Kalam's dream: An India free of terror, graft in 11 years

 


Former President A P J Abdul Kalam visualises India becoming the best destination for the most talented scholars, scientists and investors by 2020. He feels that in the next 11 years, India could have a responsive, transparent and corruption-free governance.
"I visualise India as a prosperous, healthy, secure, devoid of terrorism, peaceful and happy nation by 2020," Kalam said while addressing engineering and management degree recipients at the Uttar Pradesh Technical University (UPTU) convocation in Lucknow on Tuesday. He was the chief guest at the ceremony.

According to him, by 2020, India is likely to become a nation where education will not be denied to any meritorious candidate because of social or economic discrimination. It could be a nation where there is an equitable distribution and adequate access to energy and quality water, and where agriculture, industry and service sectors work together in harmony. "To achieve these distinctive profiles, we have the mission of transforming India into a developed nation," Kalam said. He added that five areas have been identified where India has core competence — agriculture and food processing; education and healthcare; information and communication technology; reliable and quality electric power, surface transport and infrastructure; and self-reliance in critical technologies.

According to Kalam, in the coming years, professional graduates will have opportunities in the fields of agriculture and food processing, infrastructure, automobile, ship building, information and
communication technology, pharmacy, aerospace, rail-vision and energy independence. "The average speed of trains has to be doubled and a 70-seater jet aircraft has to be designed at a cost of $20 billion in the next 10 to 15 years," he added.

Kalam also motivated the young engineering and management graduates to think why they should be remembered by the coming generations. "What I should be remembered for? It will motivate you to perform your best," he said.

A total of 19,197 BTech, 1,725 BPharma, 102 BArch, 9,647 MBA, 3,862 MCA, 147 MTech and MPharma and 25 PhD degrees were awarded at the convocation. Fourteen gold and silver medals each were awarded to the toppers.

During the ceremony, Governor B L Joshi said: "Keeping in view the scenario of technical education in India, UP being the largest state of the country has to play an important role."

Guest of honour and Minister for Vocational and Technical Education, Sadal Prasad, asked the UPTU to complete admissions, conduct exams and declare results on time.

Indira's secret wish and other stories, by Natwar

Did you know that Indira Gandhi yearned for a daughter, or that veteran communist parliamentarian Hirendranath Mukherjee tried to find out if Comrade Jyoti Basu had accepted money to deliver the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Lecture in 1998?

These and other nuggets of information are recorded in former External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh's book Yours Sincerely, a selection of correspondence between him and eminent public personalities - among them Indira Gandhi, P N Haksar, H Y Sharda Prasad, Vijayalakshmi Pandit, Rajiv Gandhi, E M Forster, Nadine Gordimer and Mulk Raj Anand.

The book, released earlier this month, does not include any correspondence with Sonia Gandhi. But many letters, written by people long gone, remain relevant even today.

In December 1971, Indira wrote: "It is not important what the Chinese think or what they want. What is important is what they do. So far they have kept to the expected line." Nearly four decades later, her advice would still make sense.

In April 1975, with Morarji Desai on a fast demanding elections to the dissolved Gujarat Assembly, Indira wrote to Natwar, then India's Deputy High Commissioner in London: "We have given in to a part of Morarji's demand... It seemed such a silly point for which to fast or for us to hold out... However, our difficulties are acute and varied enough without having a dead Morarji haunting the scene... I was deeply shocked at the manner in which some (Opposition parties) seemed to (claim) that his disappearance from the scene would clear the way for Opposition unity."

Congress leaders grappling with the fallout of their seeming capitulation before the fasting K Chandrasekhar Rao earlier this month would find Indira's reaction insightful.

Some of the correspondence reveals Indira's softer, affectionate side. In January 1970, after Natwar suffered a slipped disc while bending to give his son a teddy, she wrote to him, "Do you remember when the same thing happened to KPS Menon? He had to stand in a very artistic Ajanta pose for quite some time. Now you know the pleasures of fatherhood."

When Natwar's daughter was born, she wrote, "You certainly have done better planning than many of us. My heart has always yearned for a daughter, so I can imagine your joy in Jagat's having a baby sister."

A letter from Hiren Mukherjee demonstrates the CPI veteran's commitment as a public representative.

On January 10, 1999, he wrote to Natwar: "For reasons I can guess but cannot relish, the Jawaharlal Trust got my old comrade of close to sixty years to give the annual lecture (November 1998). I remember in the old days the lecture carried an honorarium of a hundred thousand rupees (plus, expenses, etc.,) which may well have been enhanced. As the only surviving original trustee, I might perhaps inquire (thought I am not doing so - this is a purely personal request) if Jyoti was offered and declined or accepted any such payment..."

There is no indication why Mukherjee decided to contact Natwar instead of asking Basu directly.

The book contains the gracious letter Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wrote to Natwar the day after he resigned in the wake of the oil-for-food scandal. "I have received your letter of 6 December 2005... I have... asked the Rashtrapati to accept your resignation," the PM wrote.

