Address And Interaction With The Students & Faculty Of Birla Institute Of Technology And Science Pilani, Rajasthan

Convergence of Technologies

?Technology is a non-linear tool which can effect  
fundamental changes in economic competitiveness?

I am delighted to address and interact with the students and the faculty of Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS). I greet the Vice-Chancellor, Faculty members, Students, Parents and other distinguished guests. I take this opportunity to congratulate all the Faculty members, Students and staff of this Institute and all those who have contributed in promoting good educational standards in this institute, during the last four decades and transformed BITS, Pilani as a world class institution. BITS Pilani with its linkages with premier educational institutions and industries has the right ambience for the creation of Global Human Resource Cadre. While I am with you today, I recall my visit to Dubai Campus of BITS, Pilani at Dubai Knowledge Village on 20th October 2003. I had a beautiful experience of addressing and interacting with the Students and Faculty members. Since I am in the midst of prospective scientists and technologists, I would like to share with you few thoughts on the topic ?convergence of technologies?.

Can computer challenge the Brain?

I understand that most of the computers of the future and accessories will be micro sized, wearable and will have wireless communication with each other. Moderately priced PCs capable of performing about a billion calculations per second today will be able to perform about a trillion calculations per second within next 10 years. It is predicted that by 2019, the computational ability of an ordinary PC would exceed the capability of human brain. By 2029, the capability of a normal PC would be around 1000 times that of the human brain. (Reference: The age of spiritual Machines by Ray Kurzweil)

My view is, definitely the creativity of the human mind, will always be superior to the most powerful computers in the horizon. Promoting Creativity has to be the mission of Institutions like BITS Pilani.

India in transformation

India is well on its way to become a knowledge power, there are all round growth in all sectors of the economy namely the agriculture, manufacturing and services. Today we have an opportunity to take the leadership in the knowledge revolution. Knowledge Revolution is indeed the foundation for leading India into a Developed Nation. For this, the time is ripe because of the ascending trajectory of the economy, availability of great institutions for capacity building of the human resource, abundant bio-diversity, and other natural resources and above all, our 540 million youth who are determined to make the nation prosperous, happy and a safe place to live well before 2020. With this background India must take the lead in mobilizing and integrating national and international knowledge resources.

Convergence of Technologies

The information technology and communication technology have already converged leading to Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Information Technology combined with bio-technology has led to bio-informatics. Now, Nano-technology is knocking at our doors. It is the field of the future that will replace microelectronics and many fields with tremendous application potential in the areas of medicine, electronics and material science. When Nano technology and ICT meet, integrated silicon electronics, photonics are born and it can be said that material convergence will happen. With material convergence and biotechnology linked, a new science called Intelligent Bioscience will be born which would lead to a disease free, happy and more intelligent human habitat with longevity and high human capabilities. Convergence of bio-nano-info technologies can lead to the development of nano robots. Nano robots when they are injected into a patient, my expert friends say, it will diagnose and deliver the treatment exclusively in the affected area and then the nano-robot gets digested as it is a DNA based product. Let me share with you some of the nanotechnology products that have emanated from the Indian labs and academic institutions.

Products progress in Nano Science & Technology in India ? some examples

a. Water: Nano tube filter ? water purification

The scientists from Banaras Hindu University have devised a simple method to produce carbon nanotube filters that efficiently remove micro-to nano-scale contaminants from water and heavy hydrocarbons from petroleum. Made entirely of carbon nanotubes, the filters are easily manufactured using a novel method for controlling the cylindrical geometry of the structure. The filters are hollow carbon cylinders several centimeters long and one or two centimeters wide with walls just one-third to one-half a millimeter thick. They are produced by spraying benzene into a tube-shaped quartz mold and heating the mold to 900°C. The nanotube composition makes the filters strong, reusable, and heat resistant, and they can be cleaned easily for reuse.

