Address at the Students of Kuppam Engineering College

ADDRESS

I am indeed delighted to address the students and Faculty of Kuppam Engineering College. I would like to share with you some of my thoughts.

Young in Developed India Mission

The vision 'Developed India' has transformed into mission. 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. The employment opportunities are many, when a person becomes very selective like Government jobs, then there is tremendous constraints comes. If you open up your thoughts for entrepreneurship,design, industry, direct participation in agriculture with innovative ideas, making IT products etc. Most important thing for future young generation is to make up its mind to contribute in all sectors. The tool can be knowledge and physical contribution. In student life inspite of various constraints you can uniquely contribute for national development.

Knowledge empowerment and leadership

The society advances only by empowerment. Empowerment itself is a movement started by our forefathers. When the child is empowered by the parents, at various phases of growth, the child transforms into a responsible citizen. When the teacher is empowered with knowledge and experience, good young human beings with value systems take shape. When individual or a team is empowered with technology, transformation to higher potential for achievement is assured. When the leader of any institution empowers his or her people, leaders are born who can change the nation in multiple areas.

Five Mega Projects to transform the nation to Developed Country

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. (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.

Technology in India

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 a few contagious diseases. There is an 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. Defence Research had led to design, development and production of many strategic systems. Also we have seen the growth in 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 with 260 million people below poverty line. What Technology can do further?

Technology has multiple dimensions. Geopolitics converts 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 defence needs that provide 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 the 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 habitat in one of the planets possibly in Mars, space solar power radiating electrical power to earth. 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

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.

Core Competence of India

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 about $ US one billion. 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.

In the Rashtrapati Bhavan, we have established a herbal garden with 27 varieties of medicinal and aromatic plants, such as, Brahmi - for treatment of mental aspects, spearmint for condiments and drugs, sadabahar for certain type of cancer and hypertension and many other plants like quin ghaosu, lemon grass, menthol, mint, gritakumani etc.

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 citizens 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 give thrust to India into a knowledge super power.

Conclusion

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. 'India has to transform into a developed nation before the year 2020. A billion people are our resource for this national transformation.' This event will inspire the nation. Let the young minds blossom - full of thoughts, the thoughts of prosperity.

Best wishes!