The Hindu : Other States / Rajasthan News : Kalam's vision statement for students

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 24, 2004

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Kalam's vision statement for students

By Mohammed Iqbal

UDAIPUR, NOV. 23. The President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, today called for self-reliance in critical technologies to meet the challenges of global competition and bring to fruition the goal of making India a developed nation by 2020. The self-sufficiency would enable the country to combat the situations similar to the one following the international sanctions imposed after the nuclear tests in 1998, he said.

Delivering the 16th convocation address at Mohanlal Sukhadia University here, Dr. Kalam emphasised that India -- besides being the richest country in terms of human resources -- had vast resources in the sectors such as minerals and biodiversity that needed to be tapped for speedy development. "We should celebrate the success of our country and move forward with a broad vision," he said.

The President said education and health care, agricultural food processing, information and communication technology, infrastructure development and self-reliance in critical technologies were the areas needing attention for realising the dream of bringing the fruits of development to about 26 crore people living below poverty line.

"Experts have opined that if the current GDP growth rate of six per cent is raised to 10 per cent and sustained for a decade, the widespread poverty can be alleviated," Dr. Kalam noted and made a plea for concerted efforts to ensure success of development plans.

The President, who ignored his written 14-page convocation speech and chose to address the students extempore, said the university education should have the capacity to inculcate leadership qualities among the youth to enable them to accept greater challenges in life. He also delivered a pledge to the students exhorting them to excel in their selected avocations and contribute to nation building.

The Chancellor of the university and Rajasthan Governor, Pratibha Patil, said the varsity should work for faster development of the tribal region in southern part of the State. The Vice-Chancellor, B.L. Chaudhary, was also present in the convocation ceremony. Ms. Patil gave away gold medals to 35 students, including 26 girls, on the occasion.

Earlier, Dr. Kalam inaugurated the sixth international conference on "Exploration and utilisation of moon" in Durbar Hall of the historic City Palace here and delivered a lecture on international partnership in lunar missions. A galaxy of space scientists, astronomers and engineers from 16 countries are attending the five-day event.

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