Address and Interaction with the participants of Creating a Liveable Earth
Session I, IIM Shillong, Jul 27 2015
How to make our planet more liveable?
Dear Friends,
Dear Friends,
This is the last speech delivered by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam at IIM
Shillong on 27 July 2015.
Shillong on 27 July 2015.
His last words are :
"The topic I have selected is: "Creating a Liveable Planet Earth". Dear friends,"
"The sustainable development enables the realization of green clean environment without pollution, having prosperity without poverty, peace without fear of war and a happy place to live for all citizens of the nations of the world".
Dear friends, I am delighted to be with the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Shillong and address and interact with the students participating in this short course on Creating a Liveable Earth.
I am happy to know that the student present here are from a rich diversity of experience from various domains. My presentation and discussion, your thoughts, responses and their review, can in an integrated way, take the shape of a vision for an action plan for the course participants in various sustainable development system which can preserve and nurture the planet and its people.
I am confident that 12 groups of students might have worked on the 12 pillars of Creating a Liveable Earth for futuristic global civilizations. While doing these assignments, I am sure all of you would have realized what an interconnected world we all live in and how the future is a function of our actions today. I will be focusing now in exploring these connections, ideas and challenges. Our journey begins today where we will be analyze new avenues of global prosperity and peace, creative leadership needed for such a change and also the all important aspect of how to preserve and enhance our environment while all this happens.
The Indian Institute of Management, Shillong is amongst the new members in the institutional array of the Indian Institutes of Management, or IIMs, who are producing more than 2/3rd of India?s CEOs. You inherit a glorious lineage which has produced some of the finest brains and managers of the nation and even global arena.
The topic I have selected is: "Creating a Liveable Planet Earth".
Dear friends, the planet's biggest problem today is to do with sustainability, environmental decline, global poverty, disease, conflict and many other sideshows that go around them. These are all interconnected ? it is one big problem, which is that the way we are doing things, cannot go on. Sustainable development is an organizing principle for human life on a finite planet. It suggests a desirable future state for human societies in which living conditions and resource-use meet human needs without undermining the sustainability of natural systems and the environment, so that future generations may also have their needs met.
Dear friends, I would like to share with you one important aspect of Energy Independence, which means complete energy security with freedom from fossil fuel. 86 % of the total energy produced comes from fossil fuel; around 14% comes from renewable energy and nuclear sector. In this situation, it is essential to find innovative methods to reduce the consumption of the electric power from fossil fuel and increase the deployment of renewable energy systems.
We are already working on adopting certain innovative methods to convert certain important segments for improving the efficiency of the electric power usage from fossil fuel and increase the use of renewable energy systems.
For example, India has 900 million mobile users, and 250,000 lakh cell phone towers, which consumes nearly 2 billion litres of diesel for power. If we convert these installations into solar powered systems, we save about 1.7 billion dollars and offset 5 million tonnes of CO2 emission and gain carbon credit. Next, if we transform all our 600,000 villages where 700 million people live, into solar powered homes and street lights, we may offset around 60% of fossil fuel usage in that sector.
Mission for IIM Shillong: All you students and members from IIM Shillong have to become ambassadors of such a green mission for the state, the nation and the planet. Can you transform Meghalaya into a Carbon Neutral State?
My lecture will finally lead you to that. You see so many cars and trucks moving on the roads everyday, towards Shillong and away from it. Each liter of fuel they burns adds about 2.3 kg of CO2 to the atmosphere. Similarly, in the world, we are adding over 30 billion tonnes of CO2 to the atmosphere every year. At this rate, we may soon hit a point of no return, and we will be forced to migrate to another planet or its satellite. What can we all do to ensure our mother planet, Earth, the cradle of life, is not rendered unfit for living?
Let me give you a mission. It may be a ten year mission to transform Meghalaya into a Carbon neutral state in India.
These are some of the innovative methods to reduce the consumption of fossil fuel usage and increase the deployment of renewable energy sources. I hope these steps will lead us towards achieving energy independence in a much faster way.
