Address at the Inauguration of National Children Science Festival

Learning Mission

I am indeed delighted to inaugurate the National Children Science Festival - 2003 organised by Lucknow Public Schools. I am happy to note that thousands of school children from Lucknow, Hardoi, Lakhimpur Kheri, Gonda and adjoining places are participating in this event. My greetings to the student community and the organizers of this Science Festival. I was thinking what thoughts I can share with the young minds here. The topic I have selected for discussion is "Learning Mission".

Thinking is Progress

Friends, we should note that human mind is a unique gift. You can enter into it only if you have curiosity and thinking. I suggest to all of you, thinking should become your capital asset, no matter whatever ups and downs you come across in your life. Thinking is progress. Non thinking is destruction to the individual, organization and the country. Thinking leads to action. Knowledge without action is useless and irrelevant. Knowledge with action brings prosperity.

As a student, I would like you to have a mind to explore every aspect of human life. Look at the sky. We are not alone. The whole universe is friendly to us and conspires to give the best to those who dream. Like Chandrashekhar Subramaniam discovered the black hole. Today, using Chandrashekar's limit we can calculate how long the sun will shine. Like, Sir CV Raman looked at the sea and questioned why the sea should be blue. 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. That lead to the birth of Raman Effect. Like, Albert Einstein, armed with the complexity of the universe, asked the question how the universe was born. The famous equation E=mc2 arrived. When E=mc2 is in the hands of noble souls we got electricity using nuclear materials. When the same equation was in the hands of extreme political thinkers, destruction of Hiroshima took place. Millions of people walk in this universe. But during last millennium one noble soul walked and walked in the Indian soil giving application of ahimsa dharma leading to the Indian independence. Freedom for India resulted in 1947 on a single question "India needs freedom". In 1950s there was a tremendous shortage for food. We had to depend on wheat ships that come crossing Atlantic ocean to prevent famine in India. The political leader Prof. C. Subramaniam and an agricultural scientist Prof. M.S. Swaminathan asked a question in 1950s. How long India can depend on the imported food from developed countries? Let us become self sufficient in food. That thought led to green revolution resulting from technology, agricultural science and farmers' participation. Similar thoughts when came to Prof. Verghese Kurien, the milk man of India, India could attain surplus Milk Production. We produce Milk and Milk products in excess of our requirement. What is science? Science is asking series of questions and finding the right answer through hard work result into laws of nature or technological advancements. So children, who are attending the science congress, one of the suggestions I can give you is not to be afraid of asking questions. Go on asking till you get satisfied answer. Only questioning minds have made the world to live livable in spite of world's non-linear dynamics.

Wherever I go, I meet school children. Till now, I have met more than 2,00,000 students. Recently, I was in remote village in Rajasthan, Malva ka chaura visiting a tribal area hostel. During an interaction with the students, one 4th class student got up and asked a question, "Sir, I want to become the President of India like you. How to become?" A beautiful question from a fresh mind. I thought of it and I said, "In my life, for more than 50 years, it turns out engineering student, technologists, and scientist. Now for the past six months I am the President. Life has taught me three aspects or acquisition of three qualities - Knowledge, sweat and perseverance.

Knowledge, sweat and perseverance

The best part for a person is his or her learning period in school childhood. The prime learning environment is 5th to 16th years of age. Of course at home, love and affection are imparted. But again most of the time in a day is spent in preparing school's homework and study, eat, play and sleep. Hence the school hours for children are the best time for learning and need the best of environment and mission oriented learning with value system. During this stage, they need value based education in school and at home for them to become good citizens. This reminds me the echo from Bestolozzy, a great teacher's saying, "Give me a child for seven years. Afterwards, let the God or devil take the child. They cannot change the child." For parents and teachers, school campus and home have to have an integrated mission: education with value system. If the child misses the value based education of 25,000 hours in the school campus, no government or society can establish a transparent society or a society with integrity. Up to the age of 17 years, the father, the mother and the teacher lead a child to become an enlightened citizen. I also consider learning is a continuous process and knowledge acquisition continues.

