The Hindu : Fight poverty, Kalam tells scientists

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 08, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

Fight poverty, Kalam tells scientists

By Our Staff Reporter

The President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, handing over the Braille version of his autobiography `Wings of Fire' to a visually challenged girl, Swathi, in Hyderabad on Saturday as the Governor, S.S. Barnala, and the Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, look on. — Photo: Satish H.

HYDERABAD JUNE 7. The President, A.P.J.Abdul Kalam, has called upon scientists to fight poverty, which he termed as the "nation's enemy'' and a "great challenge'' to them.

Speaking at the B.M.Birla Science Prize distribution function here on Saturday, Dr. Kalam stated that fighting the poverty status of 260 million people of the country should be a task engaging the attention of the best scientific minds.

Simultaneously, the President counselled scientists to work for the nation's growth, development and prosperity even while striving to spot the best talent.

Dr. Kalam recalled that during the period between 1925 and 1935 when the country was under foreign rule, there were five top scientists who worked very hard against the enemy, the British. "When we have an enemy (to work against) we get good scientists,'' he quipped.

Elaborating his advice to scientists to spot talent, he recalled the role played by his `guru,' Vikram Sarabhai, who went on to do pioneering work in space research. "His unique quality was to spot the best (in a particular field),'' he said, adding "there can be no bar at education level of the person with talent.'' Dr. Kalam observed that science could flourish only when people nurtured it, and laid stress on convergence of different technologies and the role of teaching and research which "mutually complement and enrich each other.''

The President gave away the B.M.Birla Science Prizes to seven of 13 awardees for the years 1998, 1999 and 2000. The awardees were: Srinivasan Natarajan (chemistry), Associate Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Raghavan Varadarajan (biology), Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Indranil Biswas (mathematics), Associate Professor, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Gattamraju Ravindra Kumar (physics), Associate Professor, TIFR, P.N.Rangarajan (biology) and C.S.Rajan (mathematics).

The Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, described Indian scientists and NRIs involved in the information technology field in the West as the best in the world.

Mr. Naidu expressed happiness that students from Andhra Pradesh were doing well in the BITS and international qualifying examinations. He noted that whenever Dr. Kalam interacted with youngsters it would go a long way in helping the country achieve the vision of a developed nation by 2020.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

Stories in this Section

Fight poverty, Kalam tells scientists

Dream, dream and dream, students told

1 killed in Tirumala ghat road mishap

Cong. fears Azad's visit may be ill-timed

Innovation key to knowledge society: Kalam

Withdraw support to Centre, Cong. MLAs tell Naidu