Re: [India_Vision_2020] Dr Abdul Kalam's inspiring speech to IAS officers on 16th June 2009 ~ India Vision 2020

Dear Srinivasan,

Thanks for such excellent minutes of Speech of our Honourable Ex- President of India Dr. Abdul Kalam. Please continue on the effort which is vluable for us.

With Regards,

Dillip

On 6/17/09, Prime Point Srinivasan <prpoint@gmail.com> wrote:

dear friends

Dr Abdul Kalam has addressed 2007 batch of IAS officers at Mussoorie yesterday (16th june 2009). Please read the text of his speech, which is highly inspiring.

In his speech, he has asked a very important question to the IAS officers. "What you will be remembered for"? The same question applies to all of us also. Please read further.

Srinivasan
Moderator

Address to the 2007 batch of the IAS Officer trainees Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy, Mussoorie, 16 June 2009

Integrated efforts by Collectors and District Administrators vital for national development

Ignited mind of the youth is the most powerful resource

on the Earth, under the Earth and above the Earth.

      Friends, I am delighted to be with you all, the young IAS Officers, who will soon be taking important assignments in the national scenario.

       I remember my own younger days in Rameswaram when the whole village used to look with awe the "Collectors". The post of collectors first created in 1772 as the focal point of revenue administration, has gone through several transformations over the years. I have always perceived the role of Collectors as integrators, who understand the total chain of development from policy to beneficiary. They particularly provide the last mile connectivity to development facilitating enhanced quality of life to the citizens. During my professional career and now, I have come across many distinguished IAS officers, and particularly many energetic, passionate young collectors and commissioners, who have impressed me with their skills and result orientation. With such a pride of place, what else can be the guiding spirit of young IAS officers other than being a partner in realizing the vision of the nation. So young friends, you have a well designed goal in front of you and you can make a difference to the nation through your performance. My greetings to all of you.

      As I see your bright eyes with a deep desire to perform, let me visualize a scenario in a remote North Eastern PURA (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) cluster in about three years. Being a hilly area, with physical infrastructure still coming up, the tele-education and telemedicine enabled by ISRO is considered a great boon by the empowered youth and children. The research work done by CSIR laboratories for converting the local resources into products for use by the local population and exporting them is greatly welcomed by the local population. The richness of the north-east craftsmanship is supported by technologists for increasing their productivity and aesthetic qualities. The village knowledge centres set up in collaboration with IT, Space and NGOS add value to the earning capacity of this place. The Earth Sciences and Department of Science and Technology with their research in bio diversity, climate research have used the cluster as a working platform for mutual benefit. The Agricultural Ministry has enabled the scientists to work with local farmers to bring innovations in agriculture. The Dept of Bio-technology has enhanced the production of silk from silk worm through the application of bio-nano-technology. The new and renewable energy sources department has paved the way for bio fuel and solar power. The tourism department has modernized the infrastructure and multiplied the Indian and foreign tourists visiting northeastern states. The energy of the young professionals from Indian Institute of Management and other institutions adds to fresh innovative ideas of entrepreneurship. The web site of the PURA gratefully presents this successful experiment of public-private-citizen partnership. And these remarkable accomplishments are made possible by the district administration led by one of you, by transparent governance and community friendliness, with the maximum use of technology and with the effective coordination among citizens, technologists, people representatives and state government organs, And I see similar situations in several rural clusters in different parts of the country.

      Hence the topic I have selected for discussion today is "Integrated efforts by Collectors and District Administrators vital for national development".

      Friends, yesterday I studied the IAS training canvas. After the foundation course, you have undergone IAS professional course-I. Subsequently, you have had the benefit of state and district training which included study of the villages and your analysis. Through this process, I am sure, you have become fully aware of, what are the problems and challenges in the district. Now, in the second phase, you will reflect on and synthesize the knowledge and skills so far acquired. My talk today is designed to provide certain pathway for you.

