The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : It’s not rocket science to be good: Kalam

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 31, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

It’s not rocket science to be good: Kalam

Staff Reporter

Spells out action plan for transforming India into a developed nation

— Photo: K. Gopinathan

Fondness for children: Schoolchildren interacting with the former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, at ‘Renaissance 2007’, in Bangalore on Tuesday.

BANGALORE: “Excel in your studies, help an illiterate person to read and write in your spare time, keep your place clean and green and take an oath not to drink or gamble.”

This was the advice the former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam gave to around 5,000 students at “Renaissance 2007”, the new generations conference, here on Tuesday.

Organised by Rotary International District 3190, the conference saw Dr. Kalam getting involved with the children in his usual way of making them repeat messages and take oaths.

Dr. Kalam’s fondness for children was evident when he said his vision for 2020 could become a reality only if children and youth excelled in their studies.

Interacting with some students, the former President said, “I love children because they have dreams.”

He said the education system should instil the capacities of inquiry, creativity, technology, entrepreneurship and moral leadership in the minds of students.

Five capacities

“If we develop these five capacities in our students, we will produce a self-directed, self-controlled autonomous learner who will have the capacity to respect authority as well as question it. These students are the leaders who will work together as a self-organising network and transform India into a developed nation in a time-bound manner,” he said.

Spelling out an integrated action plan for transforming India into a developed nation, Dr. Kalam said, “We have identified areas where India has a core competence for integrated action. They are agriculture and food processing, reliable and quality electric supply, surface transport and infrastructure, education and healthcare, information and communication technology and self-reliance in critical technologies.”

He said these areas were closely inter-related, and if they progressed in a coordinated manner, they would lead to food, economic and national security. More than 5,000 students from 120 schools across the city participated in the event held at the Karnataka Lawn Tennis Association stadium.

Sucharita Hegde of One India One People, a Mumbai-based NGO, and Prakash Belawadi, theatre personality, spoke.

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