The Hindu Business Line : President's prescription

AS most of the country's citizens know by now, the President, Mr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, is a visionary. As he writes in a poem titled `Soaring Dream', posted on his own website (www.presidentofindia.nic.in) , "Fabulous air show of Paris in motion/ My thought too in flight and yearns for my Nation/ When will the planes designed in my land/ Pierce the sky as lightning in action/ And gracefully land as angels in full boom/ All to the envy of spellbound spectators/ Yes we can!/ When we are united in action and addicted to deeds/ Sky can't be limit for my nation in action!"

Literary critics might find much to grumble about that piece of verse, but it more than conveys the general thrust of the President's spirit: Act unitedly, be determined. That was precisely the enthusiastic message of action that the President delivered to the State Assembly when he presented the legislators and the citizens of the State with a 10-point development agenda aimed at making Kerala an economic powerhouse by 2015.

Urging Kerala to adopt 10 key missions to achieve this goal, the President identified the State's core capacities as including the development of tourism, waterways and deep-sea fishing; development and marketing of knowledge products and pharmaceuticals; creation of an army of nurses and paramedics to meet the rising demand for skilled healthcare personnel the world over; setting up of exclusive economic zones to attract non-resident Indian (NRI) and other investors; value addition to tea, coffee, spices, coconut and fruits; and the use of space technology for industrial development.

By focusing on these, the President said, Kerala can hope to achieve its development goals.

Mr Kalam's address to the State Assembly was doubly special: Not only was he the second President ever to address the Kerala Assembly (after Mr K.R. Narayanan in 1997), but the manner of his speechmaking was arguably unique - aided by presentation software that allows the creation of slides, handouts, notes and outlines.

The problem with such software, however, is that it tends to dazzle so much that, more often than not, the listeners go away feeling impressed and slightly overwhelmed, but retaining none of the essential prescriptions of the presentation. And, in this case, that would be truly unfortunate since the President's address was a stirring call to industrial arms, as it were.

The State's planners, needless to add, should also take into consideration Kerala's industrial history or entrepreneurial capacities while implementing the President's suggestions. For instance, the suggestion on deep-sea fishing - prompted by a recent visit to Iceland, as the President's impromptu references made clear - should not ignore the history of the Indo-Norwegian Project, which brought trawlers into Kerala in the 1960s.

Similarly, the suggestion on special zones for NRI investment should factor in the Kochi Smart City project as well as the existing industrial zones and special parks. The problem surely is not geographical or terrestrial, but lies in the mindset of can-do - which, unluckily, is a scarce commodity in Kerala.

But not in the mind of Mr Kalam. "Thinking should become your capital asset, no matter whatever ups and downs you come across in your life," he exhorts. "Thinking is progress. Non-thinking is stagnation of the individual, organisation and the country. Thinking leads to action. Knowledge without action is useless and irrelevant. Knowledge with action, converts adversity into prosperity."

And prosperity is certainly the target of his industrial blueprint for Kerala. The State would do well to follow it in spirit.

The writer can be contacted at kgkumar@gmail.com

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