The Hindu Business Line : Establish knowledge centres in villages: Kalam

THE President, Mr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, on Monday called on innovators to select "difficult areas" in order to trigger all-round development, and emphasised the establishment of village knowledge centres which would act as an interface for economic activity among the village clusters.

Addressing a gathering comprising mostly of students, professors and business chiefs, the President said the 21st century was witnessing emergence of a new society where knowledge was the primary production resource instead of capital and labour.

"The knowledge society is powered by innovative capacity. Efficient utilisation of this existing knowledge can create comprehensive wealth of the nation and also improve the quality of life — in the form of better health, education, infrastructure and other social indicators," Mr Kalam said after presenting `The Indian Innovation Awards 2005,' initiated by EMPI business school.

He said for translating knowledge into wealth, the process of innovation was required. "Innovation is an important factor for the competitiveness of both service and manufacturing sectors," the President said, stressing on the need to establish an efficient innovation system in the country.

Mr Kalam said with the kind of awareness and opportunities available in ICT, it would be a reality wherein every village will have computers and connectivity available.

"These would be the windows to the world of knowledge for our villages and also to reap the benefits of our e-governance, tele-education, tele-medicine, e-commerce and e-judiciary initiatives. India has approximately 2.3 lakh village panchayats. I visualise establishment of village knowledge centres in these panchayats to empower the villagers with the knowledge and to act as a nodal centre for knowledge connectivity for the villagers," he said.

He urged innovators and other institutions to select the under-developed areas for work. "There is always a tendency, even among social institutions and social organisations including religious institutions that they would like to select for education, healthcare and other socially relevant activities, always well developed parts of states (with few exceptions), and preferably urban areas. Particularly, the innovators should always select difficult areas and trigger development to ensure the balanced development of the whole nation," the President said.

Concluding his address, Mr Kalam said there was a need for development of Invisible Leaders. "Invisible leadership means exercising the vision to change the traditional role from the commander to the coach, manager to mentor, from director to delegator and from one who demands respect to one who facilitates self respect."

The awardees included Narayana Hrudayalaya in recognition of the organisation's healthcare initiatives through a cooperative health insurance scheme for farmers, Mother Dairy Foods Processing Ltd, BAIF Development Research Foundation, Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Service Ltd and NSE.

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