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Unit 13: My Vision for India by APJ Abdul Kalam

Kalam was previously frisked by the ground staff of the Continental Airlines at the Indira Notes
Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi in July 2009 and was treated like an ordinary passenger,
despite him being on the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security’s list of people exempted from
security screening in India.
In his book India 2020, Kalam strongly advocates an action plan to develop India into a
knowledge superpower and a developed nation by the year 2020. He regards his work on
India’s nuclear weapons programme as a way to assert India’s place as a future superpower.

It was reported that, there was a considerable demand in South Korea for translated versions
of books authored by him.
Kalam continues to take an active interest in other developments in the field of science and
technology. He has proposed a research programme for developing bio-implants. He is a
supporter of Open Source over proprietary solutions and believes that the use of free software
on a large scale will bring the benefits of information technology to more people.

Kalam set a target of interacting with 100,000 students during the two years after his resignation
from the post of scientific adviser in 1999. In his own words, “I feel comfortable in the company
of young people, particularly high school students. Henceforth, I intend to share with them
experiences, helping them to ignite their imagination and preparing them to work for a developed
India for which the road map is already available.” He continued to interact with students
during his term as a President and also during his post-Presidency period as a visiting professor
at Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and Indian Institute of Management Indore,
Chancellor of Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology Thiruvananthapuram, a professor
of Aerospace Engineering at Anna University (Chennai), JSS University (Mysore), and an
adjunct/visiting faculty at many other academic and research institutions across India.

Popular culture

In May 2011, Kalam launched his mission for the youth of the nation called What Can I Give
with a central theme to defeat corruption. He also has interests in writing Tamil poetry and
in playing veenai, a South Indian string instrument.
He was nominated for the MTV Youth Icon of the Year award in 2003 and in 2006. In the 2011
Hindi film I Am Kalam, Kalam is portrayed as an extremely positive influence to the poor. A
bright Rajasthani boy named Chhotu, has renamed himself Kalam in honour of his idol.

Awards and honours
APJ Abdul Kalam’s 79th birthday was recognised as World Students’ Day by United Nations.
He has also received honorary doctoral degrees from 40 universities. The Government of India
has honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 1981 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1990 for his
work with ISRO and DRDO and his role as a scientific advisor to the Government. In 1997,
Kalam received India’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, for his immense and valuable
contribution to the scientific research and modernisation of defence technology in India.

13.1 My Vision for India

I have three visions for India. In 3000 years of our history people from all over the world have
come and invaded us, captured our lands, conquered our minds. From Alexander onwards the
Greeks, the Turks, the Moguls, the Portuguese, the British, the French, the Dutch, all of them
came and looted us, took over what was ours. Yet we have not done this to any other nation.
We have not conquered anyone. We have not grabbed their land, their culture and their

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