Development politics road to developed India: Kalam

Chennai, Feb 23 (UNI) President A P J Abdul Kalam today visualised India becoming a developed nation even before 2020 if it worked in an integrated manner, focusing on development politics.

Delivering the convocation address at the Madras Christian College at suburban Tambaram here, he said ''If we perform in an integrated way with development politics as the focus, in mission mode with transparency, I visualise even before the year 2020, a prosperous India is possible.

''We expect people Below the Poverty Line to come to near zero and our literacy must be nearly 100 per cent. The Human Development Index of India will be less than 50 against the present 127 and every Indian will have either a good university degree or quality training with globally competitive employable vocational skill,'' he added.

Dr Kalam said e-governance would be possible for all Government to Government (G2G) and Government to Citizens (G2C) transactions, making the governance system transparent with National ID card in position.

The tele-density would reach over 75 per cent and all villages would have reliable, uninterrupted quality electric power supply.

Dr Kalam said interlinking of rivers and water bodies and use of technology for water collection, recycling and management would result in equitable distribution of water for drinking, irrigation, industry, navigation and as natural beauty.

''There will be no shortage of water in any part of the country nor there will be disasters due to floods and water logging, while India will have realized energy security and be working towards energy independence,'' he added.

He said through responsive and innovative venture capital systems and entrepreneurial training both in schools and colleges, India will have more enterprises leading to large number of employment generators rather than employment seekers.

Everyone would have an opportunity to take up and complete courses of choice in higher education, he said and added that with the capacity built by the Madras Christian College, the students would be able to become partners of many of the missions leading to developed India by 2020.

UNI