IIM should motivate students to opt for politics: Kalam

Ahmedabad, Oct 26: The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, must motivate its students to opt for politics as a career, says former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

"IIM, Ahmedabad, should ensure that many of its students take politics as their career. When I ask youth whether they want to become IAS officers, many raise their hands, whether they want to become engineers, many raise their hands, if they want to go to Mars, all of them raise their hands. If I ask someone whether they want to join politics, then no one is interested," Kalam said here in a speech Saturday evening.

In his speech on 'Nation, Challenges and Leadership' at the IIM(A) campus, Kalam said youth alone can bring transparency, prosperity and leadership in the Indian polity.

Citing an example of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Kalam said what makes ISRO's space efforts excel is its dedicated team of scientists, engineers and technical staff.

He said a few areas where India has it core competence for integrated action include agriculture and food processing; education and healthcare; information and communication technology; infrastructure; reliable and quality electric power, road and surface transport and necessary quality infrastructure and PURA (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) for sustainable rural infrastructure development.

"These areas are closely inter-related and have to be progressed in a coordinated way to lead to food, economic and national security," Kalam said.

"The Indian GDP is growing at an average rate of eight per cent per annum, while the economists suggest that to remove poverty of 220 million the growth has to be 10 percent per annum consistently for over a decade. One of the components through which the rural-urban divide will be bridged is PURA," Kalam said.

Enumerating Indian scientific advancements in space with the recent launch of Chandrayaan I, he said the country presently has the capacity to build up to 90,000 DWT (deadweight tonnage) ships. "We will have three shipyards soon that will help build 100,000 DWT ships. India will also have trains traveling at 200km/hour," he predicted.