Address to the School Students Bhargava Auditorium, PGI

ENLIGHTENED CITIZENS

I am indeed delighted to be here among the students community. I greet all the students, teachers and the principal for their accomplishments in shaping these young minds. I was thinking what thoughts I should share with you? I would like to share some interesting experience of scientific minds.

Marvels of Universe

Friends, we should note that human mind is a unique gift. You can enter into Marvels of Universe only if you have curiosity and thinking. I suggest, thinking should become your capital asset, no matter whatever ups and downs you come across in your life.

• Thinking is progress.
• Non thinking is stagnation to the individual, organization and the country.
• Thinking leads to action.
• Knowledge without action is useless and irrelevant.
• Knowledge with action brings prosperity.

Look at the sky. We are not alone. The whole universe is friendly to us and conspires only to give the best to those who dream and work. Like Nobel Laureate Subramaniam Chandrasekar discovered the black hole through a quest, why most of the stars shine and few die. Today, using Chandrasekar limit we can calculate how long the sun will shine. Like, Sir CV Raman looked at the sea and the sky, and questioned why the sea should be blue? This led to the birth of Raman Effect, he found the blue of the sea was due to the molecular scattering of light and was not a case of reflection of the sky in water as most people imagined. Like, Albert Einstein, armed with the complexity of the universe, asked the question how the universe was born. The famous equation E=mc2 arrived, which can be used for the generation of electricity using nuclear materials and also lead to nuclear weapons. In India during 1960's one important event took place, Prof. Vikram Sarabhai gave a vision for the nation on the space programme. He said, India should build her own rocket system, build communication and remote sensing satellites, integrate and launch from Indian space launch centers and put them into the geosynchronous orbit and sun synchronous orbit. Today India can build any type of rocket systems and satellite and launch in a specified orbit.

Mars

Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, is more like Earth than any other body in our solar system. It has mountains and valleys, polar ice caps, and dry riverbeds. It has seasons, an atmosphere with clouds, winds and dust storms, and a solid rocky surface. Compared to all the other known planets besides our own, Mars also has a moderate climate- summertime temperatures at the Martian equator are comparable to those of winter in Antarctica! As a result, Mars is the only place other than the Moon that humans can think realistically about exploring.

The differences between Mars and Earth, however, are many. Mars is only half as large as our planet. Its thin atmosphere is comprised of about 95 percent carbon dioxide, with nitrogen and argon next in abundance. The sunlight that reaches Mars is only half as intense as that on this planet, and Mars' atmospheric pressure and density are about 100 times less than Earth's. These two factors combine to make Mars a very cold place--in winter it often falls to minus 118°C (minus 180°F).

I witnessed the spectacle of the red planet when it was closest to the earth in 29 August 2003. It was a beautiful sight in our night sky. Because it was so close to Earth and so bright, it makes an easy target for anyone who looks to the southeast after sunset. It is convincing that Mars will become a sought after planet for human exploration for wealth and habitat, in a few decades. New technological advances in space research, material science, and communication and transportation technology will make it possible. India's moon mission has to lead another purposeful mission to Mars.

Song of Youth

Now I would like 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. .

Entrepreneurial leadership

Recently, I met the Hotmail fame Sabeer Bhatia, who gave an interesting statistics. He mentioned that in the United States of America, 90% of the wealth is generated by the small enterprises which employ less than 50 persons in their establishments. He also mentioned that they encourage such institutions to grow. This model may have certain advantages. I would urge you to become entrepreneurs and job providers rather than becoming job seekers when you grow up. The educational system should equip the students with entrepreneurial leadership. The Entrepreneurial leadership has three parts to it. First, problem finding and problem solving in the context of development. Entrepreneurship starts with understanding our needs and realizing that as human beings we all have similar needs. It begins with wanting to help others as we help ourselves. In second part, the willingness to take risk entrepreneurship requires doing things differently, being bold in our thinking and this is always risky. You must learn how to calculated risks for the sake of larger gain. The third part is the disposition to do things right. The school curriculum may be changed in such a way that entrepreneurship is taught.

What Causes human Bliss?

Three days back I was at Kochi in Kerala, where I was addressing over one lakh youth. One of the students from Amrita Institute of Technology, Amritapuri asked me an interesting and thoughtful question. Her name is S. Sreebala. The question was

Being a person of such caliber, as to have achieved more than one can dream of in a life time, we are going to ask you a very difficult question. Could you select one achievement of so many, that you could place at a pedestal higher than others, for the reason that it satisfies and provides contentment the most and is the most fulfilling.

