Kalam at PSG Collage
Former President A.P.J.Abdul Kalam with students at PSG College of Technology in the city on Saturday."Economic development alone is not enough for the progress of a nation. It should develop a value system,” former President A.P.J.Abdul Kalam said here on Saturday.He was speaking to a gathering of over 5,000 students at the PSG College of Technology.Though the economy of the country was in the ascent phase and the GDP growth was at 9 per cent, it did not reflect on the living conditions of a large number of people both in the urban and rural areas.He suggested that students conduct a study in the adjoining villages of Coimbatore for determining parameters such as education, availability of safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, infant and maternal mortality rate, life expectancy and availability of productive non-farm jobs in rural settings.With this database, undergraduate, post graduate and Ph.D students could take up a study of the implementation of PURA (Providing Urban amenities in Rural Areas) as a business proposition in areas around Coimbatore.The college could also assign a three-month project work for a group of three to four students, to come up with a detailed project report and implementation plan for PURA in consultation with the State Government, he said.The National Prosperity Index, evolved by him, took into account the annual growth of GDP, improvement of the quality of life of the people, particularly those below the poverty line, and adoption of a value system by the society.
