"When you wish upon a star,
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires
Will come to you"
Friends, I am delighted to address you all, in the country and those living
abroad, after working with you and completing five beautiful and eventful years
in Rashtrapati Bhavan. Today, it is indeed a thanks-giving occasion. I would
like to narrate, how I enjoyed every minute of my tenure enriched by the
wonderful association from each one of you, hailing from different walks of
life, be it politics, science and technology, academics, arts, literature,
business, judiciary, administration, local bodies, farming, home makers, special
children, media and above all from the youth and student community who are the
future wealth of our country. During my interaction at Rashtrapati Bhavan in
Delhi and at every state and union territory as well as through my online
interactions, I have many unique experiences to share with you, which signify
the following important messages:
1. Accelerate development : Aspiration of the youth,
2. Empower villages,
3. Mobilize rural core competence for competitiveness,
4. Seed to Food: Backbone for agricultural growth
5. Defeat problems and succeed,
6. Overcome problems through partnership,
7. Courage in combating calamities,
8. Connectivity for societal transformation,
9. Defending the nation: Our pride and
10. Youth movement for Developed India 2020.
Now let me share with you each of the messages.
Accelerate Development: Aspiration of the youth
While there were many significant events during my tenure, a question from a
little girl Anukriti of Sri Sathya Sai Jagriti Vidya Mandir School, of Darwa
village from Haryana, during children’s visit to Rashtrapati Bhavan on May 22,
2006, rings in my mind ever after.
Anukriti asked me "why India cannot become a developed nation before the year
2020". I appreciated the question and said it was indeed a thoughtful question
and assured her that that her dream would be taken to the highest institution of
the nation and we would work for it to achieve before 2020. This question
reflects how the desire to live in developed India has entered into the minds of
the youth. The same feelings are echoed by over fifteen lakh youth, whom I have
met so far and who represent the dream of the 540 million youth of the nation.
The aspirations of the young to live in a prosperous, safe and proud India
should be the guiding factor in whatever profession we contribute.
Empower Villages
Friends, I recall my visit to Nagaland on 26th October 2002, soon after my
assuming office as President. It was a unique experience for me at Khuzama
village to meet tribal village council members and discuss with them the village
progress and the dream of village citizens. I was very happy to see the
empowered village council functioning with financial powers and taking
decisions. I saw a prosperous village with fruits and vegetables production.
However, there is a need for providing physical connectivity in Nagaland through
quality roads for enabling faster movement of products from villages to the
market. That meeting gave me a powerful message about the transformation which
can take place to the 600,000 villages of India, if all the villages are
empowered to deal with their development and are well connected among themselves
and with the urban societies.
Mobilizing rural core competence for competitiveness
Now I would like to talk about the initiative of Periyar Maniammai College of
Technology for Women, Vallam, Tanjore of Providing Urban Amenities in Rural
Areas (PURA) complex involving 65 villages with a population of 3 lakhs. This
includes provision of three connectivities - physical, electronic and knowledge
- leading to economic connectivity. Periyar PURA has health care centers,
primary to post graduate level education and vocational training centers. This
has resulted in large-scale employment generation and creation of number of
entrepreneurs with the active support of 1000 self-help groups. Two hundred
acres of waste land has been developed into a cultivable land. The villagers are
busy in cultivation, planting Jatropha, herbal and medicinal plants, power
generation using bio-mass, food processing and above all running marketing
centers. It provides a sustainable economic development model for the whole
region.
During the last eight months, people of Periyar PURA villages technologically
supported by Periyar Maniammai College of Engineering for Women have worked with
experts from Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) on various products, for
which core competence and raw material are available in Thanjavur district. They
developed internationally competitive prototypes for 55 life style products with
support of JETRO specialists and feedback from exhibitions at Delhi and Tokyo.
This co-operative venture has enhanced the innovative ability of the people of
all the 65 villages enabling them to develop and produce internationally
acceptable products. I have seen similar type of PURA being established in many
states. The whole country needs 7000 PURA to bridging the rural – urban
divide.
Seed to Food: Backbone for agricultural growth
Let me now share with you, the enriching experience I had, while meeting more
than 6000 farmers from different States and Union Territories visiting
Rashtrapati Bhavan. They evinced keen interest in the Mughal Gardens, the Herbal
Gardens, the Spiritual Garden, the Musical Garden, the Bio-diesel garden and the
Nutrition Garden and interact with the Horticultural specialists. Recently,
during my address to the agricultural scientists while participating in a
National Symposium on "Agriculture Cannot Wait", I summarized the many
practical suggestions given by farmers. We have to double the agricultural
production with reduced land, reduced water resources and reduced manpower and
improve the economic conditions of the nation through the principle of "Seed
to Food" since agriculture is the backbone of the nation. We should empower
the farmers to protect and nurture the fertile land for second green revolution.