      Friends, I have structured my talk in five parts. First part, I would like to discuss with you, what type of mission or the task, each one of you will be remembered for. I will give certain suggestions. Each one of you will have to evolve. In the second part, I will present a visualization of India by the year 2020 and the integrated action needed. In the third part, I will give few case studies in agriculture, education, healthcare and the IT sector which will help you when you face some problem in your district. In the forth part, I will explain, how integrated rural development is possible through a system called PURA (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas). Actually the PURA indeed is a very important mechanism for progressing India towards an economically developed nation. Another important area, I would like to highlight is about the necessity of "National Campaign for Eradicating Terrorism". During the presentation of these four areas, I will be highlighting certain relevant experiences, so that, you will know the progress and problems in the national development process. In the last seven years, I have met 5 million youth and many more experienced. I have seen that the people of the nation can be inspired, motivated and committed to work only through a Vision for the Nation. In conclusion, I will talk about the transformation in thinking process of the youth which has occurred in a decade. Today, youth have reached a stage to say "I can do it". This is a very important foundation for the nation.

What you will be remembered for?

      I visualize a scene "What the IAS officers of 2007 batch will be remembered for?" Will you be remembered for a visionary action for the nation? Some of the suggestions for you, are:

Will you be remembered for becoming the pioneer in increasing access to water by operationalizing all the existing water bodies by desilting and establishing the links and generating the new water bodies.

Will you be remembered for giving leadership to interlinking of rivers in the nation?

Will you be remembered for revitalizing or revolutionizing in your district, the integrated Primary Healthcare Centre as a Public-private-partnership?

Will you be remembered for working and creating a scheme in partnership with agriculture research institutes, extension workers and farmers for doubling output of food-grains in your district and thereby increasing the per capita income of each of the farmers?

Will you be remembered for ensuring that dropout from schools in your district reaches virtually to zero through your innovative actions?

Will you be remembered for making your district a fossil fuel free district? That means, villages in your district will transformed into bio-wind-solar villages.

Will you be remembered for the action oriented – "Clean home, clean villages and clean district, that will lead to clean state and clean nation?

There is a Lead India 2020 Movement in the country where the school students (10+2) are being trained by teachers on good way of life, importance of hard and honest work and parental care. It has tremendous influence on the youth. Will you be remembered for spreading this movement in your district?

Will you be remembered for establishing number of PURA complexes (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) in your district? This will provide physical, electronic and knowledge connectivity leading to economic connectivity that is enhanced earning capacity of the rural citizens.

      Some of you would be taking up, the leadership role in the crucial areas of national development. Above all, you will agree with me, all the above events we should realize based on the principle "work with integrity and succeed with integrity".

Evolution of vision 2020

      Let me share with you my experience in mid 1990's on formulation of Indian vision 2020 strategies. I was given the task of chairing Technology Information Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC). I recollect, that in the first meeting of the Council itself, we took a decision that TIFAC must evolve a plan how India can be transformed into an economically developed nation by the year 2020. When the suggestion was mooted everybody was wondering how we can evolve such a long term mission under the then prevailing economic and social conditions of the country. That was the time; the then Prime Minister had just announced the economic liberalization and growth measures for the Indian economy and its impact had just started being felt.