What connects the world?
Friends, for promoting universal peace and prosperity, we need to identify what are the fundamental parameters which connect nations into one unified platform, what tools which enable such connectivity and what specific agendas are needed to bring the world together. Such fundamental parameters include environment, trade and economics, security, health and education of the humanity. These four parameters connect the world with a compounding positive effect, meaning that well being of one nation on these parameters imply the well being of every other nation as well. Let us discuss these four parameters.
Economy and Trade: The second factor which connects the world is economies and trade. Today, the merchandize trade across world is worth about $19 trillion/year and the growing services trade is valued at over $4.2 trillion/year. In fact, with over one-third of the world population India and China are rated by WTO as the fastest growing importers (China 9.7%, India 6.6%) as well as the fastest growing exporters (India 16.1%, China 9.2%). Interestingly, the fastest growing manufacturers are also the rapidly growing markets. This is the connectivity of the economy and it binds the world in many ways as we have already seen in the past.
Security: The third issue which is a matter of global togetherness is the aspect of security and hence promotion of sustained peace is a pre-requisite to economic development. In 1945, post the World War II the United Nations was established to avert large scale inter-state conflict. In spite of such an organization, there has been continued conflicts, threats and damages and resulting into wars. The international institution is ripe for re-organization encompassing proper representation in the Security Council and removing its veto power.
Meanwhile, the numbers of intra-state conflicts, organized terrorism and proxy wars are phenomena on the rise in the entire globe. With the spread of the world information backbone in the form of the internet, there is also a growing issue of addressing cyber crimes and cyber terrorism which can aim at crippling critical services. Nations are coming together to address these issues on a variety of scale.
Recently, we saw how a historic avenue of tension has been brought near resolution with the agreement on nuclear proliferation and lifting of economic sanctions in Iran. I am sure such efforts are significant in making our world peaceful.
Human Development in the Form of Health and Education for All: Friends, today we are in an era of multinational research and multinational product design and marketing. An invention made today somewhere takes no time to find its market thousands of miles away. When designers, developers, researchers, marketers, buyers, sellers and investors are all global, the international interest is in the development of quality workforce globally, often to suit the local market context too. Hence, education and skill development is an issue which brings the world together.
In the healthcare area, in early 20th century, Polio was the major disease emerging; this led to the Great Race for a vaccine against polio across the globe in various institutions and resulted a vaccine in 1950s, which has found solution for the problem. Now it is a time for finding a solution for solving the problem Malaria, HIV/AIDS and Diabetes.
Challenges and unifying forces of humanity
In the world history, there are several instances which have demonstrated that nations get united when they find a common urge and threat such as: Indian Freedom movement, Chinese revolution and the formation of European Union. Now, time has come to find such a common urge and threat for compelling the humanity to live in peace and prosperity as a global community in a clean world.
In the world history, there are several instances which have demonstrated that nations get united when they find a common urge and threat such as: Indian Freedom movement, Chinese revolution and the formation of European Union. Now, time has come to find such a common urge and threat for compelling the humanity to live in peace and prosperity as a global community in a clean world.
World Vision 2030: liveable planet earth
How to bring the nation?s prosperity through economic grwoth and simultaneously assuring peace to nation? What is the unique vision that will replace military superiority between and among nations? I have a feeling that we need a great vision, higher than individuals, ideologies, party affiliation, political ambitions and the present technological superiority. Dear friends, can we visualize what it should be?
The humanity needs a great vision to forget all the conflicts and move towards a common goal of peace and prosperity for all the global citizens. We visualize the birth of world vision leading to "livable planet earth". This vision will be greater than any other vision so far envisioned by the humanity.
