•Coomi Kapoor: Which of the former presidents were you most inspired by?

I believe every President before me contributed something in their respective fields -- some in politics, some in education and others in social activities. I was going through some papers at Rashtrapati Bhawan and I found a letter our first president, Rajendra Prasad, wrote to Nobel laureate Sir CV Raman in 1954, asking him to come to Rashtrapati Bhawan to accept the Bharat Ratna. Anyone would have jumped at the offer. Then I saw Sir CV Raman’s reply to President Prasad’s invitation. It said, “Dear Mr President, I thank you for giving me such a great honour, but I have a problem. I am guiding a scholar and he is submitting his thesis in December-January. I have to sign the thesis and won’t be able to accept the invitation.” The message here is that for Sir CV Raman, his student’s research meant more than anything else. The Bharat Ratna, of course, was awarded to Dr Raman in absentia.

Rajendra Prasad is one of our great Presidents, so iss S. Radhakrishnan, Zakir Hussain and there are a number of other Presidents too.

•Dhiraj Nayyar: One of your passions is the youth of this country. But is there any reason to assume that the youth is any different from the older generation? So what make you optimistic about the youth?

It’s when children are 15, 16 or 17 that they decide whether they want to be a doctor, an engineer, a politician or go to the Mars or moon. That is the time they start having a dream and that’s the time you can work on them. You can help them shape their dreams. For example, tomorrow if I address a group of youngsters and talk about the flag flying in my heart and how I will uphold the dignity of the nation, I can get them to dream. But if I talk to people who are 40, 50 or 70 plus, it will not go down that well. Secondly, the youth have fewer biases about their society as compared to the grown-ups.

•Dhiraj Nayyar: How do you define youth?

How old are you?

•Dhiraj Nayyar: I am 30.

Thirty? Then you are not there. You are also a young fellow, don’t worry.

•Sameer Kumar: Do you think India can successfully develop indigenous defence systems?

Many nations economies are driven by the type of defence system they sell. If they don’t sell defence systems or defence products that country’s economy will collapse. So aggressive marketing is going on wherever defence systems are manufactured. But India must learn to be competitive too. Competitiveness involves cost, quality, and marketing.

•SEEMA CHISHTI: On your website, in your e-newspaper Billion Beats and in all the issues you discuss, there is an engagement with ideas but it seems as if you are skirting the social context in which India lives. What are your thoughts on the context that an average Indian finds himself in?

I will ask you three questions. One, is providing urban amenities in rural areas an abstraction? No, it is not because it is the reality. India has 600,000 villages but few towns and cities. So if you go to my website, all the lectures will be about how to establish this and how it has been established by individuals. Number two, my website talks about the importance of primary education. Third, a nation that does not have a vision dies. My 2020 vision for India is to transform it into a developed nation. That cannot be abstract, it is a lifeline. That is what my website and my e-paper talk about.

•SAUBHIK CHAKRABARTI: What was the reaction among senior leaders in the government, first in the NDA and later in the UPA, to your vision? Were they just polite or did they take you seriously?

First of all, I don’t have a Kalam vision. India 2020 is the national vision. As the Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee announced ‘India Vision 2020’ in Parliament and then he announced it at the Red Fort on Independence Day. And he definitely meant it. Then, after Manmohan Singh took over, at a governors’ conference, he said the government would do everything to make ‘Vision India 2020’ a reality. No political system can survive without a vision for the nation.

•Shekhar Gupta: How did the political class respond to a technocrat President?

When I took over as President, I studied the Constitution and the more I studied it, the more I realised that it does not prevent the President of India from giving the nation a vision. So when I went and presented this vision in Parliament and in legislative assemblies, everyone welcomed it, irrespective of party affiliations. For example, my guru, Dr Vikram Sarabhai, had a vision. In 1970, there was no geo-synchronous satellite in orbit but there was an experimental satellite. He said India should build a satellite launch vehicle to put a communication satellite in orbit to connect that country and a remote sensing satellite to find out all the resources. Now, there are 11 communication satellites, nine remote sensing satellites and we can go to the moon too. Likewise, the green revolution happened because of two visionaries -- C. Subramanyam, the food minister then, and Swaminatham, the agriculturist. They said we must become self-reliant. Today we make 230 million tonnes of food. So, vision drives the nation.

•Shekhar Gupta: When you addressed politicians with your vision, was there ever any conflict?

