EDUCATION WITH A VALUE SYSTEM.

We have seen that the seeds of peace in the world have their origin in the righteousness in the heart of every individual. Such righteous citizens lead to the evolution of enlightened society. Education with value system has to be so designed that the righteousness in the heart is developed in young minds. That should be the mission of education. The prime learning environment is five to seventeen years of age. This reminds me of an ancient Greek teacher's saying, "Give me a child for seven years; afterwards, let God or devil take the child. They cannot change the child". This indicates the power of great teachers and what they can inculcate in the young minds. Parents and teachers must inculcate moral leadership amongst children. It requires the ability to have insights into the uniqueness and universality of human consciousness. True education is the acquisition of enlightened feelings and enlightened powers to understand daily events and to understand the permanent truth linking man, to his environment, human and planetary.

While I was in college, I remember the lectures given by the highest authority of a Jesuit institution Rev Father Rector Kalathil of St. Joshep’s college, Tiruchirappalli, Southern India. Every week on Monday, he will take a class for an hour. He used to talk about good human beings present and past and what makes a good human being. In this class he used to give lectures on personalities such as Buddha, Confucius, St. Augustine, Califa Omar, Mahatma Gandhi, Einstein, Abraham Lincoln and moral stories linked to our civilizational heritage. In the moral science class, Father Kalathil used to highlight the best aspect of, how the great personalities have been evolved as good human beings through parental care, teaching and companionship of great books. Even though these lessons were given to me in 1950’s during my college days, they inspire me even today. It is essential that in the schools and colleges, lectures are given by great teachers of the institution once in a week for one hour on civilizational heritage and derived value system. This may be called as Moral Science Class that will elevate the young minds to love the country, to love the other human beings and elevate them to higher planes. I have suggested this methodology to educationists in my country. European Union may like to consider evolving a system that would enable a student to imbibe these fundamental traits for the benefit of all.

Now, let me take up the area that is transforming religion into spiritual force. Many in the world believe, it is a difficult mission. I would like to share an experience that I have witnessed which has convinced me that it is possible.

OATH FOR MEDICAL STUDENTS

All medical students must have some of these points in mind and be dedicated to work for saving others life. This was said to the students of government medical students in Trivandrum.
1.I love my medical profession a noble mission.
2. I will follow the motto “Let my care, remove the pain and bring smiles”.
3. I will be a life long learner, I will practice what I learn and I will train my team to be competent.
4. I will deliver quality care with high standards irrespective of whom I am treating.
5. I will not introduce any diagnostic pain.
6. If any patient is unhappy with my treatment, I will find out the causes and treat the patient with utmost care and free of cost.
7. I will work with integrity and succeed with integrity.
8. I will continuously work for complete cure and social acceptance of all leukoderma, HIV AIDS and leprosy patients.
9. I will make my profession, patients my passion and service to patients my obsession.

A NATIONAL VISION IS A MUST TO GENERATE IDEAS

A nation should first have a vision, for it is this vision that will help generate the ideas that will propel its growth. Former President of India, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, said this at the special plenary session on 'Ideas Shaping India' during the first day of the three-day 'Ideas India 2008', being organized in New Delhi by Aspen Institute India.

"Vision 2020 envisages economic development of India by year 2020 by achieving 10 per cent Gross Domestic Produce (GDP) growth maintained at least for a decade," Dr Kalam said while acknowledging that the global financial meltdown, or "economic turbulence" as he termed it, has put an obstacle in achieving this aim within time.

Looking at the positives from India's point of view, Dr Kalam said, "we are slightly safe from economic turbulence because we did not go for complete reforms and Indians have a mind for saving." The negative, according to him was that sales of products have come down. To overcome this, he said, "we have to pump money into the rural economy and fuel prosperity there."

In this context, he stressed on giving impetus to PURA (Providing Urban amenities to Rural Areas) movement. PURA will help in thinning the urban-rural divide and thus help in equitable spread of economic progress in the country, he said. "For me, GDP is an urban notion," Dr Kalam said adding, "and sooner it is translated into what we propose to be a National Prosperity Index, it is better for us." The National Prosperity Index, he said, means GDP rate plus rate of bringing people above the poverty line plus improving the value system of the country. "This would be a true indicator of progress in whole of the country," he said.

Answering a question on spurt in terrorism activities and Mumbai terrorism strike, Dr Kalam said that "strength respects strength. I am of a strong view that we need a UN force for counter-terrorism so that we can react multilaterally to this threat." When evil minds combine, good minds can't be watching, he said adding, "they have to come together."

The former president pointed out three things that people can do to fight the menace of terrorism. "Education to young minds about dynamics of terrorism, bringing elders together irrespective of their religion and being righteous in the heart will go a long way in this direction," he said.

On the front of education, Dr Kalam stressed on giving focus to primary education. "We absolutely need to change the syllabus and system of primary education in our country," he said. "Primary classes should be turned into creative laboratories as that is the time to make change," Dr Kalam said adding, "for this to happen, it is important to train primary school teachers in such a way that they can tap the talent and imagination of children at that level."

When asked by Chairman of Aspen Institute India and CMD of Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Mr Jamshyd Godrej, on how to improve the state of agriculture in the country, Dr Kalam said the "way forward is cooperative farming, better technology, multi-crop system and better marketing." Agreeing that the agricultural sector needs to improve to fulfill the needs of the country, he said that there is an urgent need to go for better soil management, seed management, water management and pre- and post-harvest management. "All have to go hand in hand for things to improve," he pointed out.

