Kalam is here on a three-day visit to the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) where he has been taking classes for GRIIT — an elective course of the institute’s prestigious PGP programme.
If the world wants India to sign the comprehensive test ban treaty (CTBT), it should first accept it as a nuclear weapons state, said former president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, in an exclusive interview to DNA here on Tuesday.
“I believe India should be considered a nuclear weapons state,” the former president said. “Then India can definitely consider signing the CTBT.” He added that the CTBT did not have much meaning now as many nations had tested nuclear weapons. “I don’t want to comment much except to say that, if India has to sign, it must do so on an equal footing [with other nuclear powers],” he said. “I don’t think the nation has to decide on it now. It is not an immediate threat.”
Kalam is here on a three-day visit to the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) where he has been taking classes for GRIIT — an elective course of the institute’s prestigious PGP programme.
Kalam was emphatic that India’s first moon mission was a success. “They have achieved more than what they wanted,” he said adding “It was more than 100% successful.” He added that Isro has got so much data that it is only now that its scientists are realising what they have in their hands. The scientist in Kalam is enormously optimistic about India’s next milestone in space research. He is sure Chandrayaan-II will be an even bigger success.
“During a recent visit to the California Institute of Technology, I suggested that they go for drilling into the surface of the moon, using what is called the ‘Moon Surface Robotic Penetrator’,” Kalam said. “Isro can do it with NASA or it can do it alone to determine at what depth the water is available. They’ve agreed they would do it. So the next one [Chandrayaan-II] will be taking the discovery of water forward.”
The former president is now working on “what is called ‘Lead India 2020 Movement” which hopes to tap India’s youth power to revolutionise the country.
“The ignited mind of youth is the most powerful resource on earth,” he said. “So we have started a movement with teachers and high school students. They are trained on the ten pillars [of the movement] and transformed towards becoming good citizens. They love the nation, they want to do something to achieve an economically developed nation. I am also busy now on what is called the PURA project (providing urban amenities in rural areas).”
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