Free Turning Points by A P J Abdul Kalam

gave directions that this proposal should be reviewed and urgent corrective action should be taken by the army dairy farms.
    On another occasion, while I was presenting the report on self-reliance in defence systems some time in 1995, Rao was quick to observe that we were making a premise that the defence expenditure should be less than 3 per cent of the GDP. He said that we should not put such a limit; we should work on what is essentially needed for building a strong defence system for the nation. The GDP may be continuously varying, and we could not have the expenditure going up and down on that account.
    I remember one more example. The DRDO had to take up a follow-up programme for the Agni missile system beyond the technology demonstrator which could be inducted into the Services. Rao understood the need instantaneously and approved a Rs 800 crore programme, based on a one-page proposal, without any question andprovided an opportunity to design a need-based management system for timely execution and delivery of missiles to the Services. Subsequently, the programme was approved by the finance minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, to whom it would have gone before going to the prime minister in the normal course. The file was later moved to the secretaries of the Government of India who were in the execution chain. This was an example of a top-down approach in programme conception, sanction and implementation.
    Later, in 2004, I had an opportunity to work closely with Dr Singh who as prime minister has applied all his economic skills to enhance growth, which has reached as high as 9 per cent in recent years. He has brought a warm and human touch to the office of the prime minister. I could see the sense of urgency in decision making in Atal Bihari Vajpayee who gave me the task of execution of the nuclear tests as my first job as soon as he took over as prime minister in 1998. In general, I found Vajpayee was decisive in all his actions while dealing with any national problem. He was the person who made an announcement that India would work towards becoming a developed nation by 2020 from the ramparts of the Red Fort in August 2002, as I have already said. The first time India 2020 was accepted as a national programme was by H.D. Deve Gowda in 1998.
    The experience of meeting good people is an education in itself. I have been fortunate to meet more than my share of such people in various phases of my life.

7
    TOWARDS A COMPETITIVE NATION
    National economic development is powered by competition.
Competition is powered by knowledge. Knowledge is powered by
technology and innovation.
    T he majority of India’s population lives in the villages. And that is the real challenge for the scientific community: to use the results of technology to enrich the lives of the 750 million people who live there.
    In my fifty-year career in the fields of science and technology, I have always believed that keeping ahead inthese two areas is the only way for a developing nation to become a developed nation. The three major areas on which we must focus are nanotechnology, e-governance and bio-diesel. With regard to creating a favourable environment for innovation, I felt, why not make a start in Rashtrapati Bhavan itself?
    Complex and new initiatives require the combined thinking of many specialists, the consideration of different opinions and a collective effort to execute missions and actions. In this regard, there were three unique events that took place in Rashtrapati Bhavan and Rashtrapati Nilayam, the presidential retreat in Secunderabad. These were a nanotechnology conference, an e-governance conference and a bio-diesel conference. In terms of potential impact on the future of the country, each of these events was very significant.
    I had long been discussing with Prof. C.N.R. Rao – honorary president of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bengaluru – and many other specialists in India and abroad the future