Kalam's return gift to the young

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">BANGALORE: It''s payback time for President A P J Abdul Kalam. After having received love from ignited young minds, the President unveiled a unique return gift on Children''s Day.<br /><br />Dedicated to students and youths, the gift comes in the form of a book, <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Envisioning an Empowered Nation — Technology for Societal Transformation</span>, which will hit the stands next week.<br /><br />Kalam''s long-time associate and chief controller (R&D), DRDO, A Sivathanu Pillai is the co-author. This is Kalam''s fifth book, the earlier ones being <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">My Journey</span>, <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Wings of Fire</span>, <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Vision 2020</span> and <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Ignited Minds</span>.<br /><br />In his latest book, Kalam the teacher shares, what he has learnt from his interactions with people. "We must get rid of the inferiority complex and defeat the defeatist spirit that plagues us. We must celebrate our successes and encourage the talented to work for missions, which will bring glory to India," he says.<br /><br />Enlightened by his maiden attempt as a writer in the company of the President, Pillai told <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">The Times of India</span> over telephone from New Delhi that three years of work and research resulted in the mission.<br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal">"The importance of technology in nation-building is the triggering point for writing this book. If India has to grow, we need to back today''s youth to the core by nursing their dreams. We got to power young minds with technology that will drive them to prosperity," said Pillai, also CEO and MD of BrahMos Aerospace, an Indo-Russian venture for cruise missiles.<br /><br />Kalam and Pillai have presented a road map that will help the young to contribute to missions that will make India a developed nation. <br /><br />"When we were developing rocket launch vehicles, missile systems and related technologies in India, the developed world denied us technology. This resulted in challenging the young minds into action. Technology denied is technology gained," says the book.<br />Priced at Rs 295, the royalty of the book, brought out by Tata McGraw-Hill, will go to Hyderabad''s Viksit Bharat Foundation, a non-profit society. <br /><br />"Developed India Vision is indeed a challenge, and this can be overcome only if we, one billion people, come forward and join hands, forgetting all other petty issues," Kalam reminds the readers. <br /><br />The first copy of the book was presented to Kalam at Rashtrapati Bhavan on November 14.</div> </div>