1. E-Paper
WWW.ABDULKALAM.COM
Vol. 2, Issue : 4
Monday, January 26, 2009
I can do
it, We
can do
“Courage to travel into an unexplored path”
it
India
Vision
I can do it, we can do it, and India can do it
Group
Unconference by the ignited minds of the youth leaders resolved to work for developed india vision
Trans- has happened on 17 Jan 2009 at Chennai,
form
through We are witnessing today that our Indian what is called “Action 2020: Unconference”
inter-
vention youth is passionate about extending their organized by Mr. Prime Point Srinivasan, In-
helping hand to the underprivileged and dia Vision Group. In this conference, hun-
have-
the have-nots. There are many novel and dreds of young leaders representing 35
creative initia- youth organiza-
tives pio- tions (backed
neered by the by more than
individuals, 10,000 young
Empowerment groups and students and
organizations professionals)
When the child is empowered which are working on
by the parents, at various aimed at im- 500 rural pro-
phases of growth, the child proving the quality of life of the people jects covering more
transforms into a responsible and are silently operating in a particular than 1.50 lakh peo-
citizen. When the teacher is way in many places of India. Those who ple with the funds
empowered with knowledge have that kind of development spirit are outlay of nearly
and experience, good young contributing to their might in their respec- Rs. 50 lakhs in
human beings with value tive regions. We could education and
systems take shape. When witness the islands of rural devel-
individual or a team is success in all these initia- opment
empowered with technology, tives. But how to tie all joined
transformation to higher these islands of success t o -
potential for achievement is and make a garland
assured. When the leader of out of it for the
any institution empowers his Bharat matha.
or her people, leaders are That is ex-
born who can change the a c t ly
nation in multiple areas. When what
the women are empowered,
society with stability gets
assured. When the political
gether and shared their vision, mission
leaders of the nation empower
and action towards the societal transfor-
the people through visionary
mation.
policies, the prosperity of the
nation is certain. The medium Addressing the gathering of youths tele-
for transformation to phonically at 3.00 PM, Dr. APJ Abdul
developed India is the Kalam said youth can only bring sustain-
empowerment at various able development in the country. He pro-
levels with power of pounded the methodology for eradicating
knowledge. corruption in the society and has asked

2. E-Paper billion beats 2
India vision group inter-
Unconference by India vision group: Action 2020...
vention in the life of
Mr. Muruganandham
the youths to take oath to fight societal evils in the around 2300 members focusing on
India vision group mem- society. The entire youth assembled in the Rama- the strategy for developing the
bers activated their krishna Mission Higher Secondary School South nation. R.Natarajan, an IT profes-
network to extend a campus at T Nagar, Chennai, took the oath from sional who is one of the members,
helping hand to revive
the life of Mr. Muru- Dr. Kalam “I will lead an honest life free from said the objective of the unconfer-
ganandam based on the all corruption and will set an example for ence was to provide a common
email reference from others to adopt a transparent way of life”. platform for service organizations
Dr. Kalam. Even though of college students and young pro-
the medical challenge Dr. Kalam made them to repeat his inspiring slo-
faced by him is a topic fessionals for national develop-
for research. It is the gan “I can do it; we can do it and India can do it”. ment. The focus is activity based
wish of Mr. Muru- The entire hall was reverberated with the ener- and not on mere discussion, he
ganandham and that is getic voice of the 100 youths which symbolized
his intention of his
said. Many eminent people like Mr
the success of the programme which ignited the T S Krishnamoorthy (Former Chief
writing to Dr. Kalam.
While the efforts to minds of the youth leaders in turn they are com- Election Commissioner of India), Dr
find out the cure for mitted to bring transformation in the society.
the disease is on, the
life intervention is the
immediate response.
In the morning at 11 AM, Dr Y S Rajan (Co- Santhosh Babu IAS (Mg. Director,
author of the book India 2020 with Dr Kalam) Elcot), Mr Jayachandra Naidu, MLC
interacted with the participants over phone.
