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Following
is the text of the President, Dr. A.P.J.Abdul Kalam’s address at the annual
convocation of the Punjab University in Chandigarh today :
National Prosperity Index and Societal peace
"National development through integrative
growth"
“I am delighted to participate in the
Annual Convocation of the Panjab University, which has been serving the educational
needs of the country for over 12 decades. My greetings to Vice Chancellor,
Principals of Colleges, Heads of Departments, faculty members, students, parents
and distinguished guests on this post independence platinum jubilee year.
My congratulations to all the graduating students for their academic accomplishment.
I am happy that the University aims to provide a complete, meaningful and
relevant education to the people of Punjab and neighbouring States so that
they are intellectually well trained, morally upright, socially aware and
spiritually inspired. I greet all the pioneers who have contributed in establishing
and growing this University. This University has produced many distinguished
personalities who are contributing in different disciplines in India and abroad.
Since the university is a multi-disciplinary educational center, I thought
of sharing with you certain thoughts on the subject ‘National Prosperity Index
and societal peace’.
National
Prosperity Index
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 the economic growth is not fully reflected in the quality of life
of large number of people, particularly in the rural areas and even in urban
areas. Hence, we have evolved what is called “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 poverty line
plus (c) the adoption of 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 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. 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.
Improvement in the GDP is no doubt
an important factor for the prosperity, though it is not the only factor.
Progressive reduction in the number of people living below poverty line leading
to near zero by 2020, increase in quality of life of all citizens in terms of
food, shelter, water, energy, infrastructure, education and health will be
major indicators of the growth of (b). Efficient, receptive and transparent
system of governance, peace in families and communities, reduction in
corruption index, reduction in court cases, reduction in violence against
children and women and reduction in communal tensions will all decide the
growth of (c). Hence the NPI is the resultant of overall prosperity derived
from the implementation of all the three factors (NPI = a+b+c). We need to
discuss the various elements of NPI, which is truly reflective of the targets
for NPI, and periodically review them for improvement.
Since the academic community of Panjab
University is research and teaching oriented, the thoughts on NPI can be further
developed in the form of an equation defining and expanding the contents and
relationship among multiple elements as discussed. Now, I would like to discuss
about evolution of conflict free human life. Is it possible? Let us start
from the Origin of Life.
Origin of Life
Ancient human history has been
revealed beautifully by Paleo-anthro-pology. Life originated in this globe 600
million years ago and continental drift occurred 200 million years ago making
our one land into five continents. Mammals evolved 140 million years ago,
Hominid (human type) evolved 26 million years ago but the modern man only some
200,000 years ago. That too he emigrated and colonized the rest of the world
only since 50,000 years. Spoken language was some 10,000 years old while
written only a few thousand years old. All the phenomenal progress of Man was
thus only within this short span of 400 -200 generations (i.e., 10,000 -5,000
years). So far human society from origin until now has always been at war
within and between groups and has led to two World Wars and two limited wars
recently. Presently, terrorism and low intensity warfare are affecting many
parts of the world. In this context, is it possible to have a happy, prosperous
and safe planet earth?
Evolution of
enlightened citizens
Dear friends, I know you are all
concerned how do we bring peace to the world, can terrorism be eliminated? Is
it possible to aim at a peaceful, prosperous, happy and safe planet? YES. I am
putting forth this thought to the multi-disciplinary gathering of researchers,
graduate members and academicians, so that during their career, they can
contribute in the evolution of enlightened citizens. How do we create such an
enlightened society, which has three components (a) Education with value system
(b) Religion transforming into spirituality and (c) Economic development for
societal transformation? Let us discuss.
(a) Education with value system: The best
part for a person is his or her childhood and the learning period in school.
The prime learning environment is five to seventeen 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 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." This indicates the power of the great teachers.
