India, Safrica can turn world into peaceful, prosperous place:Kalam

New Delhi, Sep 27 (UNI) President A P J Abdul Kalam today said India and South Africa can transform the world into a peaceful, prosperous and happy place to live in.

''This will be the greatest progress after human evolution,'' Dr Kalam said in his 2006 Phillip Tobias Lecture, delivered through a Multimedia Teleconference from Rashtrapati Bhavan to Johannesburg.

Describing Prof Tobias as a world authority on human evolution and analysis of early hominid fossils, the President discussed the possibility of creating near disease free, economically prosperous and peaceful society.

This could be achieved through a triangular approach -- creation of clean green environment, promotion of 3-D (Three Dimensional) life style approach to healthcare coupled with genetically engineered drugs and evolution of enlightened citizens.

Explaining the 3-D life style, he said the discovery of genes and the nature of chromosomes through the human genome project had led to the conclusion that each human being studied, has nearly about 30,000 genes. The most challenging programme was the proteomics programme, which called for characterisation of proteins from every gene.

This would lead to the research and development and production of genetically engineered drugs and could open a new field of pharmaco genomics and customized medicine.

These advanced drugs and other medical interventions could definitely improve the quality of medicare available to patients considerably. However, experimental evidence showed the importance of favourable lifestyle for realising long term disease free life of the humanity.

Such a three dimensional approach to healthcare would be a significant evolution of healthcare philosophy and could be applicable for the treatment of diseases including HIV/AIDS, cancer, diabetes and many other chronic diseases, he said.

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