District Governance is the Building for an Empowered Nation

District Governance is the Building for an Empowered Nation Work with integrity and succeed with integrity I am delighted to address and interact with the District Officers and staff of the District Administrative. My greetings to all of you. Jabalpur is the cultural capital of Madhya Pradesh and also the birthplace of the game of snooker. It has been a educational hub. Several important federal and state institutions are located in Jabalpur including the Madhya Pradesh High Court, Madhya Pradesh Electricity Board, Tropical Forest Research Institute, several ordinance factories and West Central Railway zonal headquarters. It is also a major spiritual center being the birthplace of great Rishis. Inspite of Jabalpur being a educational hub, I find that the literacy level in the district is very low, whereas at Jabalpur proper, it is reasonable. I would suggest the district administration to pay particular attention to enhance the literacy level, particularly the women literacy level in the entire district through a mission mode approach. When I am with you, I would like to talk on the topic "District Governance is the Building Block for an Empowered Nation"
As members of district administration, all of you can be a part of reviving the water bodies in this region and linked them up with beautiful Narmada flowing here. In this mission, you have to ensure that all the water bodies are de-silted and their inlet and outlet are properly connected. It is also necessary to identify the illegally lost water bodies and recover them as has been done in Siruthuli - Coimbatore (Tamilnadu) by district authorities and the social entrepreneurship.
Recently I attended a conference on "water partnership towards meeting the climate change"organized by Centre of excellence for change on 6 Jan 2011 at Chennai. One unique aspect I found was that various depts of Tamilnadu govt, joined together under the leadership of an IAS Officer Mr. Vibhu Nayyar, who recovered 817 water tanks in Tamilnadu. 1059 tanks are under the process of desilting. Around 450 hectare have been brought under the micro irrigation scheme and nearly 1000 farm ponds have been created. 13000 hectares of land have been brought additional cultivation for horticulture products; 61,000 hectares of land having used for rice cultivation under the new method called SRI (System of Rice Intensification) which is yielding more than doubled the previous yield. This development has been achieved by an officer by changing the mindset of 7 depts in partnership with the farmers. Similarly, Jabalpur district may have certain unique experiences in the cultivation of rice, wheat, pulses, and soyabeen which can be shared with the other districts of Madhya Pradesh and other states.
My recent interaction with the civil services officers trainee Dear friends, last year, I visited Mussoorie and interacted with the 85th foundation batch of newly inducted civil services and also addressed the Mid-Career Civil Services Officers Trainees (18 years service). I talked to the Civil Service officers about creative and innovative leadership and evolution of a better world. After the session, some unique questions were raised by the participants which highlight the opportunities and challenges in governance faced by the nations highest level of bureaucracy. I thought of sharing them with you and get your views on them.
I asked the young officers to find how they can be creative leaders who can pioneer great missions in life. After the lecture, one young lady officer got up and asked, "Dr Kalam, the bureaucracy is trained and known for maintaining status quo". In this context, how can I be creative and innovative?" Another young officer said, "dear Sir, right now, at the start of our service, we are all ethically upright and resolute for integrity. We all want to work hard and make a change. But in a decade?s time, inspite of our surroundings, how do I still maintain the same values with enthusiasm?" To these questions, I replied that the young officers entering into the governance have to determine a long term goal for which they will be remembered for. This goal will inspire them at all times during their career and help them overcome all problems. I told them that the young bureaucrats of the nation have to remember that when they take difficult missions, there will be problem. Problem should not become our captain, we have to defeat the problem and succeed.
Create a Brand for Yourself: Another young officer asked me, "Dr. Kalam, you have asked us to work with integrity and succeed with integrity. But the political system and seniors who are corrupt, would definitely put pressure on the young bureaucrats to compromise on their ethical standards, how can we tackle this problem?" I thought about this problem which is very pertinent and practical. I responded recalling my own experience where I worked very closely with politicians and administrators including positions like Mission Director in ISRO, Secretary - in Defence Research and Development Organisation and Scientific Advisor to the Raksha Mantri, Principal Scientific Advisor to the Govt of India. In all these positions, I was incharge of large missions with huge capital investments. I recall that at no point did any leader or administrator approach me for favors.
Then I told the young officers that they can definitely establish a brand of integrity for themselves which will be the iron curtain to keep away all those who want make them compromise ethically. Of course, this may mean facing some problems as an individual growth. Finally the best in human being will succeed in life.  Friends, this interaction with the future bureaucracy of the nation is very relevant when we talk about innovation in governance. For innovative governance leading to clean, creative, efficient, and transparent governance, all the elements in the system have to establish a brand and a lifelong mission. How can such spirit be imparted to each member of administration, business, education and technology?  Now let me talk about governance for the billion.
Governance for the billion I feel that the core-competence of our nation is the leadership to lead a multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-cultural society of billion people in a democratic setup. In the last sixty four years we have demonstrated our strengths as the largest democracy in the world. Of course, we have several areas where we have to improve for achieving our goal of economically developed India by the year 2020. We are a country of diversity. We have some of the richest persons in the world; at the same time we have to uplift 400 million people who are living below poverty line. We have realized the Chandrayaan mission; at the same we have yet to make everyone literate in our country. We have outstanding women who have shown their capabilities in many fields; at the same time, it pains every right thinking citizen about the violence against women, which we come across sometimes. We have the best of aircraft ferrying across metropolitan cities; At the same time we have villages yet to be connected by roads. So the priority is how to bring an inclusive growth and for realizing this, we have to strengthen the multiple organs of governance. Our legislature, our executive, our judiciary, our academic institutions and our media should be transformed for the billion. In my view, the fundamental building block is an enlightened human being, who is a citizen, who is a people?s representative or an administrator or a judge or a media person or belonging to any other profession. Who is such an enlightened human being? Let me start with some recent experiences.