The carbon nanotube filters offer a level of precision suitable for different applications. They can remove 25-nanometer-sized polio viruses from water, as well as larger pathogens, such as E. coli and Staphylococcus aurous bacteria. The researchers believe this could make the filters adaptable to micro fluidics applications that separate chemicals in drug discovery.

b. Power: Gas flow induced generation of voltage from solids

Prof AK Sood, Professor of Physics at IISc and his student Shankar Ghosh has studied, experimented and found that the liquid flow in carbon nano tubes can generate electric current. One of the most exciting applications to emerge from the discovery is the possibility of a heart pacemaker ? like device with nanotubes, which will sit in the human body and generate power from blood. Instead of batteries, the device will generate power by itself to regulate defective heart rhythm. The IISc has transferred the exclusive rights of the technology to an American start-up Trident Metrologies. They will develop the prototypes and commercialize the gas flow sensors.

c. Drug delivery system A research group headed by Professor A. N. Maitra of the University of Delhi?s Chemistry Department has developed 11 patentable technologies for improved drug delivery systems using nanoparticles. Four of these processes have been granted U.S. patents. One of the important achievements at the initial stage of drug delivery research was development of a reverse micelles based process for the synthesis of hydrogel and ?smart? hydrogel nanoparticles for encapsulating water-soluble drugs. This method enabled one to synthesize hydrogel nanoparticles of size less than 100nm diameter. This technology has been sold to Dabur Research Foundation.

Another technology has been transferred to industry deals with nanoparticle drug delivery for eye diseases. Traditionally, steroids have been used extensively in the treatment of ocular inflammatory disease and allergies. However, prolonged use of steroids has many side effects. The Delhi University group?s process uses nanoparticles to encapsulate non-steroidal drugs. This process aims to improve the bioavailability of the drug on the surface of the cornea. The technology has been transferred to Chandigarh-based Panacea Biotech Ltd.

d. Microwave CNTs Production unit DMSRDE, Kanpur is synthesizing non-aligned, quasi-aligned and aligned CNT with a batch size of 50 grams using a fast synthesis process. It has a maximum operating temperature 12000 C. The CNTs will have applications in EM absorbers, composites, gas sensors, flow monitors, field emission devices.

e. Healthcare: Typhoid Detection Kit

Typhoid Detection Kit has been developed by DRDE, Gwalior using the nano sensor developed by IISc, Bangalore. Typhoid fever caused by Salmonella typhi is a major health problem and an important challenge to health authorities of third world countries due to unsatisfactory water supply, poor sanitary conditions, malnutrition, emergence of antibiotic resistant strains etc. According to an estimate the worldwide incidence to typhoid fever is 16 million cases annually and death rate is 6 lakhs individual per year worldwide. In India, the morbidity due to typhoid varies from 102 to 2219/100,000 population in different parts of the countries. In some areas typhoid fever is responsible for 2-5% of all deaths.

In India for routine diagnosis for typhoid disease Widal test is performed with single serum sample which does not provide the correct diagnosis of infection. Therefore a Latex agglutination based test has been developed at DRDE, Gwalior using recombinant DNA technology and immunological technique for rapid diagnosis of typhoid infection. The test detects ?S? typhi antigen directly in patient?s serum within 1-3 minutes which is very important for initiating early treatment and saving human life. The collaborative work between DRDO and Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore has resulted in increasing the sensitivity of the test by 30 times by applying a small electric charge (1.5 V).

Partnership in mission mode

Now, I would like to discuss the experience the nation has gained by bringing together the core competence of two nations resulting in a state-of-the-art world class system having a global market and connectivity mission with 53 African nations.

An International Joint Venture ? BRAHMOS: In order to achieve global competitiveness, the product must be world class with high quality, cost effective and must be available in time within the shelf life of the product. I would like to share a unique experience of design, development, production and marketing of a missile system - BRAHMOS, an Indo-Russian joint venture. What we have achieved through this venture is the development and realization of a world-class product using the synergy of technological competence and consortium of industries of partner countries. The BRAHMOS missile is the fastest operational cruise missile existing in the world today and can be launched from any type of platform - land, sea, and air and precisely reach the targets either on land or at sea with high lethal effect. The missile has undergone twelve successive successful flight trials and has been inducted by the Indian Navy. In addition, the product being internationally competitive, it is able to service a large market with availability in time and state of the art performance at reduced cost per unit. With minimum incremental investment the product has been developed and led to production and induction, at a relatively short time frame, well ahead of prescribed schedule. This has enabled early entry of the product into the world market well before any competitor could emerge. This proves that if the core competencies of nations are synergized, best of knowledge products can emanate well ahead of time.

