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I will always be with you, dear citizens, says Kalam
By IBNlive.com
Tuesday July 24, 08:33 PM New

Delhi: He is a man of many sobriquets. From missile man to people’s President to rocket scientist, outgoing President A P J Abdul Kalam – who remitted office on Tuesday evening – has been lovingly referred to by many such names. Here’s the full text of Kalam''s farewell speech.
Five eventful years
When you wish upon a star,
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires
Will come to you
Friends, I am delighted to address you all, in the country and those living abroad, after working with you and completing five beautiful and eventful years in Rashtrapati Bhavan. Today, it is indeed a thanks-giving occasion. I would like to narrate, how I enjoyed every minute of my tenure enriched by the wonderful association from each one of you, hailing from different walks of life, be it politics, science and technology, academics, arts, literature, business, judiciary, administration, local bodies, farming, home makers, special children, media and above all from the youth and student community who are the future wealth of our country.
During my interaction at Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi and at every state and union territory as well as through my online interactions, I have many unique experiences to share with you, which signify the following important messages:
Accelerate development: Aspiration of the youth
Empower villages
Mobilise rural core competence for competitiveness
Seed to Food: Backbone for agricultural growth
Defeat problems and succeed
Overcome problems through partnership
Courage in combating calamities
Connectivity for societal transformation
Defending the nation: Our pride and
Youth movement for Developed India 2020
Now let me share with you each of the messages.
Accelerate Development: Aspiration of the youth
While there were many significant events during my tenure, a question from a little girl Anukriti of Sri Sathya Sai Jagriti Vidya Mandir School, of Darwa village from Haryana, during children''s visit to Rashtrapati Bhavan on May 22, 2006, rings in my mind ever after.
Anukriti asked me "why India cannot become a developed nation before the year 2020".
I appreciated the question and said it was indeed a thoughtful question and assured her that that her dream would be taken to the highest institution of the nation and we would work for it to achieve before 2020. This question reflects how the desire to live in developed India has entered into the minds of the youth. The same feelings are echoed by over fifteen lakh youth, whom I have met so far and who represent the dream of the 540 million youth of the nation. The aspirations of the young to live in a prosperous, safe and proud India should be the guiding factor in whatever profession we contribute.
Empower Villages
Friends, I recall my visit to Nagaland on October 26, 2002, soon after my assuming office as President. It was a unique experience for me at Khuzama village to meet tribal village council members and discuss with them the village progress and the dream of village citizens. I was very happy to see the empowered village council functioning with financial powers and taking decisions. I saw a prosperous village with fruits and vegetables production.
However, there is a need for providing physical connectivity in Nagaland through quality roads for enabling faster movement of products from villages to the market. That meeting gave me a powerful message about the transformation, which can take place to the 6,00,000 villages of India, if all the villages are empowered to deal with their development and are well connected among themselves and with the urban societies.
Mobilising rul core competence for competitiveness
Now I would like to talk about the initiative of Periyar Maniammai College of Technology for Women, Vallam, Tanjore of Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA) complex involving 65 villages with a population of 3 lakh. This includes provision of three connectivities - physical, electronic and knowledge - leading to economic connectivity. Periyar PURA has health care centers, primary to post graduate level education and vocational training centers. This has resulted in large-scale employment generation and creation of number of entrepreneurs with the active support of 1000 self-help groups.
Two hundred acres of wasteland has been developed into a cultivable land. The villagers are busy in cultivation, planting Jatropha, herbal and medicinal plants, power generation using biomass, food processing and above all running marketing centers. It provides a sustainable economic development model for the whole region.
During the last eight months, people of Periyar PURA villages technologically supported by Periyar Maniammai College of Engineering for Women have worked with experts from Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) on various products, for which core competence and raw material are available in Thanjavur district. They developed internationally competitive prototypes for 55 life style products with support of JETRO specialists and feedback from exhibitions at Delhi and Tokyo.
This co-operative venture has enhanced the innovative ability of the people of all the 65 villages enabling them to develop and produce internationally acceptable products. I have seen similar type of PURA being established in many states. The whole country needs 7000 PURA to bridging the rural - urban divide.
Seed to Food: Backbone for agricultural growth
Let me now share with you, the enriching experience I had, while meeting more than 6,000 farmers from different States and Union Territories visiting Rashtrapati Bhavan. They evinced keen interest in the Mughal Gardens, the Herbal Gardens, the Spiritual Garden, the Musical Garden, the Bio-diesel garden and the Nutrition Garden and interact with the Horticultural specialists. Recently, during my address to the agricultural scientists while participating in a National Symposium on "Agriculture Cannot Wait", I summarised the many practical suggestions given by farmers.
We have to double the agricultural production with reduced land, reduced water resources and reduced manpower and improve the economic conditions of the nation through the principle of "Seed to Food" since agriculture is the backbone of the nation. We should empower the farmers to protect and nurture the fertile land for second green revolution. Meeting the scientists and the farmers has given me the confidence that the nation is poised to increase the agricultural GDP growth by at least four per cent per annum through the partnership of farmers and agricultural scientists and industries particularly for value addition.
Defeat the problems and succeed
On the evening of February 24, 2007, at Coimbatore, I had a very beautiful experience. As I got ready for meeting the first person out of twenty appointments, a wheel chair was in sight with a smiling person probably in his late fifties; unfortunately he has no hands and legs. His radiant face was revealing his happy state of mind. He introduced himself as Vidwan Shri S R Krishnamurthy. I greeted him and asked him how this had happened. He smilingly said that it was from by birth. He thanked God, his parents, teachers and many others for giving him confidence, training and help. I asked him, what I could do for him?
He said, "I don''t need anything from you. I would like to sing in front of you". I readily agreed. He sang melodiously the Saint Thyagraja''s pancha ratna kriti entharo mahanubavulu in Sri