New Delhi: Vice President of India, Dr. M. Hamid Ansari, will inaugurate the 14th National Youth Festival at Amritsar on January 12, 2009.

It is for the first time that National Youth Festival will be held in Punjab.

National Youth Festival is organized every year from January 12th to 16th to commemorate the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda.

Mr. Parkash Singh Badal, Chief Minister of Punjab will be presiding over the function.

Dr. M.S. Gill, Union Minister of State for Youth Affairs & Sports and Mr. Gulzar Singh Ranike, Sports Minister, Punjab, will be the 'Guests of Honour' at the function.

About 4000 young persons across the country are expected to participate in the youth festival.

On the occasion, Dr. Ansari will also give away National Youth Awards and Awards to the National Youth Outstanding Clubs.

Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports presents National Youth Awards every year to motivate young persons to achieve excellence in the field of national service and to encourage them to develop a sense of responsibility to their community and to improve their own potential as good citizens and young leaders.

The Award consists of a silver medal, a certificate and cash prize. The Government has also doubled the award money for individual awardees from Rs.20,000 to Rs.40,000 and for voluntary organizations from Rs.1 lakh to Rs.2 lakhs.

During the five day festival, there will be competitive events in 16 individual items and two group items. In addition to these, a young Artists Camp, Yuva Kriti and an Adventure Festival will be organized by the Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan that functions under the aegis of the Department of Youth Affairs, Govt. of India.

The National Service Scheme will also organize a National Youth Convention and a lecture series 'Suvichar'.

In the year 1995, the First National Youth Festival was successfully held at Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.

The venues where these Festivals were subsequently successfully held are Kolkata (West Bengal) in 1996, Ahmedabad(Gujrat) in 1997 ,Chennai(Tamil Nadu) in 1998 ,Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) in 1999, Gandhinagar (Gujarat) in 2000, Hissar (Haryana) in 2002, Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) in 2003, Jamshedpur (Jharkhand) in 2004 ,Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh) in 2005, Patna(Bihar) in 2006, Pune (Maharashtra) in 2007 and Chennai (Tamil Nadu) in 2008.