Address on Children's Day

Developed India : Mission for the Young

I am indeed delighted to be here with the Future of India on this Children's Day, 14th November, 2002. My greetings to the children, teachers and members of Industrial community particularly members of CII who have organized this event and to release this vision document "Developed India : Mission for the Young". I am happy to inform you that today I have completed my mission of interacting with 100,000 school children across the length and breadth of the nation. Wherever I went, be it Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka or any other part of India, the voice of the youth is unique and strong in articulating their vision and dream. Everyone dreams of living in a prosperous India, a happy India and a peaceful India. The combination of prosperity, happiness and peace to a nation always come together. When all three of them converge on to India, then India truly be a Developed Nation. Today I am going to talk to you about how India can be transformed into a Developed Nation. There are more than 300 million children of your age group in India. There are about 2000 children in this hall. What can this smaller fraction do to realize the dream of Developed India.

Even though you are only a very small speck of ocean, of the 300 million children on whose shoulders the future of India rests, you can ignite the minds, light the fire, become a burning candle to light another candle. My dear children, you work in the school for about 25000 hours before you complete 12th std. Within the school curriculum / school hours, I want you to contribute to the Mission of Developed India by involving in the student centric activities like Literacy Development, Eco-Care Movement.

India after its independence was determined to move ahead with planned policies for Science & Technology. Now, India is very near to self-sufficiency in food, making the ship to mouth existence of 1950s, an event of the past. Also improvements in the health sector, have eliminated few contagious diseases. There is a increase in life expectancy. Small scale industries provide high percentage of National GDP - a vast change in 1990s compared to 1950s. Today India can design, develop and launch world class geo-stationary and sun synchronous, remote sensing satellites.

The nuclear establishments have reached the capability of building nuclear power stations, nuclear medicine and nuclear irradiation of agricultural seeds for growth in agricultural production. Today India has become a Nuclear Weapon State. Defence Research had led to design, development and production of Main Battle Tanks, strategic missile systems, electronic warfare systems and various armours. India is a missile power. Also we have seen growth in the Information Technology; the country is progressing in hardware and software export business of more than 10 billion dollars even though there are low ebbs in the last few years. India yet is a developing country. What Technology can do further?

Technology has multiple dimensions. Geopolitics convert the technology to a particular nation's policy. The same policy will lead to economic prosperity and capability for national security. For example, the developments in chemical engineering brought fertilizers for higher yield of crops while the same science led to chemical weapons. Likewise, rocket technology developed for atmospheric research helped in launching satellites for remote sensing and communication applications which are vital for the economic development. The same technology led to development of missiles with specific defense needs that provides security for the nation. The aviation technology development has led to fighter and bomber aircraft, and the same technology will lead to passenger jet and also help operations requiring quick reach of support to people affected by disasters. At this stage, let us study global growth of technology and impact in human life.

Next 50 years in Human Life

People's life will be enriched by IT driven knowledge products and systems, bio technology and space technology. As a Future Revolution ,it is predicted that the humanity will see, human habitant in one of the planets, space solar power radiating to earth electrical power. Also reusable hypersonic vehicles, with the speed of more than Mach Number 10 will fly intercontinental and also will be used for weapon delivery. Human life will be further extended for the reasons of genomic & biotechnology research outcomes. The Nano technology will enter into human usage like the control systems of various transporting systems, medical technology equipments and aerospace systems. Now let us study the evolution of various human societies linked to multiple technologies.

Economic growth in different societies.