I think there cannot be a greater vision for the nations other than transforming our "Planet earth liveable". That means, are we leaving a sustainable world where we have taken less from nature than what we have given to it? As long as there are inequities of development between urban and rural areas; between neighbourhoods; in sharing valuable resources, peace will elude us. Particularly, modern technology has made the world a global village. Hence tolerance for inequities will also come down. We have to use the same technology to bring global progress with a vision to achieve the same with consistent missions and programmes. Hence, while creating wealth in the classical sense we need to find new opportunities to serve the knowledge society in ways hitherto not imagined.
The solution may be to find products for more than 7 billion people of the world so that the whole world will own up business. We will have to find newer methods of cooperation so that core competence of even remote villages can be synergized for competitive products. With such a thought process, I discussed with my colleagues and formulated the possible distinctive development profile of the nations of the world in 2030 as follows.
Distinctive profile for the Nations of the World in 2030
A world of nations where the divide between rural and urban, rich and the poor, developed and developing has narrowed down.
A world of nations where there is an equitable distribution and adequate access to energy and quality water.
A world where core competencies of each nation are identified. Missions synergizing the core competencies of different nations lead to economic advantage and faster development for all the societies.
A world of nations where all the students of all societies are imparted education with value system.
A world of nations where affordable quality health care is available to all.
A world of nations where affordable quality health care is available to all.
A world of nations where the governance is responsive, transparent and corruption free.
A world of nations where crimes against women and children are absent and none in the society feels alienated.
A world in which every nation is able to give a clean green environment to all its citizens.
A world that is prosperous, healthy, secure, devoid of terrorism, peaceful and happy and continues with a sustainable growth path.
A world of nations with creative leadership who ensure effective mechanisms to resolve conflicts between nations and societies in a timely manner keeping overall peace and prosperity of the world as a goal.
Message to the world leaders in the year 2030
THE MESSAGE TO THE WORLD LEADERS IN THE YEAR 2030 IS, "THE NATIONS ARE ONE WAY OR THE OTHER, FOR CENTURIES, SURVIVED BASED ON CONFLICTS, BE IT NATIONAL, REGIONAL AND GLOBAL. THERE IS AN ELEMENT OF FRUSTRATION, AMONG NATIONS NOW ABOUT THESE CONFLICTS THEMSELVES, AND THE PEOPLE WOULD LIKE TO LIVE IN PEACE. IF WE GO INTO DETAILS, I HAVE COME TO THE CONCLUSION; EVERY NATION NEEDS A MISSION BIGGER THAN ITS PEOPLE, BIGGER THAN THE NATION. CAN THE WORLD LEADERS THROUGH G8 AND G20, EVOLVE AND PRESENT A GREATER VISION WHERE THE NATION WILL BE BUSY AND COMMITTED, WORK GLOBALLY, REGIONALLY AND NATIONALLY RESULTING IN CONFLICT FREE, PEACEFUL, PROSPEROUS SOCIETIES OF THE WORLD.
What is the one cause which will unite regions, nations and the world and facilitate a happy, harmonious living apart from being productive? I would like to present my experience of evolving one such vision which will unify many nations to come together and work for the sustainability of the earth and the humanity.
World Knowledge Platform for Global Action
With the experience of World Knowledge Platform which brings the global cooperation, benefiting the regional prosperity thereby enriching the national prosperity, I visualize the missions that will bring unity to achieve peace and prosperity globally. For such a solution, World Knowledge Platform for Global Action has to emerge as a network of universities, government agencies and industries for participation of policy makers, students, academia and entrepreneurs. It should focus on the solution path of identifying global problems, researching solutions in a multinational manner, delivering through local cooperation and enterprise based approach in the long term for sustainability. It needs to be funded as an international cooperative venture which about $ US 4 billion over the next five years with dedicated spending to developing customizable and scalable solutions.