Yes, when I touched the political side. For example, when I suggested in Parliament that we need a two-party system, there was a lot of criticism. It is all part of the game. That is democracy and that is how we survive.

•Shekhar Gupta: Did any politician ever tell you this is the business of politics and that you are an oddball?

No, they were very comfortable with me. Somehow it clicked because I had no axe to grind. When I say I have a vision for the development of the nation and its rural areas, who can say no? Can you find one politician who can say that development is not necessary for the country? He will not get votes if he does.

•Vandita Mishra: In the run up to these elections, there is a general perception that regional parties are driving a hard bargain and that national parties have lost ground. Do you have a prediction for this election?

This is the era of coalition politics, whether you like it or not. I had promoted the two-party system. But the coalition system is what has emerged. A new situation may emerge. We may have a coalition in the state and a coalition at the Centre and the two coalitions may become two important political parties -- like groupings. Like-minded people come together -- even if the ideologies are different, they come together for power or to make the nation prosperous. If you have well developed minds, then a good political system may emerge where you have a two-party system. If you look at the country’s economic record, economic prosperity happened when coalition governments were in power. That means we should all work for two-party system.

•Surabhi: What do you think should be done to bridge the digital divide in the country?

With IT, it’s like this. If IT produces $60 billion worth of products, $40-45 billion is exported. I advocate that IT industries and IT products should become IT system products. That means you integrate multiple systems and evolve one system. So we should be talking about system development, not development of parts. You see the cell phone penetration in India. Similarly, IT will reach rural areas.

•Shweta Dutta: What is your vision beyond 2020?

I have given a Vision 2050 in my area -- the space industry. The world forums are accepting my visions 2050. I am busy with my vision 2020 for the nation because we only have 11 more years.

•Sunny Verma: Have you ever thought of changing your hairstyle?

Whether I like it or not, my hair grows. Whenever I feel like it, I cut it. The same fellow comes and cuts it. I don’t say how it should be done. But it flows, natural phenomenon. That is all I can say.

•Praveen Singh: What’s the role of the media in nation-building and what, according to you, will be the shape of media in 2020 and beyond?

The media is the only system that can become a partner to national development and in building a good society. I call it ‘media for a billion’. That means, you can’t just be an urban media, you have to be the media of the nation.

•Dhiraj Nayyar: Does it worry you that there are not enough people in India who do science and engineering?

Science leads to technology, technology leads to products and marketing. Now the type of technology we used in India has already been developed elsewhere. So if you want to be in the top 10 of the global competitive index, science -- the fundamental nature of science – has to grow. I am promoting what is called ‘science cadre’. According to this, 400-500 people who do their MSc and PhD will have assured employment. And then, we need leaders like Sir CV Raman. For him, a Bharat Ratna is not important, a scholar is important.

•Dhiraj Nayyar: Most of our researchers go abroad. So unless our own education system is reformed, all our best people will go for research elsewhere.

I saw the Professor Yashpal report. It talks about our university set up. We have two systems-- the university system and the IIT system. The IIT-IEC is a powerful establishment for India as well as abroad. Regarding the university research, teaching research definitely a movement has started. Out of two per cent GDP for a science and technology .8 per cent is to be pumped into fundamental research.

•Sameer: How did you tackle Mr Musharaf when he visited India?

I met Musharrafji at Rashtrapati Bhawan. Just before that the SAARC countries chief? paid a visit and I said that India and SAARC countires have two enemies: poverty and disease. When the former Pakistan President was with me, I gave a presentation to him on how instead of fighting each other, the two nations should get together and fight disease poverty through development. He calmly heard and smiled. Come to Pakistan, he said. I told him, first you resolve your problems with India.

•Neha Sinha: On the issue of climate change, one of the ideas floating around now is to have sector-based reforms for those industries that emit less. Do you think we are ready for sector-based reforms in this respect?

The car you drive in New York, in Kolkata, in New Delhi, produces 30 billion tones of CO2 this CO 2 release is directly proportionate to the climate change. This car pollution is coming out of fossil fuels which we buy for $ 45-50 billion. I have been advocating that we go from fossil fuel usage to solar power, to nuclear power and bio-fuel. With bio-fuel, agriculture will also benefit out of that.

•Neha Sinha: The other idea is to have some sort carbon trading norms in the sector by which if producer is producing in an efficient way, he gets carbon credits. Are we ready for that?

