The Vice President of India, Shri M Venkaiah Naidu today called upon the youth to develop a positive outlook and strive to build a New India which will be free of poverty, discrimination, inequalities, corruption and hunger.

Speaking at Kalam’s Convention -2020 organised by the Kalam’s Institute of Youth Excellence at the Brahma Kumaris’ Shanti Sarovar Lane in Hyderabad, he urged the youth to not support those who are encouraging violence.

Shri Naidu observed that those who were instigating violence were anti-people and working against the interests of the nation.

Stating that peace was the foremost prerequisite for development of the country, he said there was no scope for violence in democracy and asserted that ballot was more powerful than bullet.

Observing that youth were the future of the country, the Vice President urged them to always protect India’s rich cultural heritage, traditions and age-old civilizational values.   He wanted the youth to show empathy and concern for the less privileged by adopting India’s core philosophy of share and care.

Stressing the need to reorient the education system to nurture children to be creative, imaginative and innovative, the Vice President called for revisiting the history textbooks to highlight the immense sacrifices and contributions made by freedom fighters from different parts of the country like Alluri Seetarama Raju, Veerapandia Kattabomman, Lala Lajapati Rai and Veer Savarkar among others.

Talking about the need to have ethics in public life, the Vice President urged people to elect representatives who possess character, good conduct, capacity and calibre and not the other 4 Cs-- Caste, Community, Cash and Criminality.

Paying rich tributes to Former President of India, Shri APJ Abdul Kalam, theVice President said that Dr. Kalam was the shining example that human beings could shape their lives through will, persistence, hard work, discipline, dedication and sheer courage and perseverance.

“He dreamt of building a developed India and took up a mission to ignite the young minds for national development by meeting the students across the country,” he added.

Describing Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam as an extraordinary scientist, visionary leader, passionate teacher and a compassionate human being, Shri Naidu said that he inspired Indian youth to aim high, dream big and work hard to achieve their goals. 

Shri Naidu asked the youth to be in the forefront in the fight against social evils, like caste and gender discrimination and also take lead in protecting the environment and nature, while learning to live with it.

The Chairman of DRDO, Dr. G. Satish Reddy, Indian Founder, Kalam’s Institute of Youth Excellence, Shri Naresh, Trustee, Kalam’s Institute of Youth Excellence, Shri Pidikiti Bhopal and the Chairman, Gandhi Global Family, Dr.Gunna Rajendar Reddy, were present at the event.

The following is the full text of the speech:

I am pleased to amidst all of you at Kalam’s Convention -2020 organised by Kalam’s Institute of Youth Excellence.

Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam was an extraordinary scientist, visionary leader, passionate teacher and a compassionate human being, who inspired Indian youth to aim high and dream big.

Born on 15th October 1931 at Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu, Dr. Kalam went on to become country’s one of the most celebrated scientists.  He made significant contribution as Project Director to develop India's first indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-III) which successfully injected the Rohini satellite in the near earth orbit in July 1980 and made India an exclusive member of Space Club.

He was responsible for the evolution of ISRO's launch vehicle programme, particularly the PSLV configuration.

After working for two decades in ISRO and mastering launch vehicle technologies, Dr. Kalam took up the responsibility of developing Indigenous Guided Missiles at DRDO.

He was responsible for the development of AGNI and PRITHVI Missiles. He also played important role in the Pokhran-II nuclear tests in collaboration with Department of Atomic Energy, which made India a nuclear weapon State.

Shri APJ Abdul Kalam was a versatile personality. He excelled in whatever he did. His contribution to nation building is immense. In recognition of his service to motherland, he was awarded the coveted civilian awards - Padma Bhushan (1981) and Padma Vibhushan (1990) and the highest civilian award Bharat Ratna (1997).

As a young boy from humble background, Shri Kalam sold newspapers to support his family’s income. And he rose to the highest office in India.

He is the shining example that human beings can shape their lives through will, persistence, ability and sheer courage. His character, commitment and inspirational vision inspire the youth of the country.

