Take the less-trodden path, Abdul Kalam tells students

Speaking at the inauguration of Golden Jubilee celebrations of the college on Thursday, Kalam exhorted the students to take the less-trodden path.  “I have so far met 12 million youth and in these past few years, I have learnt that every youth wants to be unique, but the world around you is doing its best to make you anyone else,” he said.

Citing the examples of many scientists and inventors, Kalam said: “All inventions and discoveries have emanated from creative minds. The question is whether you are willing to be a unique personality to achieve this.” He told the students that it took a great aim, acquiring constant knowledge, hard work and perseverance to achieve the goals.

The kind of opportunities available now should ensure amenities like adequate energy and clean drinking water by 2020. He outlined more goals that should be achieved by then.

He suggested the college to start the programme PURA (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) on the outskirts of Bangalore. The programme envisages empowering villages through transport facilities, resources like drinking water, electricity and also technological connectivity.

Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda said the Knowledge Commission had made several innovative recommendations towards empowerment of education sector in the State and Rs 10 crore had been allocated exclusively for the year 2011-12 to implement those recommendations.

“For the Higher education sector alone, the government has provided a record Rs 2,000 crore during 2011-12,” he said. He said the state was committed to providing necessary support to all the sectors to bring about optimum development. The State was known for its quality engineering students with 196 engineering colleges and over 60,000 students, he added.

Governor Hansraj Bhardwaj was however, not too optimistic saying that Kalam’s assessment of the education system was wrong and education, especially legal education was lacking.

“There has been only a token investment in education. That is because the government does not have the financial resources. I am not convinced about the quality of engineering colleges in the state,” he said.