Meeting the Scientists and the Farmers has given me the confidence that the
nation is poised to increase the agricultural GDP growth by atleast 4% per annum
through the partnership of farmers and agricultural scientists and industries
particularly for value addition.
Defeat the problems and succeed
On the evening of February 24, 2007, at Coimbatore, I had a very beautiful
experience. As I got ready for meeting the first person out of twenty
appointments, a wheel chair was in sight with a smiling person probably in his
late fifties; unfortunately he has no hands and legs. His radiant face was
revealing his happy state of mind. He introduced himself as Vidwan Shri SR
Krishnamurthy. I greeted him and asked him how this had happened. He smilingly
said that it was from by birth. He thanked God, his parents, teachers and many
others for giving him confidence, training and help. I asked him, what I could
do for him? He said, "I don’t need anything from you. I would like to sing
in front of you". I readily agreed. He sang melodiously the Saint
Thyagraja’s pancha ratna kriti entharo mahanubavulu in Sriragam giving me a
glimpse of his talent. I was quite touched. What is the message? Despite being
physically challenged, the latent talent of music could blossom in this person
with his positive attitude and perseverance, encouraged by the parents,
teachers, academics and rasikas. Now he wants to give, give and give his art to
inspire others. Of course, by his merit of music, in July 2007, he performed in
the Rashtrapati Bhavan art theatre.
Overcome the impact of disaster through partnership
I had the opportunity to experience the Indomitable Spirit of the people and
children of Jammu & Kashmir even as they were just recovering from the
devastating earthquake in 2005. I visited Urusa village on 26th November 2005
which has been adopted by the Western Air Command, Air Force for providing
relief and medical aid to the residents of that area. When I went there, I found
that the school building had been severely damaged. I met all the school
children and the village citizen of Urusa. The villagers apprised me of their
losses and had all praise for Army and Air Force role in rescue and relief
operations along with state government. I appreciate the courage of the people
of Urusa in defeating their problems. They have actually become the master of
the problem rather than allowing problems to become their master. Despite the
severe loss due to the earthquake, the children and the members of the village
participated in the relief operation with the Armed Forces bravely and were
smiling when I went to meet them. They interacted with me and said that the
school was functional in the temporary tents. Here, I also witnessed the
participation of acting Chief Justice of Jammu & Kashmir along with State
Government authorities in on-the-spot settlement of relief grants to be provided
to the victims whose houses had been damaged in the earth quake. I have
experienced many such acts of courage from our citizens when faced with severe
challenges.
Courage in combating calamities
In 2005, I met the Tribal Council Leaders, Students, Children of Chuckchucha
village during my visit to Car Nicobar Islands. While various reconstruction and
rehabilitation activities were in progress, during the discussions with the
members of tribal council, I realized the unique trait among the Car-Nicobar
islanders. Even though there were many human losses due to the Tsunami of 26 Dec
2004, the tribal islanders had taken possession of affected victims as their
children and there is nothing like orphanage in Car-Nicobar Islands. Touched by
their courage, I composed few verses called "Sea Waves" which reads as
follows:
Sea Waves
We are the children of Sea waves,
Sea waves are my friends.
When they become angry,
Sea waves give the challenges.
God has given the courage,
To challenge the sea waves,
And we will succeed,
We will succeed
With Almighty’s grace.
All the members who were gathered in the village sang the poem with me and
exhibited lots of courage and enthusiasm even though they had gone through
severe suffering during the Tsunami.
Connectivity for societal transformation
I addressed the Pan African Parliament on 16 September 2004, at Johannesburg,
South Africa. This was attended by 53 member countries of the African Union,
where I proposed the concept of Pan African e-Network for providing seamless and
integrated satellite, fiber optics and wireless network connecting 53 African
countries at an estimated cost of US $ 100 million.
As part of the project 12 universities (7 from India and 5 from Africa), 17
Super Specialty Hospitals (12 from India and 5 from Africa), 53 tele-medicine
centers and 53 tele-education centres in Africa will be connected. The pilot
project on tele-education and tele-medicine in Ethiopia has already been
commissioned. Indira Gandhi National Open University 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. Using the Pan African network
the Heads of the State in all the 53 countries will be connected for instant
communication. I am extremely happy that Indian experience in bringing the
benefits of technology to the people has enabled us to work with Africa to bring
societal transformation in the African continent.
