The Hindu : Promote plant culture: Kalam

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 12, 2003

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Other States - Uttar Pradesh

Promote plant culture: Kalam

By Our Special Correspondent

LUCKNOW AUG. 11. The President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, today called upon scientists to make knowledge available to the common man and ensure its utilisation to boost the country's economy.

India had tremendous assets in the form of its human resource and bio-diversity. Proper utilisation of this wealth could go a long way in boosting the economy, he said.

Inaugurating the silver jubilee celebrations of the Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP) here, Mr. Kalam said that during his visits to various States for the past one year he had been amazed at the immense biological wealth that India possessed.

Scientists at institutes such as the CIMAP should promote plant culture through herbal health farms that could be better utilised economically.

Mr. Kalam suggested that CIMAP could set up demonstration units in rural areas to encourage farmers to take up cultivation of medicinal plants, besides continuing with their traditional agriculture practices. They could make additional income this way.

He pleaded for better linkage between the science of herbal medicines and marketing and export. That would require value addition. For optimum utilisation of the research projects at the Institute, biomedicine should be subjected to clinical trials and CIMAP should make proper arrangements for coordination with hospitals for this purpose.

Missile technology

On why India had developed missiles when these brought only destruction, he said India needed them to protect its borders.

He referred to the declaration that India would not make first use of its nuclear weapons against any country.

Scribe roughed up

UNI, PTI report:

A journalist working for a news channel was allegedly beaten up by policemen while rushing to cover the President's visit to a local school here.

Other mediapersons with Ashwini Tripathi here said that as he was proceeding to cover Mr. Kalam's second programme, policemen stopped the journalist's vehicle.

An argument broke out between the securitymen and Tripathi and some Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) jawans lathi-charged the scribe.

Fellow reporters rushed him to a local hospital where doctors detected a possible fracture on his arm.

Cameramen rebuked

Mr. Kalam rebuked electronic media cameramen and photo journalists for obstructing the view of the audience at a function here.

``Sit down. People sitting in the back cannot have a view of the stage,'' he told a battery of photo journalists and electronic media cameramen, who had occupied positions in the front rows at the function.

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Promote plant culture: Kalam