Pan African e-Network

During the year 2003-04, I visited African countries such as Sudan, Tanzania, Zanzibar and South Africa. I addressed the Pan African Parliament on 16 September 2004, at Johannesburg, South Africa which was attended by Heads of 53 member countries of the African Union. Based on my study of connectivity needs of African countries in communication, healthcare and education, I proposed the concept of Pan African e-Network using seamless and integrated satellite, fiber optics and wireless network connecting all the 53 African countries.

Twelve universities (7 from India and 5 from Africa), seventeen super specialty hospitals (12 from India and five from Africa), fifty three tele-medicine centers and fifty three tele-education centres in Africa will be connected through the Pan-African e-Network project. The pilot project on tele-education and tele-medicine in Ethiopia has already been commissioned. One of our Indian Universities has taken up the MBA Course for 34 Ethiopian students of Addis Ababa and Harmaya Universities. As regards, tele-medicine, the specialists from CARE Hospital, Hyderabad are providing one-hour live tele-consultation to doctors in Black Lion Hospital, Addis Ababa in Cardiology and Radiology since November 2006. The Pan African e-Network will primarily provide Tele-Education, Tele-Medicine, Internet, videoconferencing and VOIP services. It also supports e-Governance, e-Commerce, infotainment, resource mapping and meteorological services. Each remote location will be able to access the Internet through the network by linking the HUB to Internet backbone. Using this network the Heads of the State in all the 53 countries will be connected for instant communication. The network is designed to have 169 terminals and a central hub to deliver tele-education and tele-medicine services. The proposed network will utilize state-of-the-art technology and can be integrated with the latest broadband technologies like Wi-Fi and Wi-Max. The network is scalable to support different applications catering to increased number of users. I am happy to inform you that 22 countries will be connected by the first half of 2007 and the rest will be operationalized by early 2008.

World Knowledge Platform

From these international partnership experiences, we have evolved what is called a World Knowledge Platform, which will be the launch pad for many innovations that are waiting to be unearthed only by the combined power of all the scientists and technologists drawn from many institutions both in India and abroad.

Missions of World Knowledge Platform: The convergence of Bio, Nano and ICT is expected to touch every area of concern to the humanity. The ?World Knowledge platform? will take up the missions, in some of the areas given below, which are of utmost urgency to all of us to make our world a safe, sustainable and peaceful and prosperous place to live:

1. Energy: exploration, storage, production and conversion  
2. Water: treatment and desalination  
3. Healthcare: Diagnosis, drug delivery system  
4. Food: preservation, storage and distribution  
5. Knowledge products :Hardware, Software and Networking Products  
6. Automobile: Hardware and embedded software integration

In addition to the areas mentioned above, areas such as electronics, ICT and Automobile Sector may also be focused especially in the areas of design, development leading to productionization for meeting the market demands of many nations. The core competence of India is software and the core competencies of the other partner nations could be hardware and software. This can lead to design, development and marketing of world class systems that is equally dominated by the software intelligence and hardware innovation. The world knowledge platform will also evolve a virtual design centre with the participation of collaborating institutions. Students and faculty members of BITS Pilani can definitely participate in such a collaborative programme.

Virtual University

BITS Pilani with its experience having campuses in multiple locations in India and abroad should now create a virtual university through networking. You have to only position the infrastructure and the modalities in place so that you can become the operational virtual university in the country combining 45 years of accumulated academic and research strength. This virtual university will enable students to attend courses of their choice without geographical constraints. The day when all our educational institutions begin to offer this flexibility and assure constant and consistent high quality among students spread across the length and breadth of the country, we can definitely get transformed into a knowledge society.

Attracting students to Virtual Universities

While it is unarguable that the Virtual Universities provide us with technologies of the future and the most economic way of scaling high quality education in the country, they are no substitute to the campus based education. The challenge to the Virtual Universities is to provide the best of breed of both the worlds. In this process, we could plan an optimum mix of direct contact hours between the students and the teachers and also amongst the students themselves. These interactions should also be used as a platform to excite the students to take to learning in the new paradigm.

In the world of Virtual Universities the equitable access to all its participants is the primary goal. Unlike in the real world, the equitable access is always the democratic average, in the Virtual Universities the equitable access always means the equitable access to the best resources ? be it the teachers, be it the library, be it the laboratory, available across the network. In effect, the network brings the best of its participants to every one of its participants.