          In spite of this, the council with many young members jumped into the idea and we discussed for one full day on how we can translate the thought into action. At a time when the economy was growing at around 5 to 6% per annum in GDP we had to envisage a growth rate of at least 10% per annum consistently for over 10 years for realizing the development vision of billion democratic people of multi lingual, multi religious and multi cultural characteristics. This really ignited the minds of all of us in the council. The members of TIFAC Council at that time included: Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Nine Secretaries to the Govt of India, Chiefs of CII – ASSOCHAM and FICCI, Chairman of IDBI – ICICI - IFCI, Chairman of Public Sector of Corporations and Chief Executives of number of Private Sector Institutions, Vice Chancellors of different Universities and Scientists from DST. We debated and arrived at 17 task teams with over 500 members who had consultations with over 5000 people in various sectors of the economy. Committees worked for over two years resulting in 25 reports which we presented to the then Prime Minister of India on 2 Aug 1996. I have selected 5 Task Team reports for your study and it will be available in your library. The reports included Vision on areas such as agro-food processing, advance sensors, civil aviation, electric power, waterways, road transportation, telecommunications, food and agriculture, engineering industries, healthcare, life science and biotechnology, materials and processing, electronic and communications, chemical process industry, services, strategic industry and driving forces - impedances. Transforming India into a developed nation implies that every citizen of the country lives well above the poverty line, their education and health is of a high standard, national security assured and core-competence in certain major areas enabled production of quality goods competitively including for exports, bringing all-round prosperity for the countrymen. This event led to the birth of the book "India 2020: a Vision for the New Millennium". Based on various inputs, the government announced the vision statement that India will become a developed nation by 2020. Such a statement is very rare, since every government is elected only for a period of five years and thinking of over 20 years time frame by the Parliament and the government set a new precedence for the country. Now let me present the current ambience of the nation.

Current Ambience in India

      Indian economy was growing at an average of 9% per annum till the last year. Now this year, Indian economy has got affected due to global economic turbulence. I had discussions, on this subject, with experts at IIM Ahmedabad during my teaching assignments. It came to light that the Indian economy will be less affected due to the world financial crisis. This is due to (i) The liberalization process in India has its checks and balances consistent with the unique social requirements of the country. (ii) The Indian banking system has always been conservative which has prevented the crisis (iii) The Indian psyche is generally savings oriented and living within means is part of the mind set. These three causes have reduced the effect of global turbulence in the Indian economy. However, there is reduction in export and reduction in outsourcing. The drop in annual growth rate of GDP could be around 2 to 3%. This is the time we need innovation in our thinking to rejuvenate the agricultural sector particularly through value addition and the small and medium scale industries and enterprises for making higher levels of contribution to the GDP, particularly in the Agriculture, integrated Rural development through PURA (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) which I will be discussing later. I foresee possibilities of creating new markets through rural potential and employment, giving rise to interesting possibilities of Public-Private-citizen partnerships. Your innovative ideas will be called for creating such partnership in the fastest mode with effective results.

      Friends, I would like to present you a visualization of India by or before 2020. There are ten missions, you will find during your assignment as a district functionary, with challenges, therefore great opportunities for you to contribute in most of the missions.



Visualization of the nation in 2020

A Nation where the rural and urban divide has reduced to a thin line.
A Nation where there is an equitable distribution and adequate access to energy and quality water.
A Nation where agriculture, industry and service sector work together in symphony.
A Nation where education with value system is not denied to any meritorious candidates because of societal or economic discrimination.
A Nation which is the best destination for the most talented scholars, scientists, and investors.
A Nation where the best of health care is available to all.
A Nation where the governance is responsive, transparent and corruption free.
A Nation where poverty has been totally eradicated, illiteracy removed and crimes against women and children are absent and none in the society feels alienated.
A Nation that is prosperous, healthy, secure, devoid of terrorism, peaceful and happy and continues with a sustainable growth path.

10. A Nation that is one of the best places to live in and is    proud of its leadership.

Integrated Action for developed India

      To achieve the distinctive profile of India, we have the mission of transforming India into a developed nation. We have identified five areas where India has a core competence for integrated action: (1) Agriculture and food processing       (2) Education and Healthcare (3) Information and Communication Technology (4) Infrastructure: Reliable and Quality Electric power, Surface transport and Infrastructure for all parts of the country and (5) Self reliance in critical technologies.

National Development Scene

      I am confident Indian capability exists for realizing the India Vision 2020 profile. How do I say this? It is born out of my experience in my professional career of last 50 years, where organizations with integrated thinking have achieved state-of-the-art systems. What is now required for India Vision 2020 profile "Management for the billion", what it can be? That means we have to create innovative management systems and creative leadership in every segment of development so that missions planned are completed in a time bound manner to the full benefit of every citizen of the country. All aspiring administrative professionals have great opportunities and challenges. Let me now describe some case studies in agriculture, health and education. I will also present an integrated rural development experience with focus on employment generation.

