Five Eventful Years

"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 livingabroad, after working with you and completing five beautiful and eventful yearsin Rashtrapati Bhavan. Today, it is indeed a thanks-giving occasion. I wouldlike to narrate, how I enjoyed every minute of my tenure enriched by thewonderful association from each one of you, hailing from different walks oflife, be it politics, science and technology, academics, arts, literature,business, judiciary, administration, local bodies, farming, home makers, specialchildren, media and above all from the youth and student community who are thefuture wealth of our country. During my interaction at Rashtrapati Bhavan inDelhi and at every state and union territory as well as through my onlineinteractions, I have many unique experiences to share with you, which signifythe 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 alittle girl Anukriti of Sri Sathya Sai Jagriti Vidya Mandir School, of Darwavillage 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 year2020". I appreciated the question and said it was indeed a thoughtful questionand assured her that that her dream would be taken to the highest institution ofthe nation and we would work for it to achieve before 2020. This questionreflects how the desire to live in developed India has entered into the minds ofthe youth. The same feelings are echoed by over fifteen lakh youth, whom I havemet 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 Indiashould be the guiding factor in whatever profession we contribute. 

Empower Villages

Friends, I recall my visit to Nagaland on 26th October 2002, soon after myassuming office as President. It was a unique experience for me at Khuzamavillage to meet tribal village council members and discuss with them the villageprogress and the dream of village citizens. I was very happy to see theempowered village council functioning with financial powers and takingdecisions. I saw a prosperous village with fruits and vegetables production.However, there is a need for providing physical connectivity in Nagaland throughquality roads for enabling faster movement of products from villages to themarket. That meeting gave me a powerful message about the transformation whichcan take place to the 600,000 villages of India, if all the villages areempowered to deal with their development and are well connected among themselvesand with the urban societies. 

Mobilizing rural core competence for competitiveness 

Now I would like to talk about the initiative of Periyar Maniammai College ofTechnology for Women, Vallam, Tanjore of Providing Urban Amenities in RuralAreas (PURA) complex involving 65 villages with a population of 3 lakhs. Thisincludes 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. Thishas resulted in large-scale employment generation and creation of number ofentrepreneurs with the active support of 1000 self-help groups. Two hundredacres of waste land has been developed into a cultivable land. The villagers arebusy in cultivation, planting Jatropha, herbal and medicinal plants, powergeneration using bio-mass, food processing and above all running marketingcenters. It provides a sustainable economic development model for the wholeregion. 

During the last eight months, people of Periyar PURA villages technologicallysupported by Periyar Maniammai College of Engineering for Women have worked withexperts from Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) on various products, forwhich core competence and raw material are available in Thanjavur district. Theydeveloped internationally competitive prototypes for 55 life style products withsupport of JETRO specialists and feedback from exhibitions at Delhi and Tokyo.This co-operative venture has enhanced the innovative ability of the people ofall the 65 villages enabling them to develop and produce internationallyacceptable products. I have seen similar type of PURA being established in manystates. The whole country needs 7000 PURA to bridging the rural – urbandivide. 

Seed to Food: Backbone for agricultural growth 

Let me now share with you, the enriching experience I had, while meeting morethan 6000 farmers from different States and Union Territories visitingRashtrapati Bhavan. They evinced keen interest in the Mughal Gardens, the HerbalGardens, the Spiritual Garden, the Musical Garden, the Bio-diesel garden and theNutrition Garden and interact with the Horticultural specialists. Recently,during my address to the agricultural scientists while participating in aNational Symposium on "Agriculture Cannot Wait", I summarized the manypractical suggestions given by farmers. We have to double the agriculturalproduction with reduced land, reduced water resources and reduced manpower andimprove the economic conditions of the nation through the principle of "Seedto Food" since agriculture is the backbone of the nation. We should empowerthe farmers to protect and nurture the fertile land for second green revolution.Meeting the Scientists and the Farmers has given me the confidence that thenation is poised to increase the agricultural GDP growth by atleast 4% per annumthrough the partnership of farmers and agricultural scientists and industriesparticularly for value addition. 


