PANAJI: Goa Legislative Assembly Deputy Speaker and Mapusa MLA Joshua Peter De Souza said Goa is poised to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of Viksit Bharat 2047, citing its young population and growing digital awareness among citizens.
De Souza was addressing the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) India Region Zone-II Conference India Region (Zone-II) Conference held at the Haryana Vidhan Sabha, Chandigarh, earlier this week, which focused on the theme “The role of an aware society and public representatives in achieving the goals of Viksit Bharat 2047 and addressing future challenges.”
Addressing presiding officials, he said India is entering a new phase where governance must adapt to a rapidly changing, technology-driven society.
“Coming from one of India’s smallest but most progressive states with an extremely young population, we will be the biggest beneficiaries of Viksit Bharat 2047,” he said.
He noted that the next generation of voters will be more informed and digitally connected, significantly altering expectations from public representatives. “The voters are going to change, and the demands are going to be different. It’s a generation backed by technology and most aware of current issues, not just locally but globally,” he said, referring to post-COVID changes such as the expansion of digital payments and the rise of artificial intelligence.
De Souza stressed that legislators must evolve to stay relevant in this changing environment. “We as legislators need to find a way to be relevant and connect with the new generation of Viksit Bharat,” he said.
He added that technology has become central to political engagement and public communication. “The youth have the power of a supercomputer in their hands, and it is up to us as legislators to find a way to connect with them,” he said.
Recalling his early political experience, De Souza said he entered the Goa Legislative Assembly in 2019 at the age of 29, at a time when most of his colleagues were significantly older and more experienced.
“At that time, the next youngest person in the Assembly was 18 years older than me,” he said, adding that even then, digital tools like social media were beginning to reshape political outreach. “They wanted to know how I used Instagram for my campaign and how I used Facebook,” he noted.
He described politics as a continuous exchange of ideas across generations, stressing the importance of knowledge sharing between senior and young leaders in strengthening democratic institutions