Agriculture

      In the agriculture and farming sector, more than doubling the productivity of Rice and Wheat in areas near RP Channel-5 in Bihar has been achieved through the TIFAC mission using innovative integrated farming and marketing methods. This has been achieved by agricultural scientists working with Paliganj farmers. These results have spread to many areas through people's efforts and are applicable to the whole of Bihar, Eastern Uttar Pradesh and other areas which have similar agro-climatic conditions. These regions could be transformed into the granaries of India.

      I have come across similar success stories in respect of doubling seed cotton productivity in Punjab, when I visited Gheri Buttar village, where I met farmers. Also in the field of sugarcane cultivation, in Maharashtra, the intervention of the   Vasant Dada Patil Sugar Institute, Pune has enabled farmers to increase the yield of sugarcane by 36 percent. This experience can definitely be emulated by other sugarcane growing States. Our private sector has also made significant progress in food processing industries, whereas there is a need for Rural Farmers' Cooperatives in partnership with banking institutions, on the pattern of the Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Limited. I have seen during my visit to Mizoram in the North Eastern States, almost every house is being equipped with self-contained water harvesting systems, which provides adequate water supply through out the year. These success stories clearly indicate that it is feasible to enhance food-grain output from the existing 230 million tonnes per annum to nearly 360 million tonnes per annum before 2020. This will also help in drastically reducing the number of people living below the poverty line - a true indicator for an economically developed nation. Now I would like to touch on water harvesting.

Project Siruthuli – revitalizing a water body

      This is an initiative started by Coimbatoreans for Coimbatoreans in Tamilnadu. This ecological project aims to bring back the glory of Coimbatore and its rich heritage. The project is represented by people from all walks of life and professionally organized. The primary focus is on large scale rain water harvesting, afforestation, sewage / waste water treatment and solid waste management. They have already standardized five of the nine primary tanks in Coimbatore for large scale rainwater harvesting. They have planted trees on the bunds of the de-silted tanks and are being maintained. They have planted over one million trees. The comprehensive study has indicated outlet of the city sewage as 10 million liters per day. A pilot plant is being taken up for sewage treatment to treat one million liters per day. The treated water is being used by agriculturists and industrialists. The garbage and debris to the extent of over 26,000 cubic meters in one of the city's largest tank have been removed. This model can be replicated throughout the country.

      The message I would like to convey here is: "The farmers, agriculture scientists, social reformers, industry and the institution worked together had doubled the food production in simply managing the existing environment with system oriented approach in agriculture".

Education

      Now I will discuss certain innovative models in the education sector which I have seen. They use creative learning methodologies that emphasize learning by doing including cultivation of hygiene, nutritional and sanitary practices. One such programme is being conducted by Dr. M.R. Raju and his team in Pedamiram, Andhra Pradesh. Dr. MR Raju's work attracted the villages citizens to send their children for schooling in large numbers.

      At the primary and secondary school level, Government Municipal Schools in Karnataka have introduced the accelerated learning model using computer based animated courses. This was pioneered by the Azim Premji Foundation which has brought down dropouts from schools substantially. NCERT has prepared the National Curriculum framework under Prof. Yashpal's leadership (Great communicator of science) and modified the CBSE syllabus for promoting creative education at all levels through the application of learning by doing concept. Teachers training programmes based on the new syllabus of CBSE, has been organized across many cities using EDUSAT through video-conferencing. Thousands of teachers have been trained so far through interaction with experts sitting in the NCERT Studio in New Delhi.