"Under your leadership, the external relations of the country have seen immense progress and we have been able to make giant strides on all fronts. In the last 17 months the prestige and standing of the nation has risen to unprecedented heights on the international plane. Your contribution to the peace process with Pakistan, moving forward our relations with neighbours and in making a historic breakthrough in our relations with the US are indeed praiseworthy accomplishments," he added.

Indians are head-and-shoulders above other immigrants in US: Forbes

Washington, Dec 22 (IANS) Pepsico chief executive Indira Nooyi inevitably tops the list of what Forbes calls 'Eight Indian-Flavoured CEOs' who lead US corporations with revenues of at least $2 billion as the premier business magazine chronicles the rise of Indians in corporate ranks in America.

'The chief executive of PepsiCo would be prominent no matter what. The fact that the current one - Indira Nooyi - is an Indian immigrant (and female, in case you've been living under a rock) makes her all the more noteworthy,' it says.

'It's not a not a surprise that we're seeing Indians rise in corporate ranks,' Forbes quotes Richard Herman, co-author of a book on migrants to the US, Immigrant, Inc, as saying in an article published Monday.

'Of all the immigrant groups coming in today, Indians are head-and-shoulders above others, and this is partly because of their English language skills and also the advanced education that many of them are bringing to the US.'

'Despite these personal success stories the number of immigrants who are leading corporate America, Indian or otherwise, is still a tiny fraction,' according to Forbes. But, says Herman, 'look at where the data was ten years ago and maybe it was zero or one [Indian then].'

Future CEO candidates might want to look for a tough assignment in order to break through, he says. 'Americans are having a tough time dealing with global diversity, Herman adds, ' but just look at who was running the Tarp financial-rescue fund - Neel Kashkari'- an Indian-American who is now joining bond giant Pimco as a managing director.'

Of the featured eight, Nooyi, 53, says Herman, is part of a growing trend where US companies are being created, or led, by foreign-born individuals who bring in something special.

Vikram Pandit, the embattled CEO of Citigroup, is the other prominent native Indian in the corner office.

'Prior to joining the ailing bank he was president of Morgan Stanley's investment banking, fixed income and capital markets businesses and cofounded and was the chairman of a hedge fund, Old Lane Partners,' Forbes notes.

Third on the list is Kenya-born Francisco D'Souza heads Cognizant Technology Solutions, which outsources IT services for its Western world clients.

D'Souza, 40, whose grandparents hailed from Goa in India, joined the company in 1994 when it was founded and within three years had gone up the ranks to become director of North American operations.

Next comes Shantanu Narayen, 46, at the helm at Adobe Systems. The diversified software company's flagship Internet video tool is Flash.

'At least one top boss of Indian descent is plotting a growth strategy,' says Forbes of Quest Diagnostics' head Surya Mohapatra, fifth on the list. Mohapatra has raised $750 million from the capital markets for acquisitions.

Also featured are Dinesh Paliwal of Harman International, Jai P. Nagarkatti of Sigma-Aldrich and Abhijit Talwalkar of LSI.

Paliwal, a native of the city of the Taj Mahal, joined Harman, a sound-systems company in Stamford, Connecticut, as chief executive in 2007. Prior to that he spent 22 years at ABB Group and set up its operations in China and north Asia.

Nagarkatti joined Sigma-Aldrich in 1976 as a development chemist, and after heading the company's scientific research business was appointed COO, in August 2004.

Talwalkar was appointed chief executive of LSI of Milpitas, California, in May 2005. Earlier, he was at Intel's digital enterprise group. He joined Intel in 1993 after stints at Sequent Computer Systems (now part of IBM), Bipolar Integrated Technology Inc. and Lattice Semiconductor Inc.

Mamata's Vision 2020: Trains at 200 kmph, zero mishap rate

Massive addition to its route network, segregation of passenger and freight services into separate double-line corridors, raising the speeds of passenger trains from the current 130 kmph to 160-200 kmph on some routes, zero accidents and equipment failures and setting up of four high-speed passenger corridor are some of the key goals the Indian Railways would try to achieve by the year 2020, as per the 'Indian Railways Vision 2020' document tabled in Parliament by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday.

"The Vision 2020" envisages the Indian Railways to expand its route network at the rate of 2,500 km annually in order to be able to add 25,000 km of new lines (including 11,985 km of pending new line projects) by 2020. Similarly, the Vision sets a target of 12,000 km each for doubling and gauge conversion and another 14,000 km for electrification of lines.

Realising the ever-increasing requirement of rolling stock, the document sets targets of procuring 2.8 lakh wagons, 5,334 diesel locomotives, 4,281 locomotives, and 50,880 passenger coaches by the year 2020. It also states that the Railways should target setting up 50 world-class stations and 2,000-km-long high-speed corridors by 2020.

Estimating the requirement of Rs 14 lakh crore over the next 10 years for capacity creation, network expansion and upgradation, the document also bats for the setting up of Accelerated Rail Development Fund (ARDF) with budgetary commitment to the tune of approximately Rs 5,00,000 crore, spread over next 10 years. "An amount of around Rs 1,00,000 crore of the ADRF could be set aside to clear the pending backlog of socially desirable New Lines and Gauge Conversion projects as a one-time outright grant," the Vision states.