My answer to the question was through a few experiences as follows:

a. Nobility in leadership

Two decades ago while I was working at ISRO, I had the best of education which won't come from any university. I will narrate that incident. I was given a task by Prof. Satish Dhawan to develop the first satellite launch vehicle SLV-3, to put ROHINI Satellite in orbit. This was one of the largest high technology space programmes undertaken in 1973. The whole space technology community, men and women, were geared up for this task. Thousands of scientists, engineers and technicians worked resulting in the realisation of the first SLV-3 launch on 10th August 1979. SLV-3 took off in the early hours and the first stage worked beautifully. But the mission could not achieve its objectives, as the control system in 2nd stage malfunctioned. There was a press conference at Sriharikota, after the event. Prof. Dhawan took me to the press conference. And there he announced that he takes responsibility for not achieving the mission, even though I was the project director and the mission director. When we launched SLV-3 on 18th July 1980, successfully injecting the Rohini Satellite in to the orbit, again there was a press conference and Prof. Dhawan put me in the front to share the success story with the press. What we learn from this event is that the leader gives the credit for success to those who worked for it, and he absorbs the failures. This is the leadership. The scientific community in India has the fortune to work with such leaders, which resulted in many accomplishments. This success generated great happiness among all my team members.

b. Pokhran incident

On 11th May 1998 the then Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission Dr R Chidambaram and myself and some of our team members were working for the results of the underground nuclear test followed by another two. We were very close to the test site and the countdown was progressing. At T-5 seconds, hundreds of parameters from instrumentation were displayed. The mission was to take place in a few seconds. At T-0, we witnessed the whole earth shrugged and thundered in front of us and all around. We saw part of the earth raising. What a powerful energy India generated through nuclear weapons?. This was another achievement which made me and my team happy.

c. Agni launch

The third event is about a missile system. On 11th April 1999, the AGNI-II took off with computer command from the beautiful island range. 600 parameters from the missile were monitored in real time through a series of radars, telemetry stations and ship borne instrumentations networked with our own communication satellites. The AGNI with its payload reached the pre-determined target, 2000 kms away. The partnership of many labs with academic institutions and industries brought this important success and it is another triumph for self reliance, amidst several technology denials by developed countries. This event also made me happy.

d. India 2020 - A Vision document

I was the chairman for the TIFAC (Technology Information Forecasting and Assessment Council) for nearly a decade. The council evolved with the help of experts a road map on how to transform India into a developed country by 2020. Nearly twenty volumes of documents were generated and presented at that time to the then Prime Minister in 1996. There was certain experimental work with certain funding allotted for the project. This funding was utilized to see how productivity per hectare in Bihar can be multiplied, milk production in Punjab can be enhanced and the sugar cane quality and production can improve through various missions. All these activities arising out of India's millennium mission 2020, generated keen interest in the country. On 15 Aug 2003, our Prime Minister announced that India will become a developed nation by 2020. This also gave me tremendous amount of happiness.

e. Joy of removing the pain

The next important event I would like to share with you is about the fitment of FRO (Floor Reaction Orthosis) caliber to a polio affected child. During my visit to one of the hospitals in Hyderabad, I found many children were struggling to walk with an artificial limb weighing over 3 kgs. At the request of Prof. Prasad of NIMS, Head of orthopedic department at that time, I asked my AGNI friends why we cannot use the composite material used for AGNI heat shield for fabricating FROs for polio affected patients. They immediately said it is possible. We worked on this project for sometime and came up with a FRO for the child weighing around 300 gms in place of 3 kg. Exactly, 1/10th of the weight which the child was carrying. The doctors helped us to fit the new light weight FRO on the child and the child started walking and running around. Her parents were also present. Tears rolled down on all of them through the joy of seeing their daughter running with light caliper. With the light weight device provided by the hospital she could run, ride a bicycle and do all sorts of things which she had been denied for a long time.

The removal of the pain and the freedom attained by the child gave me a state of bliss which I never experienced during any of the four major events which I described earlier.

Now, I would like to administer an oath for attaining enlightened citizenship. Would you repeat with me?

Ten point oath for enlightened citizenship

1. I will love whatever profession I take up and I will try to excel in it.

2. From now onwards I will teach at least 10 persons to read and write those who cannot read and write.

3. I will plant ten saplings/trees and ensure their growth.

4. I will go to rural and urban areas to reform at least five persons from the habits of addiction and gambling.

5. I will take responsibility for removing the pain of ailing persons.

6. I will participate in the mission of realizing the economic strength of India by combining it with an education with value system and by transforming religion into a spiritual force.

7. I will not support any differentiation on account of community or language.

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 always be a friend of the mentally and physically challenged and I will work hard to make them feel normal.

10. I will celebrate the success of my country and my people.

Conclusion

Young minds are the powerful resource on the earth, above the earth and under the earth. Ignited minds of this gathering will generate beautiful thoughts. Beautiful thoughts lead to high performance enthusiasm. Knowledge and enthusiasm are indeed the two major building blocks for action leading to developed India. Wish you all the best.