Traits of good human being Good governance is finally carried out by individuals and teams. The quality of governance leads to positive results of governance. In 2009, I participated in the 102nd Birthday celebrations of HH Dr. Sree Sree Sivakumara Mahaswamigalu at Siddaganga Math, Tumkur. At the end of the function, Mahaswamigal gave an extempore speech for 15 minutes. Based on his century of experience, he says, for developing a happy and peaceful society, each citizen of the nation has to be facilitated to develop two unique traits. One is intellect and the other is humaneness. This can be acquired through good parentage, good teachers, good books and being in the company of great people. If this is not done at the right age, human being can become a shaitan particularly if the intellect acts without humaneness. We as a nation, have to take this message and develop our youth with these traits.  Thinking of a good human being, I am reminded of the story of Imam Ghazali.
Imam Ghazali - triumph over ev Imam Ghazali was a saint teacher who lived in the 12th Century. My father narrated to me a scene when Imam Ghazali was tested by Shaitan, the transgressed Angel. One day Imam Ghazali was unfolding his prayer mat for Magrib Namaz. At that time, the Shaitan appeared in front of him and said, "Respected Imam Sahib, I am just now coming from heaven where there was a discussion about great human beings and you have been judged as the best human being living on Earth. As a recognition of your great stature, you have been exempted from the trouble of performing Namaz in future." Imam Ghazali was restless as the Namaz time was approaching. So he looked at Shaitan and said, "Shaitan Sahib, first of all performing Namaz is not a trouble at all and when even Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him), was not exempted from performing Namaz five times a day, how can a poor Imam like me be exempted?. Thank you." He went on to perform the Namaz. When he completed the Namaz, Imam Ghazali still saw Shaitan was standing. Imam Sahib asked him what he was waiting for. Shaitan said, "O Imam you have excelled even the most favoured Prophet Adam, who could not win over my deception and I made him to eat the forbidden fruit." Realizing that Shaitan was flattering, Imam Sahib prayed to Allah, "Oh almighty, help me and save me from the deception of the flattery", thus making the disappointed Shaitan finally disappear. His mission failed. But one of the great human beings succeeded.
Friends, what is the message from the above example? We not only have to develop intellect and humaneness, but also guard against temptations while carrying out human welfare missions. Our own father of the nation has set many examples in accounting public money even if it was a paise and giving 100% commitment to peace and prosperity of the nation.
District Administration I have met many district administration officials and staff during my visits to various parts of our country and also during my discussion with the new entrants of civil service officers and mid-term civil service officers. The collectors have explained to me how projects on literacy work; how are the energy shortage and water shortage are managed; how are school drop outs reduced; how are business process outlets are introduced in rural areas; how public-private-citizen partnership are shaping up; how is extremism tackled; also I saw a DC in southern district making the whole district plastic free and another DC in Punjab state started an important movement (importance of girl children) and how government offices are made people friendly. I have seen at close quarters, how collectors manage relief works during tsunami, earthquakes, floods, famine. My greetings to the district administration community. I have studied carefully the work of collectors and administrative teams and would like to say the following:
1. You are the "last mile" for implementation of any people centric scheme. You are really the communicators between Government and the citizens. May I call you the CEO of districts? That means you have great opportunity and responsibility to implement the schemes, so that citizen can get the intended benefits fully and in-time. 2. You are very familiar and interact with every section of the social system: political, legal, media, business, healthcare, education, farming, and above all citizens.  3. You are actually familiar with ground realities. With your grasp of the vision of the nation and region, with your hard work, with your honest assessment and expressions, with your innovative ideas for development and above all your role model behaviour, you can develop your district in a big way. For India to be developed, the states have to be developed and for states to become developed, districts have to be developed. Hence, your motto should be, "my work for my country and the state and the district is bigger than any individual".
You are all aware of a project close to my heart, PURA (Providing Urban Amenities for Rural Areas). You will be knowing that village cluster development as PURA is essentially to bring up opportunities for per-capita improvement and quality of life of villagers. This needs integrated development through three connectivities viz Physical, Electronic and Knowledge leading to Economic. Information on this available in my website: www.abdulkalam.com. It is estimated that 7000 PURAs are required country wide. Different models are possible Government, Private and Public-Private-citizens. As individuals very close to the topic, I would suggest that the district administration can think of creating 15 to 20 PURA complexes, covering the 1400 villages of Jabalpur district. The entire district administration will be remembered for this singular action.
Creative leadership Friends, I have seen three dreams which have taken shape as vision, mission and realization. Space programme of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization), AGNI programme of DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organization) and PURA (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) becoming the National Mission. Of course, these three programmes succeeded in the midst of many challenges and problems. I have worked in all these three areas. I want to convey to you what I have learnt on leadership from these three programmes:
a. Leader must have a vision.  b. Leader must have passion to realize the vision.  c. Leader must be able to travel into an unexplