Dr Kalam - Address to the NEU-Harvard Students

The competitiveness is powered by knowledge, 
Knowledge is powered by Technology and innovation.

I am inspired by the motto of the Northeastern University “Light, Truth and Courage” which are the three components of education systems. Also, I find that NEU is one of America’s Most Entrepreneurial Campuses. When I am in the midst of students and guests of this great university, I would like to talk on the topic “Vision for the Nation: A Distinctive Profile”.

Let me share with you my unique experience in mid 1990’s on formulation of Indian vision 2020 strategies. I was given the task of chairing Technology Information Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC). I recollect, that in the first meeting of the Council itself, we took a decision that TIFAC must evolve a plan how India can be transformed into an economically developed nation by the year 2020. When the suggestion was mooted everybody was wondering how we can evolve such a long term mission under the then prevailing economic and social conditions of the country. That was the time; the then Prime Minister had just announced the economic liberalization and growth measures for the Indian economy and its impact had just started being felt.

In spite of this, the Council with many young members jumped into the idea and we discussed for one full day on how we can translate the thought into action. At a time when the economy was growing at around 5 to 6% per annum in GDP we had to envisage a growth rate of at least 10% per annum consistently for over 10 years for realizing the development vision of billion democratic people of multi lingual, multi religious and multi cultural characteristics. This really ignited the minds of all of us in the council. We debated and arrived at 17 task teams with over 500 members who had consultations with over 5000 people in various sectors of the economy. Committees worked for over two years resulting in 25 reports which we presented to the then Prime Minister of India on 2 Aug 1996. Transforming India into a developed nation implies that every citizen of the country lives well above the poverty line, their education and health is of a high standard, national security assured and core-competence in certain major areas enabled production of quality goods competitively including for exports, bringing all-round prosperity for the countrymen. This event led to the birth of the book “India 2020: a Vision for the New Millennium”.

Based on various inputs, the government announced the vision statement that India will become a developed nation by 2020. Such a statement is very rare, since every government is elected only for a period of five years and thinking of over 20 years time frame by the Parliament and the government is a fresh breeze. Now let me present the current ambience of the nation.

Indian economy was growing at an average of 8 to 9% per annum till the last year. Now this year, Indian economy has got affected due to global economic turbulence. I was asking myself, what type of innovation is needed to enrich the Indian economy and other world economies in the present circumstance. I had discussion on this subject with many experts. It came to light that the Indian economy will be less affected due to the world financial crisis. This is due to (i) The liberalization process in India has its checks and balances consistent with the unique social requirements of the country. (ii) The Indian banking system has always been conservative which has prevented the crisis (iii) The Indian psyche is generally savings oriented and living within means is part of the mind set. These three causes have reduced the effect of global turbulence in the Indian economy. However, there will be reduction in export and reduction in outsourcing. The drop in annual growth rate of GDP could be around two to three percent.

This is the time we need innovation in our thinking to rejuvenate the agricultural sector particularly through value addition and the small and medium scale industries and enterprises for making higher levels of contribution to the GDP. Now, let me give my visualization of India during the year 2020.

1. A Nation where the rural and urban divide has reduced to a thin line. 
2. A Nation where there is an equitable distribution and adequate access to energy and quality water.
3. A Nation where agriculture, industry and service sector work together in symphony. 
4. A Nation where education with value system is not denied to any meritorious candidates because of societal or economic discrimination. 
5. A Nation which is the best destination for the most talented scholars, scientists, and investors. 
6. A Nation where the best of health care is available to all. 
7. A Nation where the governance is responsive, transparent and corruption free. 
8. A Nation where poverty has been totally eradicated, illiteracy removed and crimes against women and children are absent and none in the society feels alienated.
9. A Nation that is prosperous, healthy, secure, devoid of terrorism, peaceful and happy and continues with a sustainable growth path.
10. A Nation that is one of the best places to live in and is proud of its leadership.

To achieve the distinctive profile of India, we have the mission of transforming India into a developed nation. We have identified five areas where India has a core competence for integrated action:

(1) Agriculture and food processing (2) Education and Healthcare (3) Information and Communication Technology (4) Reliable and Quality Electric power, Surface transport and Infrastructure for all parts of the country and (5) Self reliance in critical technologies.