For parents and teachers, school campus and home have to have an integrated
mission that is education with value system. They must inculcate moral
leadership amongst children which involves two aspects. First it requires the
ability to have compelling and powerful dreams or visions of human betterment,
a state of things in which human beings could be better off in the future than
they are now. Secondly, moral leadership requires a disposition to do the right
thing and influence others also to do the right thing. If the child misses the
value based education in the school, no government or society can establish a
transparent society or a society with integrity. During this period, it is
essential to elevate the young minds through a moral science class at least for
one hour each week, delivered by great teachers. That will elevate the young
minds to love the country, to love other human beings and elevate the young to
higher planes. Throughout the world in every school till the age of 17, it is
essential that moral science is taught. Such enlightened individuals will
definitely promote peace and harmony in the planet. Now, I would like to share
an experience that I have witnessed regarding religion transforming into a
dynamic spiritual force.
(b) Religion Transforming into Spirituality: Universal Mind
I would like to recall an incident,
which happened four decades ago. Prof Vikram Sarabhai is the visionary of space
programme in India. He is well known for his cosmic ray research area that led
to evolving the space research programme for the nation. Prof Vikram Sarabhai
was looking for a site to establish space research station in the equatorial
region. He visited a number of places. The scientific community for space
research selected Thumba in Kerala as it was near the equatorial region and was
ideally suited for ionospheric research in upper atmosphere apart from study of
atmospheric structure. When Prof Vikram Sarabhai visited Thumba, the locality
had series of villages and thousands of fishermen folk were living in that
area. It also had a beautiful ancient church, St Mary Magdalene Church,
Pallithura and a Bishop's House. Prof Vikram Sarabhai met many politicians and
bureaucrats to get the place for the work of space science research. It did not
move further because the nature of the place. He was asked to see the Bishop of
Trivandrum, at that time in 1962, Rev Father Dr Peter Bernard Pereira. It was a
Saturday when Prof Vikram Sarabhai met the Bishop. The Bishop smiled and asked
him to meet him the next day, ie Sunday. In the morning after the Church
Service, the Bishop told the congregation, "my children, I have a famous
scientist with me who wants our church and the place I live for the work of
space science research. Dear children, science seeks truth by reasoning. In one
way, science and spiritualism seek the same divine blessings for doing good for
the people. My children, can we give the God's abode for a scientific
mission?" There was a chorus of 'Amen' from the congregation and the whole
church reverberated. Subsequently, the big event took place in 1962. Rev Dr
Peter Bernard Pereira, the Bishop of Trivandrum, took the noble decision to
dedicate the church in recognition of the national goal for the establishment
of the Indian Space Research Organisation at Pallithura, Thumba. That was the
church where we had our design centre, started rocket assembly, design of
filament winding machine for FRP product and the Bishop's house was our
scientists' place. Later, the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station
(TERLS) led to the establishment of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) and
multiple space centres throughout the country.
When I think of this event, I can see
how enlightened spiritual and scientific leaders; all converge towards giving
reverence to the human life. New church and new schools were established in
record time. Of course the birth of TERLS and then VSSC gave the country the
capability of design, development and produce world class huge rocket system
and subsequently, India has the capability of launching geo-synchronous,
sun-synchronous and meteorology spacecraft, communication satellite, remote
sensing satellite thereby provided fast communication, weather forecasting and
also locate water resources for the country. Today, among us, Prof Vikram Sarabhai
is not there, Rev Dr Peter Bernard Pereira is not there, but those who are
responsible for creation and make the flower blossom will themselves be a
different kind of a flower as described in the Bhagwat Gita: "See the
flower, how generously it distributes perfume and honey. It gives to all, gives
freely of its love. When its work is done, it falls away quietly. Try to be
like the flower, unassuming despite all its qualities". What a beautiful
message for all generation of this nation, on integration of minds and
universal mind. No where in the world a church has been given for scientific
research, it has happened in India. It is a great message to be spread. The
message is, the best component of the religion can be transformed into a
spiritual force that will shape the society. Let me now discuss with you the
third component of the enlightened society for transforming the developing
nation into a developed nation through achieving economic prosperity, so that
large societal imbalances can be removed. In this connection, let me take an
example of India, which has one sixth of the global population.
