Date:07/07/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/07/07/stories/2003070702041300.htm

National

Create urban facilities in rural areas: President

By Our Special Correspondent

The President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, flanked by Mukesh Ambani (left) and Anil Ambani, at the Dhirubhai Ambani Memorial Lecture in Mumbai on Sunday. — Photo: Vivek Bendre

MUMBAI July 6. The President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, today called for the creation of urban facilities in the rural areas — connectivity between the developed and underdeveloped India — for realising the dream of the development, that is elevation of 700 million people above the poverty line.

Dr. Kalam was delivering the first Dhirubhai Ambani Memorial Lecture to the elite of the country's commercial capital, gathered here to pay tributes to the founder of the Reliance Group on his first death anniversary. He wanted physical connectivity of road and transport, electronic connectivity of telecommunication, knowledge connectivity of education and economic connectivity of agriculture and industry.

He said creative leadership that would turn from being director to delegator and from being manager to mender was the need of the hour. Such a leadership was of broad shoulders, inspired and encouraged. The creative leaders would take the responsibility when things go wrong and give credit to others working under them when the task is fulfilled.

Dr. Kalam cited the example of the late Satish Dhavan, former chairman of ISRO, who took the responsibility of the failure of the first satellite launch vehicle in 1979, after the rocket plunged into the Bay of Bengal and shielded Dr. Kalam, SLV mission director, against adverse criticism. But gave full credit to the mission director when it succeeded a year later.

Quoting the Tamil sage, Thiruvalluvar, the President said persons like Dhirubhai were like a lily that would come up and blossom no matter how deep the pond was and how bad the water was. Such persons would not be defeated by problems but would defeat the problems. "Dhirubhai gave a problem to the problems."

The Union Information Technology Minister, Arun Shourie, who had headed a newspaper that would attack the industrialist, said that in the past few years his opinion about Dhirubhai had undergone a complete change. The only complaint against the Reliance Group was that its production was higher than the licensed limit — actually such a regulation should not have been there.

Other speakers included the Chief Ministers of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, Sushilkumar Shinde, Narendra Modi and Digvijay Singh. Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan compeered.