villagers also joined him. On account of studies in their own language, the pace of children’s learning also increased. In our country, many children used to leave studies midway due to language difficulties. The new National Education Policy is also helping in eliminating such hardships. It is our endeavour that language should not become a hindrance in the education and progress of any child.

Friends, the extraordinary daughters have filled our Bharat Bhoomi with pride in every era. Savitribai Phule ji and Rani Velu Nachiyar ji are two such luminaries of the country. Their personality is like a lighthouse, which will continue to show the way to further woman power in every era. Just a few days from now, on January 3, we will all celebrate the birth anniversaries of the two. As soon as the name of Savitribai Phule ji is mentioned, the first thing that strikes us is her contribution in the field of education and social reform. She always raised her voice strongly for the education of women and the underprivileged. She was far ahead of her time and always remained vocal in opposing wrong practices.

She had deep faith in the empowerment of society through education. Along with Mahatma Phule ji, she started many schools for daughters. Her poems used to raise awareness and fill self-confidence amongst people. She always urged people to help each other in need and also live in harmony with nature. The magnitude of her kindness cannot be summed up in words. When a famine struck in Maharashtra, Savitribai and Mahatma Phule opened the doors of their homes to help the needy. Such an example of social justice is rarely seen. When the dreadful plague had spread there, she threw herself into the service of the people. During all this, she herself fell prey to this disease. Her life dedicated to humanity is still inspiring all of us.

Friends, the name of Rani Velu Nachiyar is also one among the many great personalities of the country who fought against foreign rule. My brothers and sisters of Tamil Nadu still remember her by the name of Veera Mangai i.e. brave woman. The bravery with which Rani Velu Nachiyar fought against the British and the valour she displayed is very inspiring. Her husband, was killed by the British during their attack on the Sivagangai kingdom, who was the king there. Queen Velu Nachiyar and her daughter somehow escaped from the enemies. She relentlessly remained busy for many years in building an organization and raising an army with the Marudu Brothers i.e. her commanders. She started the war against the British with full preparation and fought with great courage and determination. The name of Rani Velu Nachiyar is included among those who formed an All-Women Group for the first time in their army. I offer my tributes to these two brave women.

My family members, there is a tradition of Dairo in Gujarat. Throughout the night, thousands of people join Dairo and acquire knowledge along with entertainment. In this Dairo, the trinity of folk music, folk literature and humour fills everyone’s mind with joy. Bhai Jagdish Trivedi ji is a famous artist of this Dairo. As a comedian, Bhai Jagdish Trivedi ji has maintained his influence for more than 30 years. Recently I received a letter from Bhai Jagdish Trivedi ji and along with it he has also sent one of his books. The name of the book is – Social Audit of Social Service. This book is very unique. With accounts in it, this book is a kind of balance sheet. The complete account of how much income Bhai Jagdish Trivedi ji received from particular programs in the last 6 years and where it was spent is given in the book. This Balance Sheet is unique because he spent his entire income, every single rupee, for the society – School, Hospital, Library, institutions related to disabled people, social service – the entire 6 years are accounted for. As it is written at one place in the book, in 2022, he earned two crore thirty five lakh eighty nine thousand six hundred seventy four rupees from his programs. And he spent two crore thirty five lakh eighty nine thousand six hundred seventy four rupees on School, Hospital, Library. He did not keep even a single rupee with himself. Actually, there is an interesting incident behind this also. It so happened that once Bhai Jagdish Trivedi ji said that when he turns 50 in 2017, he will not take home the income from his programs but will spend it on society. Since 2017, he has spent approximately Rs 8.75 crores on myriad social work. A comedian, with his words, compelles everyone to laugh. But how many emotions he lives within, this can be seen from the life of Bhai Jagdish Trivedi ji. You will be surprised to know that he also has three PhD degrees. He has written 75 books, many of which have received acclaims. He has also been honoured with many awards for social work. I wish Bhai Jagdish Trivedi ji all the best for his social work.

My family members, there is excitement and enthusiasm in the entire country in connection with the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. People are expressing their feelings in a multitude of ways. You must have noticed that during the last few days, many new songs and new bhajans have been composed on Shri Ram and Ayodhya. Many people are also writing new poems. There are many experienced artists in it and new emerging young artists have also composed heart-warming bhajans. I have also shared some songs and bhajans on my social media. It seems that the art world is becoming a participant in this historic moment in its own unique style. One thing comes to my mind… could we all share all such creations with a common hash tag? I request you to share your creations on social media with the hashtag Shri Ram Bhajan (#shriRamBhajan). This compilation will turn into a flow of emotions and devotion in which everyone will be immersively imbued with the ethos of Ram.

My dear countrymen, that’s all with me today in ‘Mann Ki Baat’. 2024 is just a few hours away. India’s achievements are the achievements of every Indian. We have to continuously work for the development of India keeping in mind the Panch Pran. Whatever work we do, whatever decision we make, our first criterion should be… what the country will get from it; what benefit it will bring to the country. Rashtra Pratham – Nation First – There is no greater mantra than this. Adhering to this mantra, we Indians will make our country developed and self-reliant. May you all reach new heights of success in 2024, may you all stay healthy, stay fit, stay immensely happy – this is my prayer. In 2024 we will once again discuss the new achievements of the people of the country.

Thank you very much.

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