By A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, IANS,
I did not realize that I have already completed one year after demitting office on 25 July 2007. This one year has been an extremely eventful one me having visited over 12 states in India and nine countries.
It is pertinent to note here that I have not been able to accept more than 10 per cent of the total invitations received.
In this period, I have intensified my interaction with students, having met and interacted with over one million youth of different age groups. I have utilized this interaction with students and faculty members of 19 universities abroad to create a linkage between Indian universities for intensifying socially and technologically relevant research areas.
In fact I have been concentrating my reach to internal areas in the country like Meerut, Aligarh, Khurja, Pantnagar, Moradabad, Gandhigram, Karur, Gwalior, Mathura and other remote places.
My main message to the youth is – work with integrity and succeed with integrity, have a dream resulting into a goal for personal growth and the growth of the nation and acquire as much knowledge as possible for realization of the growth through the association of good books, good teachers and good human beings.
Apart from motivating youth, I am guiding three students for a PhD programme. One pertains to brain research, the second on ICT knowledge products and third on education and economics.
Through the Lead India movement, I have participated in the teacher’s training programme for translating the 10-point oath on enlightened citizenship towards actions by the youth of the nation.
I have addressed the Lead India youth at Karimnagar and Medak district of Andhra Pradesh involving over one lakh students each.
Lead India movement is now spreading to Maharashtra. The youth trained are empowered with the spirit “I can do it” and they are transforming many other youth in the region.
In this period I have also addressed a number of national and international conferences on space research, energy independence, healthcare, agriculture, corporate social responsibility, innovation and education. Through this programme, I have identified national and international research programmes for the year 2050.
In space research, I have given world space vision 2050 to the World Forum and have been suggesting integrated work towards low cost excess to space for realizing the goal of reducing the present cost of access of US$20,000 per kilogram to US$2,000 per kilogram.
In this energy independence area, I have suggested progressive reduction in the use of fossil fuel by resorting to bio-diesel and ethanol and environmental upgradation through the use of diesel emulsified with 25 per cent water.
I have also suggested the development of high efficiency CNT based solar photovoltaic cell with an efficiency of 50 per cent and innovations in wind energy.
In the nuclear arena, I have been emphasising the thrust for thorium based nuclear power plants and also in the process of facilitating the creation of number of PURA complexes in the country.
As for healthcare, I have been spearheading the Emergency Management System, which is a public private partnership enterprise with a mission of dealing with all medical emergencies such as cardiac, childbirth, fire and road accidents.
This movement was localized in Andhra Pradesh till recently. Now it has spread to 8 states with a mission of saving one million lives by the year 2010.
In the last year I have also been concentrating on motivating the youth towards the realization of Vision 2020, creating a long term vision for scientific and technological community of the nation and abroad, developing methods through which we can quickly realize the goals of energy independence and faster implementation of PURA complexes in different parts of the country for bridging the rural urban divide.
For the upcoming year, I would like to intensify my efforts in motivating the youth of the nation, particularly in rural areas, enhance the reach of quality education to the rural areas with technological inputs from the department of space, spread the emergency management system to at least 18 states and facilitate the creation of public private partnership cultures for enhancing production of bio-diesel and ethanol.
I would also urged the youth to use the youth satellite which will be in orbit for promoting prosperous and a peaceful planet earth.
(A.P.J. Abdul Kalam is the former President of India. He can be reached at [email protected])