India is its people, a billion plus. India is a civilization, rooted in antiquity. Empowerment of India requires deepening the basic values of our civilization—inclusive, pluralistic and universal; so eloquently summed up in a simple, but profound concept: Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.
Empowering India means empowering every Indian, specially the youth who comprise the majority. Provide them access to world-class education, technology and skills, and they will seize the opportunities, looming large on the horizon, and win for the country the race for global leadership in the knowledge age. Education and health are, therefore, on top of my empower-India agenda. Quality education and sound health of every man, woman and child is where empowerment of a society begins. India Empowered is an educated India, a healthy India.
I am proud of the quality of mind of our young men and women. They have entrepreneurship, initiative and self confidence. This is why India continues to amaze the world. It is among six countries that launch satellites, and among the three countries that have built super computers on their own. Our workers, managers, doctors, and professionals have demonstrated their prowess in all parts of the world.
When fetters are removed, Indians perform and flourish because their mind is creative and they have the spirit of enterprise. You empower India when you remove the constraints and let our youth realize their full potential. India’s rapid growth requires energy—from natural endowments under the earth and above it, from oceans and seas, wind and sun, and, also, from fission and fusion. India Empowered is India Energized.
And I use ‘‘energy’’ in its multiple meanings. It also connotes the creative energies of the nation. Nature has blessed India generously with land, water, and abundant sunshine. India’s farmers are hard working. They are endowed with wisdom distilled from experience of several millennia. Less than forty years ago, India imported 9 million tons of foodgrains to support its people. Today, it has surplus food grains stock of 60 million tons. Indian farmer has achieved this miracle because the fruits of science and technology were placed in his hands. Empowering India requires bridging the distance between laboratories and farms.
India will be fully empowered only when poverty is completely banished. Technological revolution has made this goal achievable within our life time. It is no longer necessary that a large number of people must be kept poor so that a few may become rich. On the contrary, sharper the reduction in poverty, greater is the growth of disposable incomes and more rapid is the addition to the middle classes. This accelerates demands for more and better goods and services. And sets in motion a virtuous cycle. Therefore, for empowering India, our policies and actions must reflect the inexorable linkage between growth and employment, between investment and improvement in the quality of life of the common people.
India will then also become a major resource for food and flowers, textiles and automobiles, health and education and research and innovation for the whole world.
India must keep her windows open so that fresh breeze from outside may come in. At the same time, we must not be swept off our feet. Should you find that this is what Mahatma Gandh said, please remember that in the last one thousand years, he did more than any other single individual to empower India and her people. As President Kalam has said, an India empowered is an India that can stand up to the world. Not only as a military power, but also an economic power, a technological power and above all the power of mind and spirit.
For me, my father remains an eloquent example of what empowerment means. India was empowered when the son of a school teacher became a Dhirubhai Ambani. Empowered India means enabling every Indian to discover the Dhirubhai within.
India is its people, a billion plus. India is a civilization, rooted in antiquity. Empowerment of India requires deepening the basic values of our civilization—inclusive, pluralistic and universal; so eloquently summed up in a simple, but profound concept: Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.