Now I would like to explain the result of the hard work and perseverance with one of my experiences. It was in conjunction with Prof Sarabhai's vision for space programmes. Design project of India's first satellite launch vehicle was approved. Design of each stage of rocket, heat shield, guidance system was given to selected project leaders. I was given the 4th stage of SLV-3, that is upper stage rocket to give final velocity to put Rohini into orbit. The 4th stage SLV, uses an apogee motor, it should give the maximum thrust with minimum weight condition. It has critical technology. Hence, it was made out of composite structures which gives light weight. It is in early 1969 I remember, I received a call from Prof. Sarabhai from Ahmedabad stating that he will be visiting Trivandrum along with Prof. Kurien, President of a French Space organisation. I was asked to give a presentation about the 4th stage to Prof. Kurien's team. When the presentation by my team was over, we realised that SLV-3 4th stage is also being considered for a French 4th stage launch vehicle 'Diamont' P-4 and French Organisation was looking for an apogee rocket motor nearly double the propellant weight and also size of the stage what we had designed.

A decision was taken in the same meeting that SLV's fourth stage should be reconfigured to match and suit both French satellite launch vehicles and Indian launch vehicles. I would like to give the picture of the status at that time of our rocket technology. It was in the drawing board and of design status. Here is a visionary whose dream that Indian scientists will build an upper stage rocket system compatible both for Indian and French satellite launch vehicle system. What a confidence he put on the Indian scientific community? A decision was taken that this upper stage has to be designed and developed and it was projectized. This event was remarkable and motivating for us. We went on full swing. A series of reviews took place between the two teams. The 4th stage graduated from drawing board to developing stage. Then in 1971 Prof. Sarabhai passed away, at the same time the Diamont P-4 programme was called off and to be reconfigured in future. When the 4th stage was developed and series of tests were going on a new requirement appeared in the horizon that is India building small communication satellites to be integrated as one of the piggy back satellite in the Ariane programmes (European Space Launch Programme). For our Indian Apple programme that is communication satellite - the SLV-3, 4th stage exactly fitted and we flew in 1980s integrated in the European space launch from French Guiana Kourou. The vision seeded in 1969 by Prof. Vikram Sarabhai was indeed realised when the apple satellite started transmitting a communication to Indian earth stations. This gives some insight of a visionary with committed scientific support. Even we can build our rockets which can be flown in foreign soil. This achievement triggered the rocket technologists in the country and it is indeed the result of hard work and perseverance of the entire team. So dear friends, carry on your shoulder the three angels i.e. hard work, sweat and perseverance.

Put the students, decades ahead

As young students, we had the opportunity at St. Joseph's College witnessing a scene, a unique, divine looking personality walking through the college campus every morning teaching Mathematics B.Sc (Honours) and MA (Mathematics) students. Young students looked at him with awe and respect, a personality symbolizing our own culture. When he walked, knowledge radiated all around. The great personality was, Prof. T. Totadri Iyengar, the great teacher. At that time, 'Calculus Srinivasan' was my mathematics teacher. Calculus Srinivasan used to talk about Prof. Totadri Iyengar with deep respect. During those days, he and Prof. Totadri Iyengar had an understanding to have an integrated class by Prof. Totadri Iyengar for first year B.Sc. (Hons) and first year B.Sc. (Physics). I had the opportunity to attend his classes, particularly on the subjects of modern algebra, statistics and also once I heard him teaching complex variables. When we were in the BSc first year, Calculus Srinivasan used to select top ten students to the Mathematics Club of St. Joseph's to where Prof. Totadri Iyengar used to give lecture series. One day, in 1952, I still remember, he gave a one hour lecture on ancient mathematicians and astronomers of India and introduced three great mathematician and astronomers. For nearly one hour he spoke. The lecture is still ringing in my ears. I was introduced to the pride of the nation: pioneers in astronomy and mathematics (4th to 20th century) Aryabhatta, Bhaskara and Ramanujam who gave to the world, the zero, computed the orbit period of the earth around the sun and discovered many stunning concepts in number theory. These incidents and knowledge became the foundation for my education, learning with hope and value system. My teachers of primary, secondary and college education had put me a few decades ahead. This was indeed the vision. I am confident there may be many parallels in this gathering, let us emulate them. How can the students be shaped as nation builders and schools become laboratories for such type of mission?