He dreamt of building a developed India and took up a mission to ignite the young minds for national development by meeting the students across the country.

He firmly believed in the potential of Indian youth and wanted them to be leaders in country’s transformation. He had said -

"Children have hard-wired ability to be creative, imaginative and innovative that often diminishes along the way. These inherent capabilities have to be identified and encouraged to have a new breed of innovative thinkers who are prepared to solve future challenges of our world."

In line with this, the Government led by the Prime Minster, Shri Narendra Modi has launched Atal Innovation Mission to create an ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship among the students. More than 5400 Atal Tinkering Labs have been established in schools across the country benefitting over 60 lakh students.

Dr Kalam was not just a role model for the children, he had an inherent passion for teaching and a zeal to inspire children to become good citizens.

He had great regard for the teachers and advocated education with values. About the aims of a teacher, he said,

"The aim of the teacher should be to build character, human values enhance the learning capacity of children through technology and build the confidence among children to be innovative and creative which in turn will make them competitive to face the future."

Swami Vivekananda also defined the education as a process by which character is formed, strength of mind is increased, and intellect is sharpened, as a result of which one can stand on one’s own feet. And teacher’s role becomes paramount in this process.

Traditionally teacher has got a reverential place in Indian society. Our Shastras say –

गुरुर्ब्रह्मा गुरुर्विष्णुः गुरुर्देवो महेश्‍वरः । गुरु साक्षात्‌ परब्रह्म तस्मै श्रीगुरुवे नमः ॥

Meaning that ‘I bow to the ‘Guru’ who to me is Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh, Guru is the supreme God’.

This respect to Guru was what made India ‘Vishwa Guru’ in ancient times. Our ancestors were well aware of the role a teacher plays in the progress of a society.

Echoing this age old Indian wisdom, Dr Kalam said,

"Teachers have to realize that they are the builders of the society. The society can be built only when the students are made proficient in their subjects. In addition they have to provide a vision for life to the students and also inculcate the fundamentals of values which he should practice in the years to come."

Dr. Kalam always asked teachers to become role models for students. His dedication to teaching was so deep that he was delivering a lecture at IIM Shillong even on his last day.

In this last speech, Dr Kalam talked of ‘Creating a livable earth’ and said –

“Sustainable development enables the realisation of green clean environment without pollution, having prosperity without poverty, peace without fear of war and a happy place to live for all citizens of the nation of the world.”

In this last speech, Dr.Kalam laid the blueprint of his ‘World vision 2030 of a livable planet earth’. Many of the ideas in this ‘World Vision 2030’ were already discussed by him in his famous ‘Vision 2020 - Ten Pillars of Development’.

In both these documents, he talks of the need to narrow down the rural and urban divide.

In this regard, it would be appropriate to revisit his famous concept of PURA – Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas. Connectivity is at the core of the PURA concept.

Dr Kalam visualised providing four elements of connectivity: physical connectivity, electronic connectivity, knowledge connectivity leading to economic connectivity of rural areas and where there would be a lesser urban-rural divide.

A noble initiative for providing Physical connectivity by building rural roads roads was launched under the leadership former Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The scheme Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana was launched to connect all villages with roads. I was Rural Development Minister then and was closely associated with this project which was very close to my heart.

During last five years, nearly two lakh kilometers of new roads have been built across rural India under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.

It is praiseworthy that now the government has decided to launch the 3^rd Phase of this scheme. It involves upgradation of one lakh twenty five thousand kilometres of rural roads in the coming five years. In this phase focus will be onthose roads that connect habitations with agricultural markets, schools and hospitals.

For electronic connectivity, the Government is implementing Bharat Net project to connect all Gram Panchayats through high-speed broadband.

Over four lakh kilometres Optical Fibre Cable has already been laid in 1.46 lakh Gram Panchayats.

This project will facilitate the delivery of e-governance, e-health, e-education, e-banking and other services to rural India. We have already seen the impact of JAM (Jan Dhan – Adhar – Mobile)in Direct Benefit Transfer of certain subsidies.