Defeat the problems and succeed

On the evening of February 24, 2007, at Coimbatore, I had a very beautifulexperience. As I got ready for meeting the first person out of twentyappointments, a wheel chair was in sight with a smiling person probably in hislate fifties; unfortunately he has no hands and legs. His radiant face wasrevealing his happy state of mind. He introduced himself as Vidwan Shri SRKrishnamurthy. I greeted him and asked him how this had happened. He smilinglysaid that it was from by birth. He thanked God, his parents, teachers and manyothers for giving him confidence, training and help. I asked him, what I coulddo for him? He said, "I don’t need anything from you. I would like to singin front of you". I readily agreed. He sang melodiously the SaintThyagraja’s pancha ratna kriti entharo mahanubavulu in Sriragam giving me aglimpse of his talent. I was quite touched. What is the message? Despite beingphysically challenged, the latent talent of music could blossom in this personwith his positive attitude and perseverance, encouraged by the parents,teachers, academics and rasikas. Now he wants to give, give and give his art toinspire others. Of course, by his merit of music, in July 2007, he performed inthe Rashtrapati Bhavan art theatre. 

Overcome the impact of disaster through partnership

I had the opportunity to experience the Indomitable Spirit of the people andchildren of Jammu & Kashmir even as they were just recovering from thedevastating earthquake in 2005. I visited Urusa village on 26th November 2005which has been adopted by the Western Air Command, Air Force for providingrelief and medical aid to the residents of that area. When I went there, I foundthat the school building had been severely damaged. I met all the schoolchildren and the village citizen of Urusa. The villagers apprised me of theirlosses and had all praise for Army and Air Force role in rescue and reliefoperations along with state government. I appreciate the courage of the peopleof Urusa in defeating their problems. They have actually become the master ofthe problem rather than allowing problems to become their master. Despite thesevere loss due to the earthquake, the children and the members of the villageparticipated in the relief operation with the Armed Forces bravely and weresmiling when I went to meet them. They interacted with me and said that theschool was functional in the temporary tents. Here, I also witnessed theparticipation of acting Chief Justice of Jammu & Kashmir along with StateGovernment authorities in on-the-spot settlement of relief grants to be providedto the victims whose houses had been damaged in the earth quake. I haveexperienced many such acts of courage from our citizens when faced with severechallenges. 

Courage in combating calamities 

In 2005, I met the Tribal Council Leaders, Students, Children of Chuckchuchavillage during my visit to Car Nicobar Islands. While various reconstruction andrehabilitation activities were in progress, during the discussions with themembers of tribal council, I realized the unique trait among the Car-Nicobarislanders. Even though there were many human losses due to the Tsunami of 26 Dec2004, the tribal islanders had taken possession of affected victims as theirchildren and there is nothing like orphanage in Car-Nicobar Islands. Touched bytheir courage, I composed few verses called "Sea Waves" which reads asfollows: 

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 andexhibited lots of courage and enthusiasm even though they had gone throughsevere 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 andintegrated satellite, fiber optics and wireless network connecting 53 Africancountries at an estimated cost of US $ 100 million. 

As part of the project 12 universities (7 from India and 5 from Africa), 17Super Specialty Hospitals (12 from India and 5 from Africa), 53 tele-medicinecenters and 53 tele-education centres in Africa will be connected. The pilotproject on tele-education and tele-medicine in Ethiopia has already beencommissioned. Indira Gandhi National Open University has taken up the MBA Coursefor 34 Ethiopian students of Addis Ababa and Harmaya Universities. As regards,tele-medicine, the specialists from CARE Hospital, Hyderabad are providingone-hour live tele-consultation to doctors in Black Lion Hospital, Addis Ababain Cardiology and Radiology since November 2006. Using the Pan African networkthe Heads of the State in all the 53 countries will be connected for instantcommunication. I am extremely happy that Indian experience in bringing thebenefits of technology to the people has enabled us to work with Africa to bringsocietal transformation in the African continent. 