      I witnessed the Ladakh Model of Sarva Shiksa Abhiyan increasing the pass percentage at the 10^th class level from 5 percent in 1998 to 50 percent in 2005 with the aim of promoting creative learning leading to higher percentage of passes in the Phase II programme. I have asked them to increase the pass percentage to 80% by 2009. The Akshya Programme of the Kerala State Government is imparting computer education to 6 lakh adults and advanced computer training programme for 60,000 youth within a two year period leading to high value employment for the youth in Malapuram District. Now it is spreading to all the other districts of Kerala.

      E-learning Content: I would like to share with you highlights of CII-Shiksha (www.shikshaindia.org) which is a free programme helping schools and teachers use technology for their teaching and learning. The Shiksha movement aims to help teachers to not just use readymade content but also become resource creators. More than 3000 schools have been provided the Shiksha content. Over 10000 teachers have access to the free Shiksha content. During the last 8 months over 1000 teachers have been trained in various Open Source e-teaching based software and this number is growing. The free Shiksha Portal, can be accessed from this web portal: www.eshikshaindia.in, I also inaugurated a similar programme called Sakshat. This programme is specially designed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development to help the students to learn that entire syllabus of 10+1 and 10+2. The online answering system for the questions by students. You may access this from www.sakshat.ac.in.

In higher education, a pioneering effort by the Universities of Madras, Mumbai and Kolkata with the help of the Ministry of Human Resource Development has resulted in the creation of a Virtual University system by offering ten joint degree programmes at under-graduate, post graduate and Ph.D. levels. In the higher education system throughput has to increase from the existing 6 percent to 30 percent by 2020. I am very confident that such initiatives, when applied across the country in the total education system will enable us to realize near 100 percent literacy and employable skills among youth, leading to a Knowledge Society by the year 2020.

The message is:

The total literacy in the country and empowerment with world class skills and higher education will need intensive Public-Private-Partnership".
The right to education bill has to fructify leading to the provision of free and compulsory quality education to all children up to the age of 14.
We need to give quality school input to get quality higher education output.
For building a knowledge society – primary education is the important foundation, which needs a unique institution for focusing creativity for primary education with intensive training to the teachers.

Creation of Global Human Resource cadre

      I visualize the nation to have two national human resource cadres: (1) knowledge professionals with higher education to take up leadership roles in research, development, education and industrial missions and (2) skilled youth with specific world class technical skills. This global human resource will meet the needs of quality human resource for India and for the whole world. It is a big and challenging mission for the district authorities.

Quality healthcare for all

      Let me now narrate some of the innovative initiatives in medical care for the unorganized sector. During the last three years in Karnataka, a unique corporate healthcare medical scheme is in operation, under the leadership of doctors of the Narayana Hridyalaya in partnership with the Karnataka Government. This is benefiting over two million members, like farmers, craftsmen, artisans, and small vendors. Members of this scheme, who pay a nominal subscription of Rs. 10/- per month per individual, receive full medical treatment for major ailments, major surgeries, entirely free of cost. Such medicare scheme for people below poverty line has been introduced in state like Andhra Pradesh. One of the challenges for medical care is making the PHCs to work which are distributed in the rural areas. How the Karnataka model of the healthcare scheme can be spread in all the parts of the country is indeed another important challenge for the nation.

Medicare with compassion

      I have come across a number of humanitarian missions giving free treatment to the poor, among them for example the Little Heart Foundation for children's heart ailments, Care Kidney Foundation for kidney ailments at Hyderabad and the Paterson Cancer Centre at Chennai for cancer treatment. There are several other initiatives of this nature showing the indomitable spirit of doctors, nurses and para-medical staff. For example, Karunya Nilayam has initiated the process of screening of children in rural areas of Kerala so that they can provide total treatment to over a hundred cancer affected children every year free of cost. The Arvind Eye Hospital, Madurai provides free treatment to 70% of the patients. We need to multiply such ventures to enable every citizen of the country to receive quality healthcare. As a spin off from India's missile technology, came light weight calipers. These calipers have been field proven through a number of camps, spearheaded by the Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad. This has so far benefited more than 10,000 polio affected children across the country. Mobile clinics are being increasingly deployed in the remote areas of Uttaranchal and other hilly regions for providing quality diagnostic and healthcare services to needy villagers. Space technology has been extended to the healthcare sector. 34 specialty hospitals have been connected through ISRO's tele-medicine network and are providing tele-medicine services to over 140 remote locations all over the country.