Conclusion

Recently, I was reading the two volumes of the book titled ?The Big and the Small? from the Microcosm to the Macrocosm written by Dr. G. Venkataraman. In this latest book, author establishes fascinating link between particle physics and cosmology in two volumes. Since I am in the midst of students, faculty members and researchers of BITS, Pilani, I thought of sharing with you an incident narrated in the book about Sir CV Raman. Raman was in the first batch of Bharat Ratna Award winners. The award ceremony was to take place in the last week of January, soon after the Republic Day celebrations of 1954. The then President Dr. Rajendra Prasad wrote to Raman inviting him to be the personal guest in the Rashtrapati Bhavan, when Raman came to Delhi for the award ceremony. He wrote a polite letter, regretting his inability to go. Raman had a noble reason for his inability to attend the investiture ceremony. He explained to the President that he was guiding a Ph.D. student and that thesis was positively due by the last day of January. The student was valiantly trying to wrap it all up and Raman felt, he had to be by the side of the research student, see that the thesis was finished, sign the thesis as the guide and then have it submitted. Here was a scientist who gave up the pomp of a glittering ceremony associated with the highest honour, because he felt that his duty required him to be by the side of the student. It is this character that truly builds science.

I am sure that the Faculty members of BITS Pilani will embed this quality among the Students graduating from this Institute. My best wishes to all the members of BITS Pilani community.

May God bless you.

Questions and Answers

1. Name: Rysha Hamza

Discipline: M.Sc. (Tech) Finance and M.B.A

Batch: 3rd year

Sir, you have proposed the National Prosperity Index, one of the parameters of which is the adoption of a value system derived from our civilizational heritage which is unique to India. How would you explain this uniqueness when corruption is widespread and youngsters are prone to emulating the West?

Ans. You have asked an interesting question with answer embedded in the question itself. The corruption can be eradicated with the concrete action of the youth by exerting their greatest tool of ?love?. The civilization heritage will enable us to absorb the best from other civilizations without deviating from the fundamental values of our heritage. While we are happy that our economy is in the ascent phase and our GDP is growing at nearly 9% 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 and employment potential. ?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 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.

2. Name: Stella Vidhya

Discipline: M.Sc. (Hons) Biological Sciences and B.E.(Hons) Computer Science

Batch: 4th year

Sir, we have noticed that in recent years, technology has been moving at a very fast pace in the defense sector. How do you foresee India making a breakthrough in technology in other sectors like agriculture and engineering?

Ans. From now on to 2020, India will gradually increase the production to around 340 million tonnes of grains. The increase in the production will have to be done under the reduced availability of land from 170 million hectares to 100 million hectares with reduced water availability and reduced manpower. We need to use the technology for making this mission a reality. In the manufacturing sector, large scale automation has come in and also precision engineering is being adopted. Application of ICT has taken place in all the engineering production systems. This has led to consistent growth of manufacturing sector at around 12% annually.

3. Name: Aswini Sivaraman

Discipline: M.Sc. (Tech) Information Systems

Batch: 3rd year

Sir, as a technology-oriented person, how important and relevant would you rate the encouragement and development of fine arts for the country?s overall progress?

Ans. Humanities and Arts should be integrated as a part of engineering and medical education. This will pave the way for the generation of engineers, doctors and other professionals with excellent human characteristics. Whatever be the professional outlook of a person, fine arts and humanities give value addition and ambience for tranquility, harmony and peace.

4. Name: T.Swara Vani

Discipline: M.Sc. (Hons) Biological Sciences and B.E. (Hons) Chemical

Batch: 4th year

In today?s India, especially in the university, there is a very rapid and strong intermingling of Indian and Western cultures, what in your opinion sir, are the pillars of our culture that we should hold on to, and what are the lessons that we can adapt from the Western culture to make those foundations stronger and richer?

Ans. As we have strong civilizational heritage, making progress absorbing good aspects of other cultures and integrating them with ours will not pose any problem. Our civilizational heritage has a strong foundation 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.

5. Name: Sri Krishna Hasa Y

Discipline: M.Sc. (Hons) Chemistry and B.E. (Hons) Electronics and Instrumentation

Batch: 3rd year

Sir, with the vision and inspiration that you have given to the youth of the country, there are many student social organizations being set up in the country like we have, ?My INDIA? at BITS. What are the avenues for students to seek guidance and work in the direction of building a developed country?