Defending the nation: Our pride
I visited KUMAR in Siachen Glacier located at 17,000 feet altitude held by the
Indian Army, had a memorable underwater journey in INS Sindhurakshak and flew in
a Sukhoi-30 fighter experiencing 2.5 g. In these three experiences, I personally
felt proud of our ever vigilant Soldiers, Sailors and Air Warriors performing
their tasks beyond the call of their duty even in the most adverse circumstances
natural and man made. During the last five years, I had an opportunity to
present colours to many regiments, participate in number of passing out parades,
meet the troops who were going to undertake peace missions and interact with the
family members of our Defence Forces. Our Defence Forces are in a beautiful
mission. When the nation sleeps during night, Members of our Defence teams are
awake to guard us and remain vigilant to counter any threat. The Nation
cherishes the valour, commitment and devotion to duty of our Defence Forces.
Similarly, I had opportunities to interact with members of our para-military
forces, central and state police personnel including internal security forces
who are making immense contribution in augmenting the safety and security of our
citizens under difficult conditions.
Youth movement for Developed India 2020
Recently, in Hyderabad, I met a group of citizens who are putting into practice
the motto of transforming of our youth into enlightened citizen. The Lead India
2020 Foundation created by Dr. N.B. Sudershan at Hyderabad is training thousands
of students in many districts of Andhra Pradesh in partnership with the District
Administration. Particularly, I happened to know the transformation which has
taken place among the students of Medak district. As per the district
authorities the impact of the training on the students is visible in terms of
self-discipline, love for their parents and teachers shedding of stage fear and
recognition of their duties towards the nation. I talked to Ms. Padma, a student
leader from Andhra Pradesh Tribal Welfare School, Nalgonda who related how she
weaned her father away from smoking after imbibing the spirit of the 10 point
oath from the Lead India Training Camp. This gives me an assurance that the
youth of our country are on the right path through this mission oriented
programme. With the ignited minds of the 540 million youth below the age of 25,
which I consider is the most powerful resource on the earth, under the earth and
above the earth, we have to empower the youth through value based education and
leadership.
Conclusion
I was touched by the variety of Indian panorama, emotional content of the tune,
cultural diversity and unity of minds in the vast land of ours. I have cited
these examples just to give a glimpse of the richness of our tradition and
effort being taken by different agencies to preserve it. There are also many new
adventures by institutions and individuals. I have experienced many of them and
learnt a lot about my country and our people. Even while pursuing our economic
growth, we need to do a lot to preserve the rich and diverse treasures of our
culture and civilization. It is our duty for our future generations. This has to
be done in a much larger scale through countrywide participation of multiple
institutions. Our country is blessed with natural resources, has shown
considerable progress in the last sixty years, and above all we have hard
working people particularly the power of the 540 million youth of the country.
Every sector of our country has given me the confidence that India can become a
developed nation well before 2020. Whomsoever, I met they constantly ask what
they can give to the nation. We should constantly strive to empower such members
of the society. With this spirit, I am extremely happy that we are on the right
path. Here I am reminded of a famous poem:
"When you wish upon a star,
Makes no difference who you are,
Anything your heart desires,
Will come to you"
This poem is true to all of us, and particularly for our youth and if they aim
great, I am sure they will reach close to the target or the target.
My dear citizens, let us resolve to continue to work for realizing the missions
of developed India 2020 with the following distinctive profile.
1. A Nation where the rural and urban divide has reduced to a thin line.
2. A Nation where there is an equitable distribution and adequate access to
energy and quality water.
3. A Nation where agriculture, industry and service sector work together in
symphony.
4. A Nation where education with value system is not denied to any meritorious
candidates because of societal or economic discrimination.
5. A Nation which is the best destination for the most talented scholars,
scientists, and investors.
6. A Nation where the best of health care is available to all.
7. A Nation where the governance is responsive, transparent and corruption free.
8. A Nation where poverty has been totally eradicated, illiteracy removed and
crimes against women and children are absent and none in the society feels
alienated.
9. A Nation that is prosperous, healthy, secure, peaceful and happy and
continues with a sustainable growth path.
10. A Nation that is one of the best places to live in and is proud of its
leadership.
Finally let me thank each one of you for showering your love and affection on me
throughout the last five years by your cooperation and support.
Dear Citizens, I conclude my address by sharing with you my mission in life
which is to bring connectivity between billion hearts and minds of the people of
India in our multicultural society and to embed the self confidence that "we
can do it". I will be always with you, dear citizens, in the great mission of
making India a developed nation before 2020.
May God bless you. Jai hind.