I am indeed delighted to interact with the students of Sairang. My Greetings to the Head Masters, teachers, parents and students.

My message

Dear Children, you are all in the mission of learning. What learning will give?

"When learning is purposeful, creativity blossoms.

When the creativity blossoms, thinking emanates.

When thinking emanates, knowledge is fully lit.

When knowledge is lit, economy flourishes."

Young Innovators

Education is the learning process and leads to creativity. The creativity is indeed the result of the education process and the environment of the school and above all the teachers' capability igniting the minds of the students. The essence of it can be seen in the following verses: Learning gives Creativity, creativity leads to thinking, Thinking provides knowledge Knowledge makes you great. I would like to share with you about the nine young innovators from various schools of our country. I met them at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 2nd September 2004. Their innovations were:- Madhav Pathak of Jabalpur has innovated a system to prevent the soiling of railway tracks. Other innovations include herbal pesticide tablets for storage of food grains by Priyanka Guleria of Sionty Village in Punjab, low calorie biscuits made from banana peels by Rucha Joshi of Nanded, Maharashtra, herbal formulation for controlling growth of larvae by Janaki Preeti, Chennai, a toy laser for educational applications by Sudhanwa Hukkeri of Belgaum, Karnataka, a software programme for embedding of text through audio signals by Pardiwalla of Mumbai, Maharashtra, an optically controlled wheel chair by S. Harish Chandra of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, advanced audio video coding of data by Kyan Pardiwala of Mumbai and a novel devise for lifting the surface water of the river by Jaydeep Mandal of Murshidabad.

The group was chosen following a rigorous selection process and the innovations had the largest number of footfalls at the Tokyo Exhibition. The process of selection and sending the group abroad was co-ordinated by Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST). Now I would like to talk to you about how nothing is impossible.

Nothing is impossible?

Human flight is nothing but creativity of human mind and it undergoes several struggles to achieve excellence. In 1895, a great well-known scientist Lord Kelvin, who was the President of Royal Society of London said, "any thing heavier than air cannot fly, and cannot be flown." Within a decade, Wright Brothers proved man could fly of course at heavy risk and cost.

On the successful completion of Moon Mission in 1969, Von Braun, a very famous rocket designer, who built Saturn-V, to launch the capsule with astronauts and made moon walk a reality, in 1975 said "If I am authorized, I will remove the word impossible".

In ancient days, Ptolemaic astronomy is a widely used system in calculating the dynamics of various stars and planets. Assumption by then was that the earth is flat. What a scientific struggle had to take place to prove that the earth is spherical in shape orbiting around the sun. The three great astronomers Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler had to give a new dimension to the world of astronomy. Today we take it for granted that earth is a globe, orbiting around the sun, and the sun orbits in the Milky Way. All the technological advancements we have today are the outcome of scientific exploration of scientists of earlier centuries. At no time, man was beaten by problems. He strives continuously to subjugate impossibility and then succeeds.

According to the laws of aerodynamics the bumblebee should never be able to fly. Because of the size, weight, and shape of its body in relationship to the total wing span, flying is scientifically impossible. The bumblebee, being ignorant of scientific theory, goes ahead and flies anyway. I would like the youth assembled here to take a lesson from these examples and work to make everything possible.

Diverting Asteroids

A few days back one important event took place in space. That was the impact of the NASA spacecraft called deep impact smashing into the comet Tempel-I, with enough force to create football stadium sized crater with a depth of a 14 storey building. The spacecraft was navigated by an Indian Shyam Bhaskaran � the deep impact traveled 431 million kms in 172 days escaping from the earth orbit and intercepted the comet at a straight distance from earth at 134 million km. the comet was orbiting around the Sun every five and half years. This is a land mark in space exploration.

This event is important to divert asteroids which may hit the earth in future. One such large asteroid 1950 AD is expected to hit the earth on March 16, 2880 AD and nearly one third of the earth will be damaged. Like the "Deep Impact" one spacecraft is required to be sent with high energy material to divert or break the asteroid to move it out of the present orbit.

Conclusion: Empowerment

When a child is empowered by the parents at various phases of growth, the child gets transformed into a responsible citizen. When a teacher is empowered with knowledge and experience, good young human beings with value systems emerge. When an individual or a team is empowered with technology, transformation to higher potential for achievement is assured. When a leader of any village empowers his or her people, leaders are born who can change the nation in multiple areas. When women are empowered, society with stability gets assured. When the political leaders of the nation empower the people through visionary policies, the prosperity of the nation is certain. When religions are empowered and become spiritual force, peace and happiness will blossom in people's heart. Empowerment of various layers of management structure is indeed the best instrument to maximize the performance of a given fund to the developmental tasks. I am sure empowered children of this school will play an important role in transforming India into a developed nation.

My best wishes to you all for success in your educational career. May God bless you.

Now, I would like to administer a five point oath to the students. Are you ready?

FIVE POINT OATH

1. I will pursue my education with dedication and I will excel in it.

2. I will plant at least 5 saplings and shall ensure their growth through constant care.

3. I will constantly endeavor to remove the pain of my suffering brethren.

4. I will work for becoming an enlightened citizen and make my family righteous.

5. I will always be a friend of the mentally and physically challenged and will work hard to make them feel normal, like the rest of us.

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