(a well known social worker from
He has inspired the participants on the role of
youth towards achieving Vision 2020. Andhra), Mr Sureh Kamath (MD,
Siva Narayanan, one of the coordinators Laser Soft), Mr S S Rajasekar (Mg.
of the India vision 2020 said that they are Trustee, National Agro Founda-
working on basic education, healthcare and tion), Dr K S Subramanian (Former
rural development. Final year engineering stu- Executive Director, Asian Develop-
dent R. M. Nagappan, one of the coordinators ment Bank), Mr Ramachandran
of an organisation 'Young Helping Minds,' is (Director, Youth Services, Rotary
determined to start a school for rag-pickers Club) and many others shared their
and work towards improving the spirit of en- views and experiences and encour-
trepreneurship among youths. The Vision India aged this youth to act more vigor-
group is one of the largest online groups with ously to bring the societal transfor-
mation as envisioned.
January 26, 2009

3. WWW.ABDULKALAM.CO
billion beats 3
I want to donate my pocket money - Power of networking individuals bring
10th std student transformation in one’s life - a case study
The next day of the conference, we got an email One day, Dr. Kalam received a mail from Mr. Muraganan-
from Mr. Prime Point Srinivasan, explaining about dam, a differently abled person, who had written from
an incident that had happened immediately after Samayapuram, Trichy, Tamilnadu. Till his first year of
Dr. Kalam addressed the Unconference: Action 2020 higher secondary he was ordinary person. Then he
through tele-phone. He says, “I could not resist started developing weakness and eventually restricting
sharing the following incident that has happened his movement laterally - both hands & legs. The indomita-
during Action 2020 - UnConference. The Event was ble spirit in him had learned computers, even though he
held in Ramakrishna Mission Higher Secondary had to discontinue his studies. The issue is also sort of
School (South) at T Nagar. The School was working genetic with his parents & now him. He was very unhappy
for half a day. Dr Kalam was scheduled to address with situation, he mustered confidence & wrote a mail to
the participants over phone after 2.30 PM. Few of Dr. kalam. Dr. Kalam has forwarded the mail to Mrs. Ka-
the students who came to know that Dr Kalam lama and to Mr. Prime Point Srinivasan, India Vision
would be speaking over phone, stayed back and ere Group for extending necessary help and support to him.
waiting to listen to Dr Kalam. India vision group took upon this task as a mission and
spread the message among its members for the neces-
sary help. India Vision group members from Trichy visited
Dr Kalam came online over phone at 3 PM and in-
teracted for nearly 22 minutes. At the end of the Mr. Muruganandam in his home.
interaction session, he wanted the participants to
Their first task was to take a medical advice on condition
repeat along with him - "I can do it; We can do it;
and the cause. Mr. Prime Point Srivasan's contacted Dr.
India can do it". The enthusiastic participants
Manivannan-
Manivannan- MD, Kaveri Hospital, Trichy and he person-
repeated this mantra along with Dr Kalam three
ally sent his team to examine, to find out the status.
times and ended with Jai Hind.
The next step was to confirm the ground reality. The part-
ner groups of India Vision group did not hesitate one mo-
One of the 10th standard student Mr Venkatraman, ment. They had sent the teams to visit him and gave the
who was present there listening to Dr Kalam's in- first hand report immediately. Seeing all the feasible op-
teraction session, came to us and asked us whether tions, considering his skills, based on the cost analysis
there was any student group amongst the partici- and the existing business potential India vision group and
pants. Immediately, we connected him to Kalam its partner organizations decided to set up Internet centre
Nagappan, Founder of Young Helping Minds, a for him. It was agreed by all & they plunged into further
group of nearly 500 students. action.
After exploring all the options they decided to get second
Immediately, the student told us,"Sir, I have in my hand system. For multiple reasons mainly to test out wa-
hundi around five thousand rupees, saved out of ters and give Muruganandam the confidence in running
the pocket money given by my parents. Now the the show. Mr.Suresh Kamat (CEO, Laser Soft) readily of-
entire money, i want to spend to the society and to fered 2 Systems from laser Soft. Muruganandam did his
the Nation. I do not want to spend lavishly." part by registering for Internet, then searching for old cab-
ins, getting network router installed. Now Mr. Muruganan-
It was so exciting to see how the mantra, "I can do dam is a PROUD owner of an Internet Centre!! His well
it, We can do it, India can it" administered by Dr wishers/friends in Samayapuram helped him a lot. The
Kalam could change the mind of an young boy to- main idea for sustainable progress is establishing local
wards National development. support structure. We were able to establish this in better
way! It was reviewed and continuously monitored for his
This incident has proved one important aspect. We sustainability.
have lot of youth amongst us with commitment and This one single incident shows the power of networking
the people working in different parts of the country. India
fire. What they need is only proper guidance and
Vision 2020 partner groups worked together to benefit an
opportunity. There is a great task ahead of us.” energetic youth Shri. Muruganandam (Trichy, Tamilnadu).
