Address During the Presentation of the Bal Shree Awards, Rashtrapati Bhavan

Creativity and Innovation will make the Nation Great

I am indeed delighted to participate in the National Bal Shree Awards for the year 2005 organized by National Bal Bhavan. I congratulate all the children who are getting the awards in creative arts, creative writing, creative performance and creative innovation in science. I greet the organizers, artists, poets, creative writers, art lovers and the distinguished guests. I am happy to note that this National Bal Shree Honour scheme, selects the best children from different parts of the country through a three-tier selection process including a psychological test for assessing the creative ability of the child. This selection, I am sure, will definitely enable the early recognition and nurturing of our children in multi-dimensional creative activities which is vital for promoting the growth of the youth. I would like to talk on the topic ?Creativity and Innovation will make the nation great?.

Let me share with you a few verses on Vision, which I shared with the Parliamentarians during the Joint Session of Parliament.

The Vision

I climbed and climbed

Where is the peak, my Lord?

I ploughed and ploughed,

Where is the knowledge treasure, my Lord?

I sailed and sailed,

Where is the island of peace, my Lord?

Almighty, bless my nation

With vision and sweat resulting into happiness

A.P.J.Abdul Kalam

The verses reflect how important it is to have a mission in life. Mission leads to thinking. Thinking leads to hard work with devotion. It will result in close to achievement in profession. Achievement in profession alone is not sufficient. A righteous human mind is vital. Combination of economic prosperity in life and righteous way of thinking and action by individuals and society will make the nation great.

2020 and Beyond: Prosperity and Plenty replacing Scarcity and Control

Dear Children, I would like to project three scenarios of India. The India as it was in the year 1991, the India of 2006 and the India of 2020 when you will be in the age group of 25 to 30.

Ambience in 1991

In 1991, we were in a precarious foreign exchange reserve condition. We had to pledge our gold to maintain the minimum balance required for our imports. Inflation was high. Land lines were few and mobile phones were a luxury. The people had to wait for telephone connections for months after booking. We had to wait in long queues for the railway reservation. We had very few automobile companies and there was a large waiting list for getting the allotment for a car or scooter. The export performance from software, pharma and other industries were negligible. Many of our students wanted to go abroad and study. Multinationals were not very keen to invest in India. Indian Airlines was the only domestic airlines. Cost of air transportation was quite high compared to rail transportation. There was no satellite for education and resource mapping. Road connectivity was poor at the national and State level. Development awareness was low and emphasis was on political politics. High end job opportunities were low. Economy as a whole was stagnant. People living below poverty line was around 40% and the literacy was just 52%. This was the scene in 1991. Now, let us see the present scenario in 2006.

Ambience in the Nation 2006

In the Indian history, very rarely our nation has come across a situation, all at a time, an ascending economic trajectory, continuously rising foreign exchange reserve, reduced rate of inflation, global recognition of the technological competence, energy of 540 million youth, umbilical connectivities of 20 million people of Indian origin in various parts of the planet, and the interest shown by many developed countries to invest in our engineers and scientists including setting up of new R&D centers. The distinction between the public and the private sectors and the illusory primacy of one over the other is vanishing. India as the largest democracy in the world has a reputation for its democracy and for providing leadership for the one billion people with multi-cultural, multi-language and multi-religious backgrounds. And also our technological competence and value systems with Civilizational heritage are highly respected. Also, FIIs find investing in India attractive. Indians are also investing abroad and opening new business ventures. As per the report titled ?From the Ganges to the Thames? which states that the Indian Foreign Direct Investment in British capital is second only to that of the US and Indian FDI project in Europe has increased from just 5 to 119 during the period 1997 to 2004. The Government is also committed to economic development by ensuring growth rate of nearly 10% annually, enhancing the welfare of the farmers and workers and unleashing the creativity of the entrepreneurs, business persons, scientists, engineers and other productive forces of the society. Today there is hardly any difference between AC II tier fare and Air fare if you are in a position to book in advance. Tele-density in the country has gone up to 11%. Railways have introduced super fast trains like Shatabdi express and people can book tickets through internet and railways are running in profit now. Our ICT sector is exporting nearly $ 24 billion and the Indian pharma industry ranked 4th in the world and exports nearly $ 4 billion of products. Today, we have an exclusive EDUSAT satellite for education which can connect all the remote areas in the country and provide quality education to the children. Broadband has reached upto the block level in all the Districts. Wi-max is providing last mile connectivity now. The CARTOSAT ? the earth mapper apart from providing resource data is an asset for disaster management. Students from abroad are keen to come to India for internship and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore has started a college in India in collaboration with Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. People living below poverty line has come down to 26% and we are aiming at a literacy rate of 75%. Our unemployment is around 9% of the employable population of 400 million people. Now let us look at the scenario of 2020 when all of you will be in the age group of 25 to 30.