During the last century the world has undergone a change from agriculture society, where manual labour was the critical factor, to industrial society where the management of technology, capital and labour provided the competitive advantage. Then the information era was born, last decade, where connectivity and software products are driving the economy of a few nations. In the 21st century, a new society is emerging where knowledge is the primary production resource instead of capital and labour. Efficient utilisation of this existing knowledge can create comprehensive wealth of the nation and also improve the quality of life - in the form of better health, education, infrastructure and other social indicators. Ability to create and maintain the knowledge infrastructure, develop knowledge workers and enhance their productivity through creation, growth and exploitation of new knowledge will be the key factors in deciding the prosperity of this Knowledge Society. Whether a nation has arrived at a stage of knowledge society is judged by the way the country effectively deals with knowledge creation and knowledge deployment in all sectors like IT, Industries, Agriculture, Health Care etc.,

Changes in employment, agriculture, Industry and Service - Knowledge Industries

In 1980, agriculture areas employed in parts or in full 76% of people of the country and it reduced to 65% in 1994 and expected to further fall to 60% of people in agriculture by 2012. Whereas, the demand of agricultural products will double in quantity, productivity using technology and post harvest management will have to compensate the manpower reduction in farming and agricultural products sector. In the case of industry, in 1980, 13% of the population was employed in small scale and large scale industries. The trend continued during 1994. However, it has to increase in 2010, as the GDP growth with high technology in the situation of opening up of the economy under WTO region. The pattern of employment will take a new shape. Service with knowledge industry component from 11% employability in 1980 has increased to 20% in 1994. And further it will increase to 54% in 2012 in view of infrastructure, maintenance areas, financial sector, IT sector and entertainment demands. This big change will demand in all areas more trained skilled human power and technology personnel. Our industrialists, commercial chiefs and technologists may have to get ready for such transformation in agriculture, industries and service - knowledge industries for which human manpower with knowledge and skills has to be evolved in a mission mode. And also evolution of knowledge management has been presented linking vision for the nation.

Vision for the nation

We got freedom in 1947, that was the result of first vision for the nation. This vision created best of leaders in many fields like politics, philosophy, science & technology and industry. In many aspects of life, improvement in literacy, agricultural products, strategic areas, certain small and large-scale industries took place. Now more than fifty years have gone by and we are called as one of the hundreds of developing countries, in a distinct way a separation from G-8 countries. We have many challenges. Nearly 300 million people who are below the poverty line have to join the mainstream of a good life. 100% literacy, health for all, multiple industrial and agricultural productivity and life style with value system has to emerge. Hence we need the second vision for the nation to become developed.

TECHNOLOGY VISION 2020

A developed country, in my opinion, is one which has the capability and the capacity to comprehensively look at wealth generation and wealth protection and thereafter evolve integrated strategies, technologies and missions to meet these objectives. It is also a fact that technology is the established currency of geo-political power and in the Indian context, technology has to be the driving force for economical development and national security. Recognizing this and with the help of two different streams of national experts, one by TIFAC, an autonomous body under the Department of Science and Technology and another by Department of Defence Research & Development, involving few hundred man-years of combined efforts, two types of document emerged. These were Technology Vision 2020 in 17 volumes and Integrated Strategies, Technologies and Missions for Comprehensive National Security. These two documents addressed the wealth generation and wealth protection aspects in a very comprehensive manner and identified technology as the linking factor. The fusion of these two documents has resulted in the India Millennium Missions 2020 (IMM 2020), which provides an excellent framework and road-map for making a strong and developed India by the year 2020. IMM2020 needs Integrated actions.

Integrated action for developed India

We have identified five areas where India has a core competence for an integrated action: (1) Agriculture and food processing - we have to put a target of 360 million tons of food and agricultural production. Other areas of agriculture and agro food processing would bring prosperity to rural people and speed up the economic growth. (2) Reliable and quality electric power for all parts of the country. (3) Education and Healthcare - we have seen, based on the experience, education and healthcare are inter related and assist population control leads to social security and also national security. (4) Information Technology - This is one of our core competence. We believe, this area can be used to promote education in remote areas and also to create national wealth. (5) Strategic sectors - This area, fortunately, witnessed the growth in nuclear technology, space technology and defence technology.

