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| Picture taken on 20th October, 2008 at IIIT Hyderabad. |
Following is a mail that I could find from digging into my archives. {Reproducing as is}
The mail is a summary of the class that Dr. Kalam had taken for some of the students at IIIT-H. The pillars mentioned summarize the vision, the great man had, for the future of this country. Let's all work towards those as a tribute to him. We still have 5 years left on our watch.
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Hello everybody,
It is in the common knowledge of us all that Dr. Kalam took a class yesterday. Throughout the class, there was a highly motivating discussion and those who attended the class thoroughly enjoyed it. I was one amongst the lucky "those". For the benefit of those who didn't get to attend the class, I act as a volunteer and here under present a summary of the proceedings in the class.
This was Dr. Kalam's third lecture as a distinguished faculty of IIIT Hyderabad. This lecture was a follow-up of the last lecture in which groups of 6 were formed and an assignment was given to each of those. Each group was given the task of analyzing a pillar out of the 10 pillars visualized by Dr. Kalam in the distinctive profile of India by the year 2020. The groups had to then come up with good suggestions and solutions for the problems in achieving the same. The main stress was on how IT products can assist in the accelerated realization of the 10 Pillars of visualization of the profile.
The pillars are as follows:
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, devoid of terrorism, 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.
There was a healthy discussion and everyone present participated actively and showed a great deal of enthusiasm. The students came up with many ideas during the same, some of them being interesting, others innovative and the rest quite ambitious. Each and every idea that emerged from the enlightened minds was given good thought and was open for discussion to all. A couple of ideas were good and practical and were appreciated by Dr. Kalam.
One of them was in context of the 2nd point mentioned above. Most of the people today remain awake till late in the night and get up late in the morning too. This serves as a double whammy as more electricity in the form of tube-lights, lamps etc. is consumed in the night while they are wide awake, and in the form of air conditioner and fans in the morning while they are still fast asleep. So, the idea proposed was that if people improve their way of living, that is to say if people adopt the early to bed and early to rise policy, then a lot of electrical energy will besaved, paving the way for villages to have adequate access to electricity.
The other was in context of the 7th point mentioned above. The idea was to build an All India Information Network which involves a centrally connected system further divided into 28 sub divisions which in turn, terminating to a computer in every village. Thus, people in any nook and corner of the country will be able to easily register their complaints to the authorities.
Apart from the aforementioned points, many other innovative ideas proposed were appreciated by Dr. Kalam who seemed quite impressed. He promised that the ideas proposed were not just for the sake of discussion and that he would surely try to forward them to the concerned authorities and bring them into implementation.
Following this discussion, Dr. Kalam gave a lecture on “Transformation from Software Powerhouse to Knowledge System Powerhouse”. The highlight ofthe lecture was an illustration of how Indian IT industry can provide a step input for the growth of ICT sector in the next ten years.
This was a sincere attempt on my part to cover the minutes of the class. Hope I have succeeded in the same.
The complete lecture can be accessed at Dr. Kalam’s website.http://www.abdulkalam.com/
If you want to share something in this regard or add anything to the above mentioned points, please mail your thoughts to kalamclass.iiith@gmail.com
Thank You,
Nikhil ******
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PS: I was part of the group that worked on the 7th pillar.
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