Kolkata, Feb 26 (IANS): Exhorting India's youth to "care" and rise to the challenge of eradicating inequality and poverty, American civil rights activist Jesse Jackson Wednesday highlighted the issue of brain drain from India.

"Some of the best minds today are from India...many Persian Gulf nations export oil...others export timber and some export cocoa, some export diamonds. There is a brain drain and India is exporting brains," he said while addressing students at the Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta (IIM-C) here.

"Your generation doesn't have the burden of...liberation of the country....It is your challenge to move us from freedom to equality," he said.

Jackson, who ran for the US Presidency, urged students to think about the country and overcome odds to bring about change.

Highlighting the growing importance and contributions of Indians globally, he said: "Some of the best minds in the world are Indians. The driving force in the Silicon Valley in America are Indians."

"Across the board, we see a growing body of Indian brains being put at work to change the world. How do you reconcile this level of technological science and capital concentration with a third of the population being trapped in poverty," he questioned.

"This generation must end poverty," Jackson said.