Former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has urged the representatives of Lead India 2020 Foundation to create more change agents among school and college students of the country. Mr. Kalam, who is the chief mentor of the foundation that is based on the vision of India becoming a developed nation by 2020, was in the city on Saturday to address 845 change agents of four schools, who hade been trained in the concept of developing self to develop the nation.
The Foundation, which has made its presence felt in five states — Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, and Maharashtra, had so far trained over two million change agents.
The three-year old foundation of Tamil Nadu had so far used college students under the train-the-trainer mode to make change agents out of school students. The various programmes of the Foundation were supported by GE Volunteers.
“Andhra Pradesh has the highest number of change agents and is a role model for other centres to follow suit. The foundation should to strive to reach out to children who have dropped out of school to make them change agents. The seeds that are being sown now will help in realising the big dream in 2020 of making India a developed country,” Mr. Kalam said.
C.R. Swaminathan, president of the Foundation, said it aspired to cover all 640 districts in India to involve youth in building the nation.
J. Jagan Mohan Reddy, national coordinator of the foundation, Hyderabad, sharing the success story of Andhra Pradesh, which had been possible with good financial support from the Government, said the movement would be spread across the country in a phased manner. The ‘Desh Ko Badao’ programme would be implemented in all high schools, a Bharat Ratna School would be established one in each district, and urban amenities would be ensured in rural areas.
G. Latha, Corporation Commissioner, and L. Balaji Saravanan, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Economic Offences Wing, besides others, were present.
