The Hindu : National : Professor at his best

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 24, 2004

National

National

Professor at his best

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, JULY 23. The conference of Vice-Chancellors on EDUSAT held here provided the President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, with something he enjoys most — interacting with students. On Friday, he interacted through satellite with students in Nasik, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Belgaum.

Prof. Kalam was at his informal best asking a student from Nasik, Amol Shindekar, "Please speak softly ... the mike is blasting.'' Replying to his question about the options in education, the President said, "If you excel, you have the choice to study any subject.''

Responding to Priyank Desai of Ahmedabad, Prof. Kalam chided parents for forcing even students with an aptitude for pure science into professional courses. "Parents have no business stopping their children from studying what they love ... they should encourage their children and they will shine,'' he said. "A physicist can do any job but not an engineer,'' he added.

National institutes

The University Grants Commission is now setting up four national institutes of science to attract students after Plus Two who want to study pure sciences.

Sonali, also from Nasik, asked the President to describe "the university of your dreams.''

Prof. Kalam said:

"It will have teachers who are real role models and all graduates given a six-month vocational course of their choice. They can then become entrepreneurs providing employment to others and not be job seekers.''

Genetic engineering

When Bangalore's turn came, a schoolgirl asked him about his views on cloning. Prof. Kalam said, "I am not in favour of human cloning ... let God be the only genetic scientist when it comes to creating human beings. But genetic engineering does have its place in curing diseases.''

Mamta from the Visvesvarayya Technological University headquarters in Belgaum wanted to know, "if the 21st Century is India's as you say, in which fields will we excel?'' Prof. Kalam's reply was, "Bioinformatics now and if we use the opportunity, nanotechnology in the near future and this can even overtake today's micro electronics.''

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