Kalam wants youth to plant saplings

'The nation has 300 million youth. If each one could plant five saplings, the country can easily have 1.5 billion trees. Assuming that about half a million saplings go, still we can have one million trees. A great achievement", he said while interacting with students of Mount Carmel College here.

He underlined the need for providing quality education to women, saying "it is the only solution for their empowerment".

Answering questions from students, Kalam, considered the father of missile technology in the country, said his vision was that the cost of launching satellites should be brought down to USD 2000 per kg from the present USD 20,000 by 2050.

He agreed with a student that content of lead in atmosphere should be checked to save the environment.
As hundreds of students could not find seating arrangement inside the 1600 capacity auditorium and stood outside.  Kalam, on learning about it, met them outside and spoke to some of them.