      The message I would like to convey here: "Innovative management models in healthcare services are required to outreach the medical services to the people with affordability and quality".

      Next let me focus on the IT Sector.

IT sector

      In the financial year 2008-09, the IT exports have crossed US$ 47 billion. The total revenue including domestic market is 60 billion dollars. We have to find a faster growth of this sector which will need creation of an environment for nonlinear growth which is essential for targeting 20% of the total world IT spend (from the $1 trillion) from the present 4% share of IT and ITES Indian companies. Strategies are required to be worked out for realizing such a growth within the next 3 to 5 years by young leaders like you who will be joining the industry very soon. This can be done through innovation and creativity for transforming India into a knowledge economy.

      Many State Governments are in the process of implementing e-Governance services and creating State Wide Area Network across their States. I am happy to say that the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology has invested around Rs. 24,000 crore for establishing an e-governance network and Government to Citizens Services across the country within four years time. It also includes establishing of 100,000 common service centers. Through capacity building, job opportunities, better consumer protection laws and secure infrastructure, ICT would enable economic growth to higher levels of prosperity in India.

      The message I would like to convey here is: "IT sector has to graduate into Knowledge System powerhouse". It will result into value added products and systems with innovations.

Integrated rural development through PURA

      Next let me focus on the sustainable development model for the rural areas where 70% of the people live in 600,000 villages.

      Periyar PURA (Tamil Nadu): I have inaugurated the Periyar PURA Complex pioneered by Periyar Maniammai College of Technology for Women, Vallam, Tanjore consisting of a cluster of 65 villages having a population of over one lakh. This model PURA complex has all three Connectivities - physical, electronic and knowledge - leading to economic connectivity. This has resulted in large-scale employment generation and creation of a number of entrepreneurs with the active support of 1150 self-help groups. Two hundred acres of wasteland has been developed into a cultivable land with innovative water management schemes. Villagers are busy in cultivation, planting Jatropha, herbal and medicinal plants, power generation using bio-mass, food processing with dedicated marketing centers. This model has emanated independent of any government initiative. I have also seen the other PURA models like the Loni PURA in Maharastra, the Chitrakoot PURA in Madhaya Pradesh and the Byraju PURA in Andhra Pradesh. Byraju PURA has enabled the reverse migration of ICT BPO professionals from Hyderabad to Beemavaram. It has also enabled empowerment unemployed youth with quality skills. These experiences can be emulated nation wide. We need 7000 PURAs all over the country. This movement can be multiplied by thousands of entrepreneurs, educational administrators, small-scale industrialists and bankers with the support of government agencies providing total economic prosperity to rural India by 2020.

      The message here is: PURA is an integrated sustainable rural development programme with the focus on employment generation through rural entrepreneurship by providing physical, electronic, knowledge and economic connectivity. PURA is a tool for bridging the Rural – Urban divide.

      Dear friends, now I would like to discuss, for uninterrupted economic development peaceful environment is essential. Particularly terrorism or other extremist movements have to be managed effectively. While I believe, when we focus on the intensive inclusive economic development which is one of the deterrents for terrorism, we have to strengthen the mechanisms for tackling the terrorism effectively. Recently I have given a solution, it is called mission NCET.