Ans. Creation of good students itself is an essential need for developed India. As students you excel in your education. In addition, you can contribute to spreading of literacy, environment upkeep, health education, energy conservation. For example, you can go to nearby village cluster and generate a plan of action for the establishment of PURA in that region. This action can be implemented by social organizations in partnership with the Government. The Periyar Maniammi Engineering College for Women of Vallam, Tamil Nadu has created such plans and partly implemented in the neighbouring villages also. If you promote this idea then you are contributing for the developed India.

6. Name: Ishan Mata

Discipline: M.Sc. (Hons) Maths and M.Sc. (Hons) Physics

Batch: 2nd year

Sir, you have been a part of many research programs, handled defense initiatives and also have interacted with a wide range of students across India. With this background a) What initiatives do you think science and technological institutes like BITS-Pilani could take to increase research exposure and motivation which students get? b) What are the avenues for students to get introduced to focus areas of India?s defense research?

Ans. Research Challenges The scientific challenges that need integrated solution to enrich the life of the people of our planet particularly our nation are:

1. In the energy sector, increasing the solar photovoltaic cell efficiency from the existing 15% to 45% using silicon as a base with Carbon Nano Tube is an important research challenge. Scientists in reputed laboratory in the world have established the fact that the alignment of the CNT with the polymer composites substrate is the key issue and this aligned CNT based PV cells would give very high efficiency in photovoltaic conversion. The polymer composites increase contact area for better charge transfer and energy conversion. In this process, the researchers could achieve the efficiency of about 50% at the laboratory scale. The intensity of research in Indian research institutions have to be enhanced to realize commercial production of CNT based Photovoltaic cells.

2. India has to go for nuclear power generation in big way using thorium based reactor. Thorium, a non fissile material, is available in abundant in our country. Intensive research is essential for converting thorium for maximizing its utilization and generating electric power through thorium based reactors.

3. Proteomics is the study of all the proteins expressed by the genome of a cell. It is the logical extension of genomics. Proteomics helps to understand the basic biological processes critical to normal cellular functions as well as the development of diseases. It identifies the essential components of these processes and exploits these components as targets in the development of new methods to prevent or treat diseases. The proteomics programme is done nationally. The type of work involved is huge and challenging, and much bigger than the Human genome programme. There is national programme in proteomics. This has to be given thrust with cooperation of International Scientific community.

4. There are many research and development and testing of vaccine are progressing in the country for prevention of HIV/AIDS disease. It is indeed a big challenge for life science scientists to have an integrated vaccine development leading to production in three years time.

5. Stem cell research through three areas such as Adult stem cells, umbilical cord stem cells, and embryonic stem cells has to be pursued on a mission mode for finding cure for many diseases.

6. In many places in our planet, we experience severe earthquakes resulting in loss of life, loss of wealth and in some cases it destroys the decades of progress made by the country and its valuable civilizational heritage. India has earthquake problems periodically in certain regions. During my recent visit abroad, I found serious research in Iceland, Ukraine and Russia by young scientists. It is essential India has to work on mission mode research for forecast the earthquake using multiple parameters using precursors such as pre-shock conditions, electromagnetic phenomena prior to final rupture and atmospheric and ionospheric anomalies.

7. The quantum of rainfall in a particular area for a particular cloud condition within a specified duration is not being determined by the present monsoon prediction system. Recent heavy rains in Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad in our nation and Katrina hurricane in US has created enormous loss of life and property. This brings out the necessity for global monsoon research for determining intensity and quantum of rain in a particular cloud condition through a validated prediction system with detailed research. With this system scientists should be able to provide the information for the particular cloud condition, how much rain will come in what period through the use of Polorimetric radar.

B. Defence research needs expertise in all discipline in engineering. With specialization in one area or the other, the students can focus on specific technologies like aero space, electronic warfare, material development, signal processing, application of bio-technology. Particularly, with your double degree programmes you can contribute both for basic research and application of technology for the development of defence systems.

BITS Pilani should participate in these research programmes.

7. Name: Amruth B R

Discipline: M.Sc. (Hons) Physics

Batch: 3rd year

Sir, over the last few years, our primary education has seen an increased focus on Science and Maths. Most of the times, a child?s life is already dreamt and built by his or her parents and the educational system. Do you see any need to include measures to increase diversity in our primary education system, in your vision for a developed India? If yes, could you share a few simple ways to achieve this?