Ambience in 2020

We expect the people below poverty line to come to zero and our literacy must be nearly 100%. Human Development Index of India will be around 50. Every Indian will have either a university degree or quality training with employable vocational skill. E-governance would be in position for all G2G and G2C transactions making the governance system transparent. Tele-density will reach over 50%. All our villages will be electrified and there will be no shortage of water. Sanitary facility will reach every home. We will be using more of renewable energy and adding less to the pollution. Through venture capital system and entrepreneurial training both in schools and colleges, we will have more enterprises leading to large number of employment generators rather than employment seekers. A pro-active healthcare system in place will provide quality healthcare to all the people of the country including those living in remote areas at an affordable cost through innovative schemes such as Yeshasvini scheme being practiced in Karnataka. All meritorious children will have an opportunity to take up the courses of their choice in higher education. I am sure, you will all see prosperity and plenty in the country which will replace scarcity and control. Of course we have all got to work ceaselessly using creativity and innovation for achieving this mission. Now I would like to narrate the vision of some of the earlier Bal Shree awardees.

Dream: Bal Shree Children

I was going through the responses of the Bal Shree awardees since 1995 to 2003 which was sent to me by Dr. Madhu Pant. Even though, I asked for it on a holiday, I got it on the same day. There were 101 responses consisting of 31 from creative arts, 33 from creative performance, 12 from creative scientific innovation and 25 from creative writing. All these responses reflect the dreams and constraints. I would like to share with you one typical response from each of the four sections.

Ms. Komal M Ullal, a creative arts awardee has stated that she started painting when she was four. So far she has secured over 566 prizes in international level, national level and state level competitions. Her sole desire is to pursue fine arts with full vigor and be a world leader in arts like Leonordo-da-Vinci or Michael Angelo. She has a great mission.

Master S Sabarinath, a creative performance awardee is keen to serve the humanity through creativity. Presently due to parental pressure he is studying engineering whereas his first love and thirst is for Tamil Literature. We can see that the beauty of Tamil literature has not been captured by the imagination of the nation. He has an innovative method of promoting creativity in others by revealing to them their strengths. Later he groups the people based on their creativity and persuades them to use the creativity to serve.

Master Juvekar Chiraag Shashikant, a creative scientific innovation awardee is keen to pursue science in one of the Indian Institute of Technology and take up scientific research as his career. He would like to purse research in the field of nano-technology and particle physics, since these areas are new and offer limitless possibilities. He encourages his schoolmates to think beyond the prescribed curriculum and ask them to take part in the extra curricular activities.

Ms. Sneha N. Kaushik, a creative writing awardee feels that the writing is one an opportunity to express oneself to the fullest extent and each of her poems, essays and stories has a part of herself. She feels that there are very few books by Indian authors and she dreams of writing books and novels that will interest readers all over the world. She is also keen to pursue masters in journalism so that she can make a positive difference to the society by being its true eyes and ears.

Now that you have heard about the responses from some of the earlier awardees, I would like all of you to take a page and write on the question ?What I will be remembered for?? Would you like to become an physicist like Sir CV Raman? Would you like to be Thomas Alva Edison? Would you like to discover a cost affective drug for HIV/AIDS ? Would you like to discover a method of forecasting earthquake and become a Nobel Laureate or Would you like to make a nano-robot with healing properties? This is the time for you to chart your future course. Now I would like to suggest five books which all of you must read during the year 2006. These books will enrich your life.

a. Consilience the Unity of Knowledge by Edward Osborne Wilson

b. Journey into Light: Life and Science of C.V. Raman by G. Venkataraman

c. A Brief History of Time : From the Big Bang to Black Holes by Stephen W. Hawking, Ron Miller, Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking

d. A Short History of nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

e. Vision: How Science will Revolutionize the 21st Century by Michio Kaku

Now I would like to administer ten point Oath. Are you ready?

Ten point oath for enlightened children

1. I will, have a good aim in my life and will work to achieve it.

2. I will, achieve this goal, through hard work and devoted studies.

3. I will, teach at least five persons, who cannot read and write, to read and write during my holidays.

4. I will, plant five saplings/trees, in my house or in the neighbourhood and ensure its growth.

5. I will, go to rural and urban areas, to reform at least five persons, from addiction and gambling.

6. I will, meet at least five persons, who are suffering, console them and take responsibility for removing their pain.

7. I will not, support any differentiation, on account of community or language and I will treat everybody as equal.

8. I will lead, an honest life, free from all corruption and will set an example for others to adopt a transparent way of life.

9. I will love, my mother and my motherland and bring respect and dignity to womanhood.

10. I will light, the lamp of knowledge, in the nation and ensure that, it remains lit for ever.