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The Smart Techie was renamed Siliconindia India Edition starting Feb 2012 to continue the nearly two decade track record of excellence of our US edition.

June - 2007 - issue > In My Opinion

The Road Ahead

Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam
I am delighted to participate in the IISc Global Conference 2007, which provides a forum for collaborative interaction among the Institute, its alumni, academic institutions and industry. I am confident that this conference will lead to build a long-term partnership between Institute and its alumni and usher in the next phase of the IISc. My greetings to all the alumni of IISc and distinguished participants.

…Challenges of 21st Century
Friends, IISc has been a premier education and research institution in the country for science and technology and one of the leading institutions in the world. How will this institute meet the challenge in the coming century? Based on my visits to all the States and Union Territories in the country and 16 countries in Asia, Europe and Africa as the President and meeting over 1.5 million youth, I realize that all the youth irrespective of which country they belong to, aspire to live in a peaceful, happy, prosperous and safe nation. What does it mean? It means that economic prosperity alone is not sufficient. It has to be complimented with the value systems and our five thousand years old Civilizational heritage which has genetically shaped the Indian people. I personally believe, when the nation is progressing towards economic development, it is also essential to build education with value system drawn from our Civilizational heritage. The good human life comes out of the way we live; we may have series of problems. But the billion people have the connectivity which gives us the united strength. To meet the challenges of such missions for the nation, I visualize the Indian Institute of Science have to have the vision for the next few decades. The components of the vision could be:
(a) Creating undergraduate education as part of the IISc programmes which will enrich the teaching and research.

(b) IISc has to be known for its pioneering research at least in five areas of science and technology.

(c) Conceiving and conducting a special programme on convergence of technology at the graduate, post-graduate and Ph.D level with continuous update.


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