Ans. During the primary education period the teaching should be such that the child?s creativity is allowed to blossom. Lessons and practical have to be designed accordingly.

8. Name: Thrivikraman P.S

Discipline: B.E. (Hons) Computer Science and B.E. (Hons) Electrical and Electronics

Batch: 3rd year

Sir, India has planned, manned, and unmanned lunar missions. What are the possible benefits of these missions and how do they justify the developmental costs involved?

Ans. Lunar mission will lead to scientific exploration. Large amount of mineral wealth is available on the Moon and Mars. There is an economic importance. India should not miss this opportunity.

9. Name: Jayendran Srinivasan

Discipline: B.E. (Hons) Chemical Engineering and M.Sc. (Hons) Chemistry

Batch: 3rd year

Sir, no one has occupied as many diverse images in the Indian psyche as you, right from DRDO chief, Head of the Indian Nuclear Program, and five years as President of India. Where does Dr. Kalam go from here- how do we next view a man who has been such a constant part of the Indian mindset?

Ans: Wherever I am I will work for vision 2020.

10. Name: Devang Mundhra

Discipline: B.E. (Hons) Electrical and Electronics

Batch: 3rd year

Sir, technology has already dissolved space. Now we are aiming at dissolving time with faster processing speed. What is the next frontier?

Ans. The quest and ability of human beings of planet Earth have led to exploration of the frontier of space. In the process the human beings have acquired knowledge and skills to understand our own planet. There are many interactions of Earth, Ocean, the dynamics of space which are still to be fully understood. Even as the process is on, the search for intelligent beings in milky way and other galaxies will be a natural extension of human endeavour. Of course, technologies for exploring the space and technologies acquired from space both will be complimentary to improve quality of life of humanity.

11. Name: Malveeka Tewari

Discipline: B.E. (Hons) Computer Science

Batch: 2nd year

Sir, based on your experiences abroad, do you believe that higher educational institutions in foreign countries contribute to significant value addition in one?s career progress? If so, what are these value additions and how can they be implemented in the Indian context?

Ans: Education whether in the country or abroad provide the students to grasp the fundamentals. The knowledge, thus, acquired should be utilized individually and in groups to take up challenges in national development. For example, let us assume you are undergoing training in the field of geology. Opportunities are awaiting you can participate in advanced contemporary research in earthquake prediction which has the potential of reducing drastically consequences of disasters. The education should give to the students the confidence that ?I can do it?. Secondly, education system should build capacities for employment generation, thirdly, the education should lead do high quality research. I visualize the research laboratories and the Indian educational institutions will be able to attract researchers from many nations to India. The educational institutions have to build these capacities among the students.

12. Name: Sindhu Anand

Discipline: M.Sc. (Hons) Biological Sciences and B.E. (Hons) Electrical and Electronics

Batch: 4th year

Sir, in view of our modernized outlook and lifestyle, the present generation is no longer inclined towards religion in its conventional sense. Is a new religious order, a new belief system required? If so, what should this belief system be?

Ans: I heard a hymn in a spiritual centre. It gives the solution for the problem faced by the society. It describes how the righteousness in the heart of an individual leads to world peace.

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.

13. Name: Ankita Vijayvergiya,

Discipline: B.E. (Hons) Computer Science

Batch: 1st year

Sir, there are issues to which we, the youth, do not agree. The voices raised against these issues, in the form of peace marches and rallies, are labeled as protests. How do you, as the President of the Indian Democracy, expect us to react to a situation we disagree with?

Ans. As a student, your mission is to learn as much as possible, through lessons, laboratory, library, discussions and participation in colloquium. Education period is normally limited to few years in your life time. Students have to excel in a specific field of education, to succeed in the competitive world. There may be differences of opinion and thoughts in the scientific areas. Such differences should be discussed and debated in the scientific colloquium. If the students have any specific problem they should be solved through student council and academic council. The strength of democracy is the avenue it provides for healthy debates to discuss and resolve issues where multiple opinion exists with a focus on overall national growth. You all should remember, whether you like it or not, BITS Pilani, is on the earth. The Earth is orbiting around the Sun. It takes one year. The time does not wait for any one. Time is a vector with a particular direction. It does not move this side or that side, it goes in one direction only. Hence, the time is most precious for all of us.