Man Subjugates Failures

Friends, I want to share with you what was working in my mind after the Columbia's tragedy. Human flight is nothing but creativity of human mind and it undergoes several struggles to achieve excellence by exploring the space. In 1890, a great well known scientist Lord Kelvin, who was the President of Royal Society of London said, "any thing heavier than air cannot fly, and cannot be flown." With in two decades Wright Brothers proved man can fly of course at heavy risk and cost.

On the successful completion of Moon Mission in 1961, Farnbraun, a very famous rocket designer, who built Saturn-V, to launch the capsule with astronauts and made moon walk a reality, in 1975 said "If I am authorized, I will remove the word impossible". Now let us take the story of the planet earth. During the recent Columbia's space mission, on January 29, 2002 at 3.39 PM, the astronauts Mc Cool & Ramon said to the ground station "We are in a vantage point in space, the world looks marvelous from up here, so peaceful, so wonderful and so fragile.. ". Friends, those seven astronauts are no more with us. They have given so much of scientific inputs to the humanity. Also they have given a very important message that the earth is fragile

In ancient days, Ptolemaic astronomy is a widely used system in calculating the dynamics of various stars and planets. Assumption by then was that the earth is flat. What a scientific struggle had to take place to prove that the earth is spherical in shape orbiting around the sun. The two great astronomers, Copernicus and Galileo, had to give a new dimension to the world of astronomy. Today we take it granted that earth is a globe orbiting around sun and the sun orbits in the Milky Way. All the technological advancements we have today, are the outcome of scientific exploration of scientist of a few centuries. At no time, man was beaten by problems. He strives continuously to subjugate failures. Our tributes to those seven astronauts. I thought of sharing these thoughts with you since failures should not deter our steps towards progress.

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" to 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.

When Can I sing the SONG OF INDIA ?

Some of my friends had launched a web site in my name. I normally exchange views particularly with the young within the country and abroad. I had putforth two points in the web site for the young to share their thoughts. The first point I had putforth was, "India is a developing country for more than half a century. What you will do to make it Developed India?". The second one was, "When can I sing a song of India?". There is a connectivity. There were more than 100 responses. I thought of sharing with you four important suggestions that I received. One student from Meghalaya had responded, "I will become a teacher (rather a Professor of Engineering) since I am good in, as well as enjoy teaching. Since I believe that one of the best ways in which to serve any nation is to be either a Professor or a soldier among many other professions". What a noble thought. Only from beautiful places like Meghalaya such beautiful thoughts can arise. Another young girl from Kerala says, "Single flower makes no garland. I will make my countrymen to love the nation and work for garland, that is developed India". A twenty year old boy from Goa has responded, "I would become an electron and like an electron in the orbit, I will work ceaselessly for my country now onwards. With reference to the second point which I had putforth, a young man from Atlanta says, "when India builds the capability to put sanction against any country, if needed, then I will sing a song of India". What the young man meant was: Economic strength brings prosperity accompanied with national strength. Like that there are many responses. The cross section of people of young age group have inspired mind to make the nation great. India is a nation of a billion people. A nation's progress depends upon how its people think. It is thoughts which are transformed into actions. India has to think as a nation of a billion people. I am sure, your thoughts in this science congress will enrich the decision making process. Let the young minds blossom-full of thought, the thoughts of prosperity.

My greetings and best wishes to all the young innovators.