New Delhi, Aug 23: It couldn’t have been better timed. Two days after the Parliament debate on the no-confidence motion that was high on rhetoric, low on content, President A P J Abdul Kalam has sent a reminder to all Members of Parliament on what they need to do the country’s emergence as a developed nation. Called ‘‘Towards Vision 2020,’’ the document is a compilation of presentations made before MPs Kalam had breakfast meetings with from March-May this year.
The document, given to each MP yesterday, comes exactly a week after his Independence Day address to the nation where he said that building temples and mosques was hardly the legacy by which future generations will remember the present one.
According to ‘‘Vision for a Developed India,’’ the first section of the document: ‘‘The Tenth Plan is a very vital period for us as it has to lay the foundation for this journey of transformation by initiating mission projects that will impart economic strength to the nation. And in this task, all of us have a special role to play and especially our MPs, whose inspiring leadership and positive contribution can become a role model for the young minds of the country.’’ Without running them down for their political and ideological differences, Kalam exhorts MPs to be creative leaders who can command change and transformation. ‘‘One of the very ingredients for success of the vision of transforming India into a developed nation by 2020 is the evolution of creative leaders. The higher the proportion of creative leaders in a nation, the higher the potential of success of visions like ‘developed India’.’’
According to Kalam, there has been no substantial progress after the First Vision that got us freedom. ‘‘Now more than 50 years have gone by since we got independence. Yet we are counted among the hundreds of developing countries...We need the Second Vision for the nation to become developed.’’
His vision primarily focuses on India’s villages. The outline of his integrated development model for national, food and economic security hangs on the five inter-related areas of agriculture and food processing, education and healthcare, infrastructure, information and communication technology, and, critical technologies and strategic industries.
And that inter-play addresses the issue of rural wealth and prosperity. To improve the quality of life of the billion-plus population, majority of whom reside in villages, the President fleshes out the details of his PURA (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) model that would also remove urban congestion.
The model, introduced in his joint address to the Parliament, envisages annular ring-shaped habitats integrating 8-10 villages within a 60 square km area.
Better access to cut transportation time, high bandwidth connectivity to bring them into the national fold and provide education, healthcare and impart economic dynamism to the rural areas are the high points of his vision.
‘‘A knowledge society, leading to the development of a knowledge superpower, can prosper and survive only in the environment of economic security and internal security...Such a model of establishing a circular connectivity among the rural village complexes will accelerate rural development process by empowerment,’’he concludes.
To that end, networking of the rivers would not only ensure flood and drought control, but also provide better availability of drinking water, power generation, navigation and cross-country transportation along the countryside.
‘‘This mission will also provide greater employment opportunities to the rural population.’’