Students must have a vision for the country and should be change agents, said A. Sivathanu Pillai, Managing Director, BrahMos Aerospace, at the Lead India 2020 programme, held in association with the SNR Sons Charitable Trust, in Coimbatore on Sunday.
Most often the students, while at college, have the zeal to work for the country. They lose the same when they take up jobs. It should not be so, he said and urged the students in the gathering to continue to nurture the passion to work for country’s development.
Mr. Pillai also asked the students to not nurture defeatist mindset, found mostly among India’s youth. Rather than talking about poverty, corruption, etc., students should talk about ways to address challenges and overcome obstacles. Once that was done, poverty and other things would automatically disappear.
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Students should also look at ways to empower the nation through science and technology.
On India’s missile development programme, he said the Missile Technology Control Regime had come as a blessing for the scientists who had to develop indigenous technology.
They took it as a challenge and built missiles, putting top on the list of nations with such technology. Such a mindset was what was expected of students.
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V. Ponraj, scientific advisor to A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, spoke about green revolution. Actor Dhamu, C. Soundara Raj, Managing Trustee, SNR Sons Charitable Trust, C.R. Swaminathan, president, Lead India 2020 Foundation, M.N. Padmanabhan, Secretary, Lead India 2020 Foundation, and J. Sathish Kumar, coordinator, Lead India 2020 Foundation, were also present at the occasion which saw the launch of the Lead India 2020 National Club at Sri Ramakrishna College of Arts and Science for Women.