These five areas are closely inter-related and lead to national, food, economic and security. A strong partnership among the R&D, academy, industry, business and the community as a whole with the Government departments and agencies will be essential to accomplish the vision.

Agriculture and food processing

Let us now study the progress in certain selected areas. In cereals, milk, rice, fruits & vegetables production India now occupies the first three positions in the world, while in productivity we are at the 40 to 60 position. A technology vision panel of TIFAC on agriculture and food production has given a very important recommendation which I would like to share with you. Food demand of our country from the agricultural and agro food sectors with existing level of production in agro food : cereal, have been studied and also technologies needed and possible higher production in next 20 years time are discussed

Agro Food : Cereals

With a base of 200 million tones food production, Expert analysis indicate : The business created by this production has a value of Rs 90,000 Cr per year and related industries contribute to another Rs 9,000 Cr per year particularly in packaging and value addition. The losses due to poor preservation, storage and rodent problems contribute to Rs 9,000 Cr per year. The panel has also recommended certain core technologies such as pest/rodent control, silo based storage, packaging, handling equipment, automatic weighing and electronic sensors (for moisture etc) that will result in high productivity. These measures and addition of core technologies would by the year 2020, lead to a production volume of 400 million tonnes. The business then would nearly be doubled to Rs 150,000 Cr per year while other related business like packaging, value addition would touch about Rs 90,000 Cr and losses would be substantially reduced to about Rs 3000 cr per year. Indeed this is a real mission for the technologists working with farmers and consumers.

Healthcare

India is a vast country with the second highest population in the world and having diverse climatic conditions. The problems of malnutrition, inadequate healthcare facilities and lack of hygiene awareness cause a wide spectrum of diseases. Mortality rate in India specifying the birth rate and death rate is tabulated below with the same of US.

India US Birth Rate 25-30 14.7 Death Rate 8 4.7 Population Increase Rate 17 10 ( Unit : Numbers per 1000 per year )

The outstanding developmental efforts mounted in the country in the last four decades at various levels have resulted in a very definite demographic transition in many States. The current single-digit death rate in some of the States is comparable to many European countries and it is getting stabilised at 8 per 1000 people per year. The current birth rate is around 25-30 per thousand per year, particularly in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, resulting in a national population increase of 17 per thousand per year. The implementation of Integrated Technology Missions will surely transform India into a developed nation by year 2020 resulting stabilised and healthy population.

These are broadly tropical diseases, water-borne infections, infectious diseases and nutrition related disorders. There is an urgent need of unified approach to the planning of healthcare delivery in our country. Besides traditional medical education and research programmes, the emphasis must be made on polyclinic level training programmes in clinical technologies. Indigenisation of costly diagnostic and curative equipment to make them cost effective and establishment of a nation wide maintenance mechanism of medical equipment using indigenous skills and spares is equally important. The cost of drugs will have to be brought down by scientifically developing herbal formulations and validating their effectiveness through clinical database in addition to allopathic route. You will with your efforts can integrate technology with healthcare taking results to every corner of rural India. Similarly we can see the current status, core technological requirements and the vision2020 for the areas of service sector and electronics, IT and sensors.

Service

Electronics, IT

Vision, Mission & Goals

We have so far considered the profile of multiple development sectors and system integration. It emerged from the deliberations of the task force that the core strengths of the nation have to be coupled to the desired goals. The nation's strengths predominantly reside in its natural and human resources. In natural resources, India is endowed with a vast coast-line with marine resources and also oil wealth. In minerals, apart from conventional material resources, it is well-known that India has the largest deposits of titanium, beryllium and tungsten. India ranks among the top few nations having a rich bio-diversity. Particularly, in the herbal area there are potential applications for developing multiple products for nutrition, prevention and cure of diseases. Of the global herbal product market of US$ 61 billion, China has a share of around US $ 3 billion, whereas India's share is not even US $ 100 million. Hence, there is tremendous opportunity for growth in this area. India has similar potential for promoting floriculture and aquaculture in a big way. Knowledge-based value addition for these natural resources would mean exporting value-added products rather than merely the raw materials. Use of IT for commercialisation and marketing can increase our outreach and speed enormously. Ancient knowledge is a unique resource of India for it has the treasure of a minimum of 5000 years of civilisation. It is essential to leverage this wealth for national well being as well as to seek global presence for the nation.