These five areas are closely inter-related and if progressed in a coordinated way, will lead to food, economic and national security. During my visits to different parts of the country and during my discussions with many citizens, the results of such integrated efforts have started becoming visible. One major mission is the development of infrastructure for bringing rural prosperity are through Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA) through creation of three connectivities namely physical, electronic, knowledge leading to economic connectivity.

The number of PURA for the whole country is estimated to be 7000 covering 600,000 villages where 700 million people live. Government is planning to implement 2 PURA’s per district across 600 districts in the nation. There are number operational PURA in the country initiated by many educational, healthcare institutions, industry and NGO’s. PURA has become an important development activity for bridging the gap in GDP growth arising out of the present economic conditions.

Dear friends, let me now focus on three important missions which will bring societal transformation and propel the vision 2020 missions. They are the following:

1. PURA Mission which will only bring the sustainable rural development and transform the lives of 600,000 villages where 70% of the population lives and bridges the rural and urban divide thus enabling reverse migration. 
2. Societal GRID which will bring education, healthcare, knowledge coupled with e-governance services in an inclusive way to the citizens at the same time in a transparent way. 
3. NPI – National Prosperity Index – a 3 dimensional measure to validate the economic growth in an inclusive manner. 

First let me focus on PURA Mission.

Based on the terrain and climatic conditions there could be four types of PURA in our country. They are plain terrain PURA, hill PURA, coastal PURA and desert PURAs. The population in the Plain terrain and Coastal region PURA may be in the region of 20,000 to 100,000 in a cluster of 20 to 30 villages, whereas in the Hill or Desert PURA may have a population of 7,500 to 15,000 people in a cluster of 30 to 50 villages or hamlets. It is also essential that the rural economy be driven by renewable energies such as solar, wind, bio-fuel and conversion of municipal waste into power. With this approach, the core competencies in the rural sector would be harnessed for sustainable development of the economy as a whole. Each PURA cluster, apart from concentrating on reinforcing agriculture, will emphasize on agro processing, development of rural craftsmanship, dairy, silk production and fishing and fish processing in those regions having coast lines, so that the non-farm revenue for the rural sector is enhanced, based on the competitive advantage of the region. We have discussed four connectivities namely, physical, electronic, knowledge connectivities leading to economic connectivity.

In my opinion this is not sufficient. We have to harness certain value system among people coming out of civilizational heritage which is essential for a prosperous, happy, peaceful and a safe society. For ensuring this I would consider inculcation of spiritual connectivity also in the PURA model.

So far we have discussed the rural prosperity through PURA. For bridging the rural and urban divide and ensuring the equitable promotion of prosperity for the billion people, India is spearheading the connectivity mission. The core of this connectivity model for Electronic Connectivity for prosperity of one billion people is the partnership between governmental and multiple institutions in the public and private domains. The strength of this partnership for collaborative growth and economic prosperity is facilitated by free flow of knowledge and information in a seamless manner cutting across levels and boundaries embracing all walks of life in the three sectors of the economy such as agriculture, manufacturing and services. In this model, four grids bring about the interfaces of three sectors of the economy: namely, Knowledge Grid, Health Grid, e-Governance Grid and the PURA Grid.

Societal Grid consists of: 

1. Knowledge GRID – Inter connecting universities with socio-economic institutions, industries and R&D organizations. India is planning to connect 5000 institutions across the country with Gigabit network for collaborative knowledge sharing platform.

2. Health Care GRID – Inter-connecting the Health Care institutions of Government, Corporate and Super specialty hospitals. Research institutions, educational institutions and ultimately, Pharma R & D institutions. India has connected around 300 remote locations so far, with more than 45 super specialty hospitals and provides tele-medicine connectivity.

3. E-Governance GRID – Inter-connecting the Central Government and State Governments and District and Block level offices for G2G and G2C connectivity. India is creating State Wide Area Network across the country. India has the fiber connectivity up to the block level and only it needs to be lighted up.

4. PURA Knowledge GRID – Connecting the PURA Nodal centers with the Village knowledge centres and Domain service providers. Since this is the backbone for rural development, all other GRIDs will infuse the knowledge into this GRID for sustainable development, healthcare and good governance.