(c) Transforming our nation into a economically developed
nation
We have a population of over one
billion people of which 220 million are still living below the poverty line.
They need education, they need habitat, they need health care, and creation of
employment potential. To meet their needs we have the second vision of
transforming India into a developed nation by the year 2020. We have identified
five areas where India has a core competence for integrated action: (1)
Agriculture and food processing (2) Education and Healthcare (3) Information
and Communication Technology (4) Infrastructure development such as power,
transportation, communication and including Providing Urban Amenities in Rural
Areas (PURA) network and (5) Self reliance in critical technologies. These five
areas are closely inter-related and if implemented in a coordinated way, will
lead to food, and economic security, and national security. A strong
partnership among the R&D, academy, industry and the community as a whole
with the Government departments will be essential to accomplish the vision for
a developed India. Indian GDP is growing at an average rate of 8% p.a. whereas
the economists suggest that to remove the poverty of 220 million people, we
have to grow at the rate of 10% p.a. consistently for over a decade. One of the
components through which the rural-urban divide will be bridged and prosperity
will be brought to the seven hundred million people living in six hundred
thousand villages is Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA) in seven
thousand clusters.
The University system should build the
capacity among the students to work in the creation and management of PURA
clusters and various PURA components in the rural and semi-urban areas. With
the experience of Panjab University in conducting PG diploma courses in health,
family welfare, environmental science and population education, the university
can definitely introduce inter-disciplinary courses which will provide the
quality human resource for creation and maintenance of PURAs in Punjab which
will lead to enhancement of the quality of life of people living in the rural
areas. Now, I would like to talk about the importance of inter-disciplinary
research for capacity building among students.
Inter
disciplinary research
In addition to the above, the University
system can introduce the students on societal missions such as removal of
illiteracy in the rural areas, promoting social values in the neighbouring
villages, counseling the people in the villages for leading a good life free
from any form of addiction and gambling. They can also work for removing the
social problems such as crime against women and children, dowry, child labour,
and support to elderly people, through debate and discussions with the people
in adopted villages by the University and affiliated colleges. The students
can also be introduced for providing help to the differently abled people
and persuading the parents about the necessity of immunization and post-natal
care to the mother and the child which is essential for bringing down the
MMR and IMR in our country. These integrated actions by the University with
the active participation of students and the faculty members will create awareness
among the students about the national problems even before they enter into
their professional career. The University has over 56 teaching and research
departments with core competence in biotechnology and in corporate management.
The aim should be to bring out the importance of each department and the specific
contribution they can make in making a difference in the life of the people.
For example, students from environmental sciences could suggest to the people
methods by which they can upgrade their environment and live in a pollution
free atmosphere by using renewable energy to the maximum extent possible,
conversion of waste into energy, recycling of water, using green materials
for construction having minimum embodied energy. You can see how environmental
scientists can bring the importance of energy specialists, water specialists,
construction specialists and waste management specialists. This type of inter-disciplinary
working will enable the students in facing the economic, social and cultural
problems of the society with higher level of confidence and promote respect
for multiple disciplines.
Conclusion
Since I am in the midst of academic
and research community, I thought of sharing with you an incident about Sir CV
Raman – a Nobel Laureate in Physics for discovering Raman Effect. Raman gives
the view that the color of sky is blue due to molecular diffraction, which
determines the observed luminosity, and in great measures also its color. This
led to the birth of the Raman Effect. Raman was in the first group of Bharat
Ratna awardees. 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 to receive the award. Sir CV Raman wrote a polite letter,
regretting his inability to attend. 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 the 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 and 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 unique trait of giving value to research that promotes
research. I am sure, all the members of Panjab University will emulate this
example in their academic and research pursuit.
Once again let me congratulate all
the graduating students and my best wishes to all the members of Panjab
University community for success in the mission of developing quality human
resources needed for improving the National Prosperity Index of India.
May God bless you.”
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SH/CS
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President’s address at the annual convocation of the Punjab University
