competence, energy of 540 million youth, umbilical connectivities of 25 million people of Indian origin in various parts of the planet, with the potential sharing capacity of knowledge and resources and interest shown by many developed countries to invest in our engineers and scientists including setting up of new research & development centres.
“The distinction between 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 to one billion people with multi-cultural, multi-language and multi-religious backgrounds. Our technological competence and value systems with civilisational heritage are also highly respected,” Kalam said.
“Foreign Institutional Investors are finding investing in India attractive. We need to accelerate this process through hassle free single window system of clearance for investment proposals,” he said.
Talking about his vision of India during the year 2020 to achieve the mission of transforming India into a developed nation, Kalam emphasised the need for integrated action in five areas where the country had core competence – Agriculture and food processing; Reliable and Quality Electric power, Surface transport and Infrastructure for all parts of the country; Education and Healthcare; Information and Communication Technology; and Self reliance in critical technologies.
“These five areas are closely inter-related and if progressed in a coordinated way, will lead to food, economic and national security,” the former President observed.
Stating that the major mission was development of infrastructure for bringing rural prosperity, Kalam said this could be achieved through Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA) by creation of three connectivities namely physical, electronic, knowledge leading to economic connectivity.
Citing an example of a PURA initiative in Tamil Nadu where students and teachers of Periyar Maniammai College of Engineering and Technology were working in the planning and development of a cluster of 65 villages involving one lakh population, Kalam suggested Ravenshaw University to consider establishing PURA covering 20 villages involving around 50,000 population around Cuttack.
Kalam also spoke at length about the capacities needed to be built among the students by the teachers for meeting the challenges of national development.
Congratulating the teachers, students and staff of the University on the occasion, Kalam said he was happy that the 140 year Ravenshaw College had been transformed into Ravenshaw University in 2006 with a mission of providing value based quality education to students of all sections of society and to make higher education an effective instrument for socio economic transformation of the nation.
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