Integrated Village knowledge centers will act as an inter-connected delivery mechanism for tele-education tele-medicine and e-Governance services apart from individual access by the people, within and between the Village Knowledge Centres through the PURA Grid.

Each grid is a system of multiple portals. The aim is to maximize gross domestic production and productivity of the land and people through maximizing the performance of each sector, synergized by the system of inter and intra-sectoral electronic connectivity to serve one billion people. This will further enhance the prosperity to 700 million people in the rural areas and 300 million plus people in the urban areas.

While we are happy that our economy is in the ascent phase and our average growth in GDP is over 8% per annum, it is evident that economic growth is not fully reflected in the quality of life of a large number of people, particularly in rural areas and even in urban areas. Hence, we have evolved what is called a “National Prosperity Index (NPI)” which is a summation of (a) Annual growth rate of GDP; plus (b) improvement in quality of life of the people, particularly those living below the poverty line plus (c) the adoption of a value system derived from our civilizational heritage in every walk of life which is unique to India. That is NPI=a+b+c. Particularly, ‘b’ is a function of availability of housing, good water, nutrition, proper sanitation, quality education, quality healthcare, employment potential and over all improvement of quality of life. ‘c’ is a function of promoting the joint family system, creation of a spirit of working together, leading a righteous way of life, removing social inequities, and above all promoting a conflict free, harmonious society. This will be indicated by peace in families and communities, reduction in corruption index, reduction in court cases, elimination of violence against children and women and communal tensions. There should also be progressive reduction in the number of people living below the poverty line year after year leading to its becoming near zero by 2020.

All our efforts in improving the national economic performance should be guided by the measured National Prosperity Index of the nation at any point of time. With your integrated management research in Northeastern University, I would suggest that this thought of NPI may be further researched for bringing out practical formulae for measurement.

I have seen three dreams which have taken shape as vision, mission and realization. Space programme of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation), AGNI programme of DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) and PURA (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) becoming the National Mission. Of course these three programmes succeeded in the midst of many challenges and problems. I have worked in all these three areas. I want to convey to you what I have learnt on leadership from these three programmes.

a. Leader must have a vision. 
b. Leader must be able to travel into an unexplored path. 
c. Leader must know how to manage a success and failure. 
d. Leader must have courage to take decision. 
e. Leader should have Nobility in management.
f. Every action of the leader should be transparent.
g. Leader should work with integrity and succeed with integrity. 

I have been discussing these essential traits of creative leaders with people of eminence in different areas and students from India and abroad. From the responses I received, I am confident that the institutions are in the process of generating leaders with these traits. 

Since, Northeastern University is engaged in multi disciplinary research and education; I feel it is best suited to focus on sustainable development. In this connection, some time back, I happened to read the Conference General report of the International Conference on Education for sustainable future in Sep 2003, which refers to central challenge for higher education for sustainability. Since it is relevant to this audience, I would like to quote

“The Johannesburg world summit for sustainable development has made one thing unmistakably clear that the political leadership the world over is incapable of rising to the challenge of sustainability. Yet, most of the hundred or so world leaders who attended have a higher education degree from some of the world’s most prestigious universities – the higher education sector is failing society by producing leaders incapable of addressing the most pressing problems. If higher education is the nursery of tomorrow’s leaders then the sector bears profound responsibilities to create a sustainable future. This implies that graduates of every discipline need a sound working knowledge about sustainability”.

I am sure, Northeastern University provides the students an insight into sustainability through the curriculum and project work.

Having discussed development vision for India, the connectivity models for global development, let me pose a question, how do you achieve global peace? I believe that one of the important foundations lie in our own way of life, which has multiple dimensions. Let me explain:

Righteousness
Where there is righteousness in the heart
There is beauty in the character.
When there is beauty in the character,
There is harmony in the home.
When there is harmony in the home.
There is an order in the nation.
When there is order in the nation,
There is peace in the world.

It is a beautiful connectivity among heart, character, nation and world. In a society we have to build righteousness among all its constituents. For the society as a whole to be righteous we need creation of righteousness in family, righteousness in education, righteousness in service, righteousness in career, righteousness in business & industry, righteousness in civil administration, righteousness in politics, righteousness in government, righteousness in law and order, and righteousness in justice.

My best wishes to all of you for success in your missions. 

May God Bless You. 

APJ AbdulKalam,
27.04.2009