MEETING WITH DR.A.P.J ABDUL KALAM

“Dream is not that what you see in sleep, Dream is the thing which does not allow you to sleep” and

“Leave the habit of comparing your skills and features with others, concentrate on the things which improves your own skills”-Dr.Kalam

            6^th February, 2009 is a memorable day for me, my co-fellows and whole Hubli. Whole Hubli people were get vibrated. Personally we met him and took snap with him. This made happy to all of us.

            Dr.Kalam has inaugurated Deshpande Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at B.V.B College of Engineering and Technology, Hubli. After inauguration referring “Vision 2020”, Dr. Kalam said: “All of us have before us a mission of transforming India into a developed nation. The five key areas where India has a core competence for integrated action are agriculture and food processing, education and healthcare, infrastructure, reliable and quality electricity supply, surface transport and infrastructure for all parts of the country, information and communication technology and self-reliance in critical technologies.” Dr. Kalam said these five areas were inter-related and if they progressed in a coordinated way, it would lead to food, economic and national security. “Of the five areas, the major one is development of infrastructure in rural areas through Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas. The number of PURA clusters for the country has been estimated at 7, 000.

He hoped that DCSE and BVB College would take the initiative of forming a “PURA” complex near Hubli. He mainly focused on creative leadership which is essential for economic development and hoped it would create an atmosphere conducive to produce leaders from among the youths of this region. He mentioned Prof.Wangari Mathai, Ottavo Kapachi and S.Ramanujam’s examples to the youths and entrepreneurs. Kalam referred to the success of “Chandrayaan” of ISRO and elaborated on the hard work behind it.

After joining Deshpande Foundation I am feeling that it is very accessible to meet and interact to national and international eminent personalities. I am so grateful to Deshpande Foundation for providing such opportunities. One or the other way DF is trying to bring all the human and financial resources to Hubli and promoting all NGO’s, local bodies, institutions to take best use of them. It’s a great sign of collaborative progress, which was lagging in this region since many years. It is enhancing the capacities to achieve the vision of Dr.Kalam.