National Campaign for Eradication of Terrorism (NCET)

      I realize that the all forms of extremism have to be condemned. To sustain the economic progress of the nation and to achieve of India Vision 2020, assured safety and security of the people is of paramount importance. I have been thinking of the agony of the people who have experienced, particularly the kith and kin of families who were directly affected by extremist actions. The dynamics of the intelligence should be understood in the right sense at the right time by the intelligence agencies and nip it in the bud.   Information collection has to be followed in multi-pronged approach through manual, remote observation, movement of information floating through internet and media. Vulnerabilities need to be identified by an unified approach. Disjointed intelligence reports will not serve the purpose. Hence we need a unified and empowered intelligence mechanism with task forces under a single roof at the centre which will act in a mission mode to tackle the terrorism.

      I believe, time has come, apart from our multiple agencies forecasting and handling of the terrorist activities, we need to evolve an aggressive Mission called National Campaign to Eradicate Terrorism (NCET), with mission oriented integrated management structure, duly passed as a Bill by the Parliament.

      Under the NCET Bill, we need to bring out the following:

Creation of unified intelligence Agency across the country, empowering them to deal with the State and Central Government intelligence agencies under one roof of administration with the latest technological tools and devices.
Enact a law which will provide stringent punishments and faster justice to the perpetrators of the crime in a time bound manner.
Create a sense of awareness among the people to work together in identifying these incidents and eliminating these tendencies with transparent procedures to inform the intelligence agencies and work with intelligence agencies to combat the terrorism.
Implement National Citizen ID card for all the transactions with the Government services, Business services and private services at the earliest.
Equitable National development for inclusive growth: Central and State Governments should reorient their administrative mechanisms to ensure that the development reaches all sections of the society equitably for achieving inclusive growth and ensure that none in the society feels alienated socially, economically and politically.

      I am suggesting the evolution of NCET Mission to be around action oriented people of highest integrity and competence drawn from multiple functional areas, including students and faculty members from universities committed to the vision of NCET to eradicate terrorism as a time bound mission. We must do this with a great sense of urgency for "When evil minds combine, good minds have to work together to combat". Hence the mission of NCET.

Conclusion

      Dear friends, I have seen day by day how the India Vision 2020 definitely inspires particularly the youth of the nation. Now I recall a situation in 1990 beginning when I was interacting with the youth of Ahamedabad, one girl asked me "When I can sing a song of India?" The same spirit echoed everywhere during that time. But during the last 3 years, while interacting with the youth, I could hear a different voice. "What can I give to the nation?" But today, during the last one year, I have seen yet another transformation among the ignited minds of the youth that the spirit of "I can do it". What a great transformation in the young minds and the experienced people of India. So the boundary conditions for development are in place. I am sure, dear students of my class, definitely you can become partner in the national development with the message that "I can do it", "We can do it" and "India will do it".

      Friends, for us to fulfill the vision of developed India 2020 as a prosperous, safe and noble nation following the best traditions of democracy, the integrated efforts at district administration is crucial. You have thus a great opportunity. My best wishes to all of you in all your endeavours towards this goal.

      Dear friends, now I would like to recall the Maharishi Patanjali of Yoga Sutra, who said: "When you are inspired by some great purpose some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds: Your mind transcends limitation, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be."

      My best wishes to all the participants of 2007 batch IAS Officers success in their national development mission.

      May God Bless you.

Oath for IAS trainees

I will work for bridging the rural and urban divide of my district.

I will make my district 100% literate during my tenure.

I will ensure that the quality healthcare is available to every citizen of my district and MMR (maternal mortality rate) and IMR (infant mortality rate) will be below 10 per thousand.

I will ensure, value added non-farm jobs are available to rural citizens depending upon their qualifications and experience.

I will ensure that all the water bodies in the district are desilted with proper inlet and outlet connections and the water bodies are interconnected.
I will ensure equitable access of water and energy to all the citizens of the district and I will make my district a green district using maximum renewable energy.

I will ensure that my district is a transparent and crime free district.

I will ensure that the farmers in my district get quality seeds, quality fertilizer and quality pesticide in-time alongwith the knowledge of best technology for farming to ensure constant increase in productivity.

I will make my district a model district where there will be reverse migration from urban areas.

I will work with integrity and succeed with integrity.