SUMMARY OF SPEECH BY APJ ABDUL KALAM

Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, former President of India, visited IIT MADRAS and
addressed the students and interacted with the students and faculty of the
institute. In the speech he talked about how technology and innovation could
empower the nation. With innovations that could be brought about with the
convergence of the bio, info and Nano technologies, many new avenues in
science and technology were already open and appropriate uses of these
innovations could lead to effective solutions to many problems that plague the
country and the globe.
Dr. Kalam narrated how he was nudged and inspired by one of his professors at
Madras Institute of Technology, he, along with some other students, succeeded
in designing a low flying aircraft with the limited technology and tools available
in the 50’s. Citing this example, he underscored the importance for
engineering students to master system design, system integration and system
management. He reminded the students of the importance of being the captain of
the problems rather than the problems being the captain, which would help them
in solving problems of any magnitude and succeed in life.
Dr. Kalam urged the students, many of whom are first time voters, to vote
for good candidates and he even made them take an oath that they would cast
their votes in the upcoming general elections.
Replying to a question on ‘brain-drain’ asked by a student, Dr. Kalam said that
it was not a serious problem for India as the country generated three
million engineering and medical graduates annually and only less than five
percent of them went out of the country for the acquisition of knowledge and
wealth. Both the knowledge and wealth acquired in this way would come back to
the country eventually and so there was no need to worry too much about the
trend. Replying to another question on the secret behind his professional success,
he said that success did not have any specific meaning and doing small things like
teaching the illiterate people or just planting a few trees to reduce the carbon di
oxide levels in the atmosphere could be considered as personal success. He urged
everyone to plant more number of trees . He also talked about food insecurity that
we are facing on a daily basis. At last , he told everyone in the hall to email their
questions on his email address as he was running out of the time.

LINK: https://youtu.be/DhdUj_5PAX4