Preface
Nations consist of people. And with
their effort a nation can accomplish all it could ever want. Motivating
India's people, and its youth especially, is the central theme of
Ignited Minds, which continues the trajectory of thoughts taken up in
my earlier two books, Wings of Fire and India 2020: A Vision for the
New Millennium, written with my friends Arun Tiwari and Y.S. Rajan. I
have chosen to write about this subject of igniting young minds so that
India turns into a developed nation by the year 2020 because all
through my career in the field of technology and its management, I
relied on the power and potential of youth. My strength has been my
young teams who never let me down. And what satisfaction there was in
working with them on some of the most complex projects in some of the
most challenging situations! Given the freedom to achieve and guided
properly, I am convinced the young of India can accomplish far more.
As I began writing, I wondered if I was not
overreaching myself. I thought: Who am I to write about this capacity
of India to realize its destiny as a developed nation? What do I really
know about how this can be accomplished beyond what I have learned in
my projects and missions evolved around science and technology? Isn't
this an area that political leaders, economists, thinkers and other
competent people would address better? How am I qualified to tell
others about an ability that has been generally ignored?
At first as I was putting down my experiences with
youth, I had no idea of what I would have to say. However, I put aside
my doubts and began to examine what I hear from the people I meet
during my visits to different places, particularly children, saints and
seers, teachers, scientists, industry leaders and even political
leaders. I am sure on my part that India has the ability to transform
itself into a developed nation. Through my projects in space, defence
and nuclear sectors, I know that our people have the ability to achieve
the best in the world. They have a fantastic mix of belief and
knowledge that sets them apart from any other nation on earth. I also
know that their potential has gone untapped because we have become used
to being subjugated and docile. What better project can I undertake
than to tell my people that what they dream of can become possible,
that they can have anything that comprises a good life: health,
education, the freedom to pursue their goals, and above all, peace.
My quest for answers as to how this could be done took
me to schools, the countryside, ashrams and many other places which
were not part of my itinerary earlier. It was a new kind of experience,
a very stimulating one at that. The paddy fields in Bihar left to an
ad-hoc cycle of agriculture, the untapped mineral wealth of the newly
formed state of Jharkhand and the unattended biodiversity of Tripura,
throwing a great challenge to the knowledge era that is dawning. In
Assam the sight of the mighty Brahmaputra almost mesmerized me. Its
vast expanse of water filled me with a strange sense of helplessness
too-the river's untapped flow was taking a gigantic mass of water into
the sea. It made me think, that as a nation too we were failing to
utilize our tremendous energies.
Where are we making a mistake? What is it that needs to
be corrected? We have a roadmap in our five-year plans that covers
some of the things we need to achieve. We have most of the necessary
resources. There seems to be an attitude problem, as if we cannot shake
ourselves out of a mindset of limited achievement. This book is all
about breaking away from the forces that would prefer us to remain a
nation of a billion people selling cheap labour and raw materials and
providing a large market for goods and services of other nations.
I am writing this book to make my young readers hear a
voice that says, 'Start moving.' Leadership must lead us to prosperity.
Young Indians with constructive ideas should not have to see them
wither in the long wait for approval. They have to rise above norms
which are meant to keep them timid in the name of safety and to
discourage entrepreneurship in the name of trade regimes,
organizational order and group behaviour. As it is said, Thinking is
the capital, Enterprise is the way, Hard Work is the solution.
Every nation has struggled to achieve its goals.
Generations have given their best to make life better for their
offspring. There is nothing mysterious or hidden about this, no
alternative to effort. And yet we fail to follow the winning track.
More than the problems outside-globalization, recession, inflation,
insurgency, instability and so on-I am concerned about the inertia that
has gripped the national psyche, the mindset of defeat. I believe that
when we believe in our goals, that what we dream of can become reality,
results will begin to follow. Ignited Minds is about developing that
conviction in ourselves, and discarding the things that hold us back.
This was, in fact, a central thought that I kept in
mind as I wrote. Share my dream of a developed India and see it made
real in your own and others' lives. In my own way, I have tried to
follow my beliefs, to do what I loved doing. I have tried, however, to
guide but not to impose my views on others.
You will find in this book plain speaking: Surge ahead
as a developed nation or perish in perpetual poverty, subservient to a
few countries that control the world politically and economically.
There are no other alternatives.
In the nine chapters of this book, I take up various
themes. I begin with a rumination on peace, without which there can be
no progress, and on the shift in the direction of my own life that
occurred after surviving a helicopter crash. There is a chapter based
on my interaction with children allover India. Other chapters contain
the insights I gained in my meetings with saints and seers, scientists,
outstanding thinkers and others. There are accounts of some promising
experiments in agriculture and in the medical field. Elsewhere I deal
with concepts that carry the seed of solutions. The contents
essentially come from the people of this nation, from what they have
taught me.
I have written this book as an expression of my faith
in the potential of India and my countrymen. We have all the resources
we need, whether it be people, talent, natural bounty or other assets.
India is truly blessed with a real, though latent, abundance. Scarcity
of resources is not the cause of our problems. Our problems originate
in our approach towards them. We are spreading our resources too wide
and too thin. With our resources and the money we spend we could easily
accomplish three times what we do, in half the time we normally take,
if we were to operate in mission mode with a vision for the nation. The
vision generates the best in every field.
We must change tracks. It is imperative that our policy
making become more responsive and efficient so that the stifled
entrepreneurship is liberated. Key to that is better coordination among
the various departments, rather than emphasis on priorities according
to the preferences of individual departments. There are more reviews
than views available. Every channel appears blocked by some obstacle or
the other. The trapped energies and the suppressed initiative need to
be freed and properly harnessed. Nor do we particularly need every time
to borrow models from elsewhere. I don't think the American, Japanese
or Singaporean solutions will work for us. Knocking at others' doors
will be futile. Instead of importing theories and transplanting
concepts we need to grow our own solutions. Instead of searching for
answers outside we will have to look within for them.
I hope that when you go through these nine chapters you
will be given the guidance that I got from the people of my country
and feel connected to the wisdom that is so special to this soil. The
reality of a developed nation will become part of your daily life.
Twenty years from now I may not be around. But I am sure many of you
will be there to share in the glory of success and agree that I was
right in being so confident.
Many friends and associates helped me put this book
together. I am grateful to them all. My special thanks to Mr Y.S.
Rajan, and Dr M.S. Vijayaraghavan for shaping my thoughts with their
vital inputs. Dr- A. Sivathanu Pillai has worked with me for a long
time and his contribution has been both timely and invaluable in giving
shape to ideas and thoughts. I am fortunate to have his friendship. I
am grateful to Mr H. Sheri don who directly keyed in my dictations into
his laptop computer with outstanding skill. My co-author in Wings of
Fire, Mr Arun K. Tiwari, did his usual craftsmanship with words on the
manuscript and I appreciate every bit of that. It was a great pleasure
to work with Mr Krishan Chopra of Penguin Books. From the - emanation
of my thoughts to the book's realization, his constant interaction was
of great support.
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
Contents
Acknowledgements (viii)
Preface (ix)
1. The Dream and the Message (1)
2. Give Us a Role Model (21)
3. Visionary Teachers and Scientists (40)
4. Learning from Saints and Seers (70)
5. Patriotism beyond Politics and Religion (100)
6. The Knowledge Society (119)
7. Getting the Forces Together (138)
8. Building a New State (159)
9. To My Countrymen (179)
Epilogue (190)
Song of Youth (196)
References (197)
Index (199)
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