Human resources, particularly with large young population, are unique core strength of the nation. This resource can be transformed through various educational and training programmes. Skilled, unskilled and creative manpower can be transformed into wealth generators particularly in the service sectors, agro industries etc. Knowledge-intensive industries can be generated out of our existing industries by injecting demand for high-level software/hardware, which would bring tremendous value addition. It is said, "the precious asset for a company or a country is the skill, ingenuity and imagination of its people. With globalisation, this will become more important because everybody will have access to world class technology and the key distinguishing feature will be the ability of people in different countries to use their imagination to make the best use of the technology". Indeed development and innovative use of multiple technologies with transparent management structure and coupled with IT, will catapult India into a knowledge super power.

PURA ( Providing Urban amenities in Rural Areas)

Providing Urban amenities in Rural Areas (PURA) is another example for creating rural wealth and prosperity. The model envisages a habitat designed to improve the quality of life in rural places and makes special suggestions to remove urban congestion also. Naturally our most demanding urban problem is that of congestion removal and efficient supply of water and effective waste disposal in every locality are the paramount civic needs. There is a minimum size below which a habitat is not viable and not competitive with the existing congested city. At the same time, the existing congested city is not economical compared to a new town once a minimum size of expansion is crossed. As against a conventional city say, rectangular in shape and measuring 10 km by 6 km, the model considers an annular ring-shaped town integrating minimum 8 to 10 villages of the same 60 km2 area, and the same access distance of 1 km to transport arteries. It needs one and only one transportation route of distance half that needed for the rectangular shaped city; so frequency of transportation will be doubled halving waiting times. It has zero number of junctions and will need only a single level layout. Also it needs only one route as against 8 needed for the rectangular plan, so people will no longer need to change from one line to another to move from any one point to any other. That saves transport time. Further, as all traffic is concentrated into one single route, high efficiency mass transportation systems become economical even for a comparatively small population. This cuts costs substantially and is more convenient for general public. Knowledge powered rural development is an essential need for transforming India into a knowledge power and high bandwidth rural connectivity is the minimum requirement to take education, health care and economic dynamism to the rural areas. Knowledge society leading to knowledge super power can prosper and survive only in the environment of economic security and internal security. Nation has to work for transformation into 'developed India'. Road maps on certain areas have been generated where we have to work for. Can we do it?

II. Agenda for the young in Developed India Mission

Developed India is no more a vision. The Prime Minister, on Independence Day, has announced that we will become a Developed India by 2020. The largest beneficiary of this dream when realized will be you, the young. Hence it is important that you contribute in its initial stages of realization and shape it to the best of your abilities with in your academic and family confines. The biggest concern of the parents and the children in your age group is about the job prospects when you complete your education. Without worrying about minor variations in the subjects of your pursuit, your opportunities and future will be brighter if you excel in whatever subject you undertake to study. At the frontier there are no borders.

Student Centric Literacy Movement

One of the important indicators of a developed nation is the literacy level. Educating a nation of a billion people is not a small task. It requires the participation of all the stake holders starting from the young. Many of you are fortunate enough to attend good schools for a quality education. But many of your brothers and sisters are not that fortunate, particularly those from the villages near you. A good sign of a developed nation is that it is built on societies wherein "people who have" work hard to bridge the divide between them and "those who have not". One way of doing this is for your school to adopt a village near you. When we look at the national target of increasing the literacy level from 57% to 75% by 2010, you must set the target for the village you adopted to be in tune with the national mission. Each one of you could visit the villages on holidays and contribute to removal of illiteracy of at least two persons and light the quest for knowledge in them. Work with consortium of industries, philanthropists, NGOs and ensure that this task is sustainable and its impact can be measurable and quantified.