I believe, the following threats and opportunities need to be addressed by this World Knowledge Platform for Global Action:
The first global threat is the global environment degradation and climate change, which is threatening the world of nations. What will be the global solution? I believe, achieving Energy Independence globally with the regional cooperation may bring the optimal solution to this threat. It is essential to evolve right perspectives on realizing the Energy Independence vision by 2030 graduating from Energy Security. The basic foundation for achieving energy independence has to be built on the principles of environmental impact mitigation, selecting the right energy mix directly linked to the sustainable economic growth of the nation keeping the democratic dimensions in mind and the use of 5th fuel namely constantly improving energy efficiency in an integrated way, finally harnessing the space solar power for 24/7 using space solar mission. About $ US 1 billion over 5 years needs to be dedicated to the development of feasible and commercially viable solutions in this domain.
The Second threat is Trade deficit and Global economic recession, which is affecting many nations including India too. The economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China grew at a furious pace for much of the past decade and looked like they would beat even the most optimistic of forecasts which needs to be reinforced further. In such a scenario, my suggestion is to evolve regional cooperation based on the core competencies of the collaborating nations to work on the missions of Energy, Water, Healthcare, Infrastructure and employment generation. About $ US 750 million over 5 years needs to be dedicated to the development of economic systems which are equitable, just and robust for the global nations in this domain.
The third threat is Poverty, in spite of all the growth, 3 billion people of the world need their quality of life to be improved, uplifted from poverty and to provide right employment while the development reaches them directly. We need to evolve a Sustainable Development System which will enhance the employment potential and empower all the sectors of rural economy, using the well tested model established in India, called PURA (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas). About $ US One billion over 5 years needs to be dedicated to the development of PURA as an enterprise model for global rural community of 3 billion humans.
If these three threats to the humanity are addressed with right solutions, which will reduce the effect of terrorism and will bring confluence of civilization. This will reduce the menace of terrorism. The global intelligence, global surveillance, global communication can be achieved through cooperation which will be enhancing the global security, regional safety and promote global peace. About $ US 750 million over 5 years needs to be dedicated to the development of ideas and innovations which can holistically solve the issues of global security from the grass root level problem of armed resistance rising out of lack of tolerance, geo-politics, natural resources, lack of equity or religious and cultural divides.
If these three threats to the humanity are addressed with right solutions, which will reduce the effect of terrorism and will bring confluence of civilization. This will reduce the menace of terrorism. The global intelligence, global surveillance, global communication can be achieved through cooperation which will be enhancing the global security, regional safety and promote global peace. About $ US 750 million over 5 years needs to be dedicated to the development of ideas and innovations which can holistically solve the issues of global security from the grass root level problem of armed resistance rising out of lack of tolerance, geo-politics, natural resources, lack of equity or religious and cultural divides.
Youth dynamics is the greatest opportunity available to the nations, since the ignited minds of the youth is more powerful resource on the earth, above the earth and under the earth. This should create a global human resource cadre and global young entrepreneur cadre who will work for world vision 2030. About $ US 500 million over 5 years needs to be dedicated to the development of linkages amongst the global youth on aspects of research, world peace and tolerance.
The world leaders meet should lead to the seeding of programmes of World Knowledge Platform for Global Action with international partnerships. This may result in accelerated realization of harmony of civilization and prosperity for all.
Conclusion
So far, I have discussed about global vision, its component and how each nation is vital in the mission to realize them. I wish to share some more ideals on Righteousness of the heart of the human being leads to a perfect life of an enlightened citizen. When I visit divine places in India, I realize how righteousness in the heart is propagated as our civilizations strength. Let me recite the hymn :
Righteousness in the heart
Righteousness in the heart
Where there is righteousness in the heart
There is beauty in the character.
When there is beauty in the character,
There is harmony in the home.
When there is harmony in the home.
There is an order in the nation.
When there is order in the nation,
There is peace in the world.
Friends, hence, what the nations of the world need are the combination of a World vision 2030 and righteousness in the heart of every citizen and every leader for realizing green, clean environment without pollution, having prosperity without poverty, peace without fear of war and a happy place to live for all citizens of the nations of the world.
My best wishes to all the participants of this course for success in their mission.
May God bless you!.
No comments:
Post a Comment