We have to build capacities on a national scale although some states have already moved in this direction.

•Shekhar Gupta The Himachal Pradesh chief minister was here and he said he should get enormous amounts of money in carbon credits because he is not cutting his forests.

It is s beautiful land I agree.

•Coomi Kapoor: You are known as the people’s president, but living in an establishment like Rashtrapati Bhawan there is a tendency for officials to insulate you. How did you get over that barrier?

I personally believe that nobody can cordon me off because when I go to schools and colleges there are thousands of students there. Nobody can control them Only when I talk do they fall silent. It seems to me that I have a communication with the people. How do I communicate with the people? I have a website that is updated. Secondly, Every day I check my email. Thirdly, I opened up Rashtrapati Bhawan as the people’s Bhawan. For example, in 2005, a million people came to see the Mughal Gardens and the could meet me too.

•Seema Chishti: The story of your life story is inspirational. Tell us about your years in Rameshwaram and the environment you grew up in.

I will recount two incidents. The first incident. In the fifth standard, I was a 10-year-old boy and I had a great teacher, C S Subramanyam Iyer. Subramanyam was a science teacher and he was teaching us about the way birds fly. The same evening, he took us to the sea-shore at Rameshwaram island, and he showed practically why they flap their wings how they change their direction. That day I learnt how a bird flies but he also gave me a vision for life. A teachercan do that. That is the day I decided my area of work would have something to do with flying. I went into physics, then aeronautical engineering, I became a rocket engineer, then I became a rocket technologist, a space technologist. I flew an aircraft also. The second incident. When I was 12 years-old, my father became the president of a panchayat board. That evening somebody came to visit us. My father had gone for namaaz. He gave a packet for my father. My father came home and asked me what it was and I said it was a form of cake. He opened it and saw a number of silver vessels and other trinkets. He stared at me and then he gave me beating. He said I had no business to receive the gift. The meessage for me was that God gives you whatever you need in life. This kind of a gift is like a snake, it will tempt you, once receive it, your dignity of life is extinguished.

•Gayatri Verma : We’ve talked of science and technology and IT but there is very little talk about Sociology, Political Science even though these subjects are so important. Why are we not even moving forward on certain subjects?

For national development you need every people in every filed. Yesterday, I was addressing future IAS officers and I asked them are their subjects.. Nearly 60 per cent had taken sociology. Some were engineers, doctors, some commerce and history students. I am insisting that in technical institutions humanities should be included. I am also an advocate of creativity being dominant in primary education up to class eight. My suggestion is that we get 7 million people every year up to 10+1 10+2all of whom are seekers of employment. In the afternoon session it is a good idea to give them vocational training. So they leave school with a school certificate SSLC?plus a certificate that they are capable of doing some work. Then their employment potential will increase. I have an ambition. We have 543 constituencies in the elections. You have one month before the for elections. Can you bring out reports on the status of the constituencies, every week -- the present per capita income of the constituency, how many panchayats there are, how many water bodies, the literacy levels, etc? When a candidate goes to the constituency he should then be made to address these issues—for example, the present literacy percentage of the constituency in 2009 and I will raise it by 2014 to a certain level; The same pledges should be made for per capita income, water bodies, employment opportunities, infant mortality rate rates.If you do that you will do society a big favour.

•Hamari Jamatia: On your website, you write a lot about your ideas and views but you never write about going out with friends, watching a film. Don’t you indulge in such activities and if you do, who is your favourite actor?

If you ask me about my favourite music, I like traditional music. I have not seen a film in the last 50 years.

•Neha Sinha: Do you think at this point in India’s history we are are at a critical juncture where hate speeches are becoming a part of our daily life? How do we combat this?

Don’t you think every citizen has a responsibility? I believe a person who has been educated, has a responsibility towards his nation. That is why I used to say every individual should be a good member of a family. Every individual has to be a good member of the society. Every individual has to be a good member of the nation. Every educated individual should be a good member of the planet earth. The question is how to make the individual into a good member? Where there is righteousness in the heart, there is beauty in the character. When there is beauty in the character there is harmony in the home. When there is harmony in the home there is order in the nation. When there is order in the nation there is peace in the world. Who will give us that righteousness in the heart? Our parents, our teachers in a spiritual environment

Transcribed by Debesh Banerjee