The educational institutions have to gear-up to evolve a curriculum that is sensitive to the social and technological needs of the Developed India. Student activities towards such missions could be seamlessly integrated with the existing curriculum so that the future members of the knowledge society are fully developed in all aspects of societal transformation.

Student Centric Eco-care Movement

The trees and vegetation around us are the best transformers of energy from the sun on a sustainable basis for our utilization. In the process they provide us the most efficient way of cleaning up our environment, shelter for all living species, a source of food and energy. They are often associated with serene environments that facilitate creative thoughts and actions. As you know dreaming, and dreams transforming into action are important constituents of developed India, friends what you can contribute. Without pain and tears, 200 million of you, if you plant five seedlings, you will add a billion trees, and mother India will give her smiles to you. On that day you will demonstrate to the world that what 200 millions children can do collectively and make us proud. The tree planting may be done in your house, school or in the village your school adopts. The school management or the NGOs should help this student centric eco-care movement on a sustainable basis. Few years from now every one us, Indians, must be a proud guardian of trees planted by the young. This dynamic movement will echo the children's concern for eco-friendly future.

A billion trees also require careful planning water which is already becoming a scare commodity in this country. While the efforts are being taken to make the mother earth greener, the rainwater due to lack of proper planning gets wasted. By todays technology, it is possible to develop a small scale water harvesting stations. For example your school can think of developing a water harvesting station with 10 CFT per student with in your school complex or in the village adopted by your school. If you do that the inbuilt thoughts in you will bring a spirit to share the national resources. Rainwater harvesting will maintain water table level preventing environmental decay and making water available for agriculture and drinking.

Role of Industries in Developed India

I have suggestion to the conglomeration of industries such as CII, ASSOCHEM, FICCI, NASSCOM to catalyse the creation of many PURAs. Member institutions, in partnership with banks should adopt a group of villages for providing urban facilities to them. These rural complexes should be economically self sustaining and form the back bone of the developed India. Industrial consortia need to identify 100,000 ignited minds and support them with scholarship to participate in the Developed India Mission. These Ignited Minds should become the agents of change./

Conclusion

A nation is great, not because a few people are great, but because every one in the nation is great. I wish you all to excel in your studies and become Doctors, Engineers, Scientists, Entrepreneurs, Officers of armed forces, Teachers, Lawyers, Administrators, Politicians and above all the best human beings with traditional value system and societal care. The challenge in the mission of the developed India calls for an important, cohesive and focused efforts of the young. Just like our first vision of Independence created leaders, I am sure you all will rise to the occasion and become leaders in multiple areas. This makes me recall the saintly saying of Maha Rishi Patanjali in Yoga SUTHRAS: "When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary task, all your thoughts break their bounds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties, and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be".

Now I am going to administer the Song of Youth to you my young friends.
As a young citizen of India,
armed with technology, knowledge and love for my nation, I realize, small aim is a crime.
I will work and sweat for a great vision, 
the vision of transforming India into a developed nation 
powered by economic strength with value system. 
I am one of the citizens of the billion, 
only the vision will ignite the billion souls. 
It has entered into me, 
the ignited soul compared to any resource 
is the most powerful resource 
on the earth, above the earth and under the earth. 
I will keep the lamp of knowledge burning 
to achieve the vision - Developed India.

My greetings and my best wishes for your success in all your learning and examinations. My special greeting to all the teaching community with whom each student spends nearly 25,000 hours at the prime of his/her learning phase. With such a vibrant and scholarly environment, you cannot remain as mere teachers but transcend into a Role Model, whom the students would cherish. Even today, I recall with respect and gratitude, my great teachers who shaped my life.