Vision to make country developed made me President: Kalam

Bhopal, Dec 18 (UNI) Former President A P J Abdul Kalam today said he was elected to the post due to his vision to make the country a developed country by 2010.

Dr Kalam stated this while replying to a question by a student at the Bhopal School of Social Sciences here.

Responding to a query, he admitted that reservation system had become a symbol of inequality. However, it could be abolished only when backward sections get more opportunity for education and the numbers of seats in every sphere of education was increased.

On whether life existed on other planets, Dr Kalam said, ''It is possible and maybe no distinction exist between them and us.'' Speaking about migration from the country, the former President said he did not regard it as a challenge with universtities in the country churning out 30 lakh students every year but only 10 per cent migrating abroad.

Dr Kalam said the US, China and India were regarded as silicon countries in the world.

Regarding challenges of global warming, he said India had large reserves of thorium. Thorium, nuclear energy and bio-plantation were sources that could prevent this danger.

UNI