On being asked by Vice-Chairman of Aspen Institute India and Chairman and CEO Avantha Group, Mr Gautam Thapar about his experiences as the President of India, Dr Kalam said that he realized that "under the Constitution, the President of India has tremendous amount of accountability and unlimited latent powers." Rashtrapati Bhavan for me, he pointed out, is the People's Bhavan.

A GENIUS WELL AHEAD OF TIME:FAILURE DID NOT DETER HIM

Ramanujan, born and raised in Erode, Tamil Nadu, first encountered formal mathematics at the age of ten. He demonstrated a natural ability at mathematics, and was given books on advanced trigonometry by S. L. Loney. He mastered this book by age thirteen, and even discovered theorems of his own. He demonstrated unusual mathematical skills at school, winning many awards. By the age of seventeen, Ramanujan was conducting his own mathematical research on Bernoulli numbers and the Euler–Mascheroni constant. He received a scholarship to study at Government College in Kumbakonam. He failed his non-mathematical coursework, and lost his scholarship. Srinivasa Ramanujan lived only for 33 years and did not have formal higher education or means of living. Yet, his inexhaustible spirit and love for his subject made him contribute to the treasure houses of mathematical research – some of which are still under serious study and engaging all-available world mathematicians’ efforts to establish formal proofs. Ramanujan was a unique Indian genius who could melt the heart of the most hardened and outstanding Cambridge mathematician Prof G H Hardy. In fact, it is not an exaggeration to say that it was Prof. Hardy who discovered Ramanujan for the world. Professor Hardy rated various geniuses on a scale of 100. While most of the mathematicians got a rating of around 30 with rare exceptions reaching to 60, Ramanujan got a rating of 100. There cannot be any better tribute to either Ramanujan or to Indian heritage. His works cover vast areas including Prime Numbers, Hyper geometric Series, Modular Functions, Elliptic Functions, Mock Theta Functions, even magic squares, apart from serious side works on geometry of ellipses, squaring the circle etc. One of the tributes to Ramanujan says that, ‘every Integer is a personal friend of Ramanujan’. He was elected a Fellow of The Royal Society (F R S) in 1918.

So friends you saw, how great creative minds, gave problem to the problems to succeed through the instrument of knowledge.

NECESSITY OF HOSPITAL INFRASTRUCTURE.

WHY WE NEED A GOOD INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE HOSPITALS. LET ME SAY WHY?.............In 1979, a six member team was preparing the flight version of a complex second stage control system of SLV-3 for static test and evaluation. The team was in countdown mode at T-15 minutes (15 minutes before the test). One of the twelve valves did not respond during checkout. Anxiety drove the members of the team to the test site to look into the problem. Suddenly the oxidizer tank, filled with red fuming nitric acid (RFNA) under pressure, burst, causing severe acid burns to the team members. It was very traumatic experience to see the suffering of the injured. My friend Kurup and I rushed to the Trivandrum Medical College hospital and begged to have our colleagues admitted, as six beds were not available in the hospital at that point of time. The hospital had to erect clean tents to admit and treat the burn injury patients. I am giving this example to show the importance of identifying and nominating hospitals who have adequate availability of beds for treatment of burn injury cases while dealing with the safety of particular chemical manufacturing unit in a given region.

INDIAN MISSIONS IN THE NEXT DECADE.

1. Agriculture and Food processing: Increase the productivity into 3.4 times and concentrate on Food processing and marketing.
2. Infrastructure: Apart from rural and urban infrastructure, one million homes have to be built with energy efficiency and water efficiency.
3. Automobile: The export has to be 50% of our output
4. Ship Building: High Dead weight ships have to be built in the country.
5. Information and Communication technology: We have to keep pace with the growth inspite of global recession by applying ICT for India.
6. Pharma: India must account for atleast 25% of generic drug produced worldover.
7. Aerospace: 70 seater passenger jet aircraft has to be designed and developed involving 20 billion dollars of market
8. Railvision: Railway length has to be increased, metros have to come for faster transportation and multi-level station systems have to become operational to reduce city crowding, average speed of the train has to be doubled.
9. PURA mission: 7000 PURA complexes have to become operation to bring sustainable development to the rural sector.
10. Energy Independence: By 2030, we should attain energy independence through renewable energy sources such as solar and wind; nuclear and bio-fuels for transportation.

ENERGY

As the President of India, when I addressed to the nation in 2005, I have set a goal of realizing Energy Independence (coming out of fossil fuel) by the year 2030. When our population may touch 1.4 billion people, demand from power sector will increase from the existing 130,000 MW to about 400,000 MW. This assumes an energy growth rate of 5% per annum. Electric power generation in India now accesses four basic energy sources: Fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal; Hydroelectricity; Nuclear power; and Renewable energy sources such as bio-fuels, solar, biomass, wind and ocean. One of the important research areas will be to increase the efficiency of photovoltaic cells from the existing 15% to 50% within the next three years and make the commercial version available in five years time.SO PLZ FRIENDS SAVE ENERGY ......

SOME BRIGHT THOUGHTS FOR DEVELOPING THE NATION

1 I will bring a change in the life of 100 women in education, employment or healthcare.
2 I will promote among women courage and self reliance in every walk of their life.
3 I will work continuously to remove dowry, girl child feticide and crime against women and children.
4 I will promote among citizens, righteousness in the heart that will blossom into beauty in the character.
5 I will light the lamp of knowledge in the nation and ensure that it remains lit for ever.
6 I will work with integrity and succeed with integrity.