This is an excellent example of team work.
This unconference initiative has enabled partnership The following members involved in this mission, in a coor-
between various social organizations with a long term dinated way with the leadership provided by Mr. Prime
goal of having sustainable working models. Mr. Prime Point Srinivasan.
Point Srinivasan informed that the membership is vol- 2020, Sudar, YHM,
SIAGM, Dream India 2020, India Sudar, YHM, Team Ever-
untary and youths can contact est “Not one partner showed hesitation at any point in
time which I believe was hugely responsible for the com-
www.indiavision2020.org and www.action2020.co.cc
pletion” India vision group member Mr. K. Ravikumar
for participation.
——-
proudly says. ——- Report by V. Ponraj

4. 4
Birth of Creativity in a difficult situation
APJ ABDUL KALAM
Billion Beats
No: 10, Rajaji Marg Mario Capecchi had a difficult and challenging childhood. For nearly four years, Capecchi
New Delhi - 110016
Phone: 011-23015522
Fax: 011-23793601
lived with his mother in a chalet in the Italian Alps. When World War II broke out, his
For publishing send E-mail with
photos to : mother, along with other Bohemians, was sent to Dachau as a political prisoner. Anticipat-
billionbeats@abdulkalam.com
Feedback through website ing her arrest by the Gestapo, she had sold all her possessions and given the money to
THE PULSE OF INDIA
friends to help raise her son on their farm. In the farm, he had to grow own wheat, har-
www.abdulkalam.com vest; take it to miller to be ground. Then, the money which his mother left for him ran out
Chief Editor:
and at the age of four and half years, he started sometimes living in the streets, some-
apj@abdulkalam.com
Editorial board:
times joining gangs of other homeless children, sometimes living in orphanages and most
editor@abdulkalam.com
of the time hungry. He spent the last year in the city of Reggio Emelia, hospitalized for mal-
ysrajan@abdulkalam.com
rswaminathan@abdulkalam.com
nutrition where his mother found him on his ninth birthday after a year of searching.
dnmoorthy@abdulkalam.com
billionbeats@abdulkalam.com
Within weeks, the Capecchi and his mother sailed to America to join his uncle and aunt.
vponraj@abdulkalam.com
Monday, January 26, 2009
He started his 3rd grade schooling afresh over there and started his education, interested
Small Aim is a crime in sports, studied political science. But he didn’t find interesting and changed into science,
APJ Abdul Kalam
became a mathematics graduate in 1961 with a double major in Physics and Chemistry.
To publish into billion beats: Although he really liked Physics, its elegance and simplicity, he switched to molecular biol-
Send your articles, success stories,
innovations, cartoons, poetry into ogy in graduate school, on the advice of James D Watson, who advised him that he should
billionbeats@abdulkalam.com
Along with photographs and evidence not be bothered about small things, since such pursuits are likely to produce only small
documents if any
answers.
His objective was to do gene targeting. The experiments started in 1980 and by
1984, Capecchi had clear success. Three years later, he applied the technology to mice. In
1989, he developed the first mice with targeted mutations. The technology created by Doc-
tor Capecchi allows researchers to create specific gene mutations anywhere they choose
in the genetic code of a mouse. By manipulating gene sequences in this way, researchers
are able to mimic human disease conditions on animal subjects. What the research of
Mario Capecchi means for human health is nothing short of amazing, his work with mice
could lead to cures for Alzheimer’s disease or even Cancer. The innovations in genetics
that Mario Capecchi achieved won him the Nobel Prize in 2007. Noble laureate Capecchi life
indeed reveals: -
When you wish upon a star, Makes no difference who you are”