Defending the nation: Our pride 

I visited KUMAR in Siachen Glacier located at 17,000 feet altitude held by theIndian Army, had a memorable underwater journey in INS Sindhurakshak and flew ina Sukhoi-30 fighter experiencing 2.5 g. In these three experiences, I personallyfelt proud of our ever vigilant Soldiers, Sailors and Air Warriors performingtheir tasks beyond the call of their duty even in the most adverse circumstancesnatural and man made. During the last five years, I had an opportunity topresent colours to many regiments, participate in number of passing out parades,meet the troops who were going to undertake peace missions and interact with thefamily members of our Defence Forces. Our Defence Forces are in a beautifulmission. When the nation sleeps during night, Members of our Defence teams areawake to guard us and remain vigilant to counter any threat. The Nationcherishes the valour, commitment and devotion to duty of our Defence Forces.Similarly, I had opportunities to interact with members of our para-militaryforces, central and state police personnel including internal security forceswho are making immense contribution in augmenting the safety and security of ourcitizens under difficult conditions. 

Youth movement for Developed India 2020 

Recently, in Hyderabad, I met a group of citizens who are putting into practicethe motto of transforming of our youth into enlightened citizen. The Lead India2020 Foundation created by Dr. N.B. Sudershan at Hyderabad is training thousandsof students in many districts of Andhra Pradesh in partnership with the DistrictAdministration. Particularly, I happened to know the transformation which hastaken place among the students of Medak district. As per the districtauthorities the impact of the training on the students is visible in terms ofself-discipline, love for their parents and teachers shedding of stage fear andrecognition of their duties towards the nation. I talked to Ms. Padma, a studentleader from Andhra Pradesh Tribal Welfare School, Nalgonda who related how sheweaned her father away from smoking after imbibing the spirit of the 10 pointoath from the Lead India Training Camp. This gives me an assurance that theyouth of our country are on the right path through this mission orientedprogramme. 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 andabove the earth, we have to empower the youth through value based education andleadership. 

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 citedthese examples just to give a glimpse of the richness of our tradition andeffort being taken by different agencies to preserve it. There are also many newadventures by institutions and individuals. I have experienced many of them andlearnt a lot about my country and our people. Even while pursuing our economicgrowth, we need to do a lot to preserve the rich and diverse treasures of ourculture and civilization. It is our duty for our future generations. This has tobe done in a much larger scale through countrywide participation of multipleinstitutions. Our country is blessed with natural resources, has shownconsiderable progress in the last sixty years, and above all we have hardworking 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 adeveloped nation well before 2020. Whomsoever, I met they constantly ask whatthey can give to the nation. We should constantly strive to empower such membersof the society. With this spirit, I am extremely happy that we are on the rightpath. 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 aimgreat, 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 missionsof 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 toenergy and quality water.
3. A Nation where agriculture, industry and service sector work together insymphony. 
4. A Nation where education with value system is not denied to any meritoriouscandidates 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 andcrimes against women and children are absent and none in the society feelsalienated.
9. A Nation that is prosperous, healthy, secure, peaceful and happy andcontinues with a sustainable growth path.
10. A Nation that is one of the best places to live in and is proud of itsleadership.

Finally let me thank each one of you for showering your love and affection on methroughout the last five years by your cooperation and support. 

Dear Citizens, I conclude my address by sharing with you my mission in lifewhich is to bring connectivity between billion hearts and minds of the people ofIndia in our multicultural society and to embed the self confidence that "wecan do it". I will be always with you, dear citizens, in the great mission ofmaking India a developed nation before 2020. 

May God bless you. Jai hind.