Following the core philosophy of Dr Kalam’s vision of reducing the gap between rural and urban facilities, the Government has launched the Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission (SPMRM). It aims at developing rural areas by provisioning of economic, social and physical infrastructure facilities.

Another idea that finds place in Dr Kalam’s Vision 2020 and Vision 2030 for a livable world is of equitable distribution and adequate access to energy and quality water.

In this regard, it is noteworthy India has achieved landmarks in energy access with every willing rural household provided with an electricity connection under Pradhan Mantri Saubhagya scheme. Only few households are left in four naxal affected districts. Even the International Energy Agency called it as the one of ‘the greatest success stories of the year 2018’.

Similarly, more than 8 crore LPG connections have been released under Ujjawala scheme. This has brought the much needed relief to the rural women who had to spend hours every day in collecting fuel wood.

As far as the quality water supply is concerned, the Government is committed to provide Har Ghar Jal (piped water supply) to all rural households by 2024 under the Jal Jeevan Mission. A new Jal Shakti Mantralaya, has been constituted for integrated and holistic water management.

In his quest for making ‘making planet earth livable’ Dr Kalam called for constantly improving energy efficiency in an integrated way and termed it ‘5th fuel’.

It is heartening that the Government has launched a number of initiatives in the area of energy efficiency. UJALA is a proven example of it. Under this scheme, traditional bulbs were replaced with more power efficient LED bulbs. Under this more than 36 crore LED bulbs have been distributed so far. It is saving 47,000 million units of electricity per year. Similarly more than one crore LED streetlights have been installed in place of traditional ones, saving 7210 million units of electricity per year.

Now the Government is focussing on energy efficiency in the area of air-conditioning. A campaign has been launched to encourage people to run their ACs at 24 degree centigrade. This not only saves energy but is good for health also. I call upon the fellow countrymen to adopt it as a good practice and keep their AC temperatures at 24 degree centigrade.

In his Vision 2020, Dr Kalam dreamt of a nation where the best of healthcare is available to all. Ayushman Bharat Scheme is a step in that direction. This is the “world’s largest government funded healthcare program” targeting more than 50 crore beneficiaries.

Dr Kalam knew that world will not be livable unless every nation is able to give a clean and green environment to all its citizens.

Towards this end, the Government of India has set an ambitious target of installing 175 GW of renewable energy by 2022. Prime Minister has taken lead in establishing International Solar Alliance to harness the power of sun.

Dr Kalam’s sensitivity and love towards nature can be best illustrated by an incident from his life.

Agni was on launch pad and night before the launch was a stressful one. The Defence Minister asked Dr Kalam, “what would you like me to do to celebrate the Agni success tomorrow”?

Dr Kalam thought for a moment and replied, “We need one lakh saplings to plant at Research Centre Imarat (RCI)”.

The next day Agni took off at 0710 hrs and it was a perfect launch.

Kalam earned love and respect from everywhere. Not just in India, but also the whole world.

It was year 2010 United Nations paid him respect by declaring his birthday as 'World Students Day'. Similarly, Switzerland declared May 26 as Science Day in his honour and NASA named a new organism found on International Space Station after the Dr.Kalam.

Speaking about corruption in India, Kalam beautifully stated that the 'reform' has to start from our home itself. Therefore, if a home is corruption free, our village and city will be corruption free, gradually our state will be corruption free and the nation as well.

The ‘Missile Man’ was always a ‘Smiling Man’. He set up the examples of personal integrity in life. He donated his entire presidential salary to a trust named PURA (Providing Urban Amenities to Rural Areas), which was also formed by himself. The list of his good deeds is innumerable and invaluable.

When the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated the Kalam Memorial near Rameshwaram, I had said that APJ Abdul Kalam stands for 'Anything is Possible with Just Attitude and Karma'. He was a true Karma Yogi who continues to inspire the generations.

Let us all believe in and work towards realizing the vision and make India a developed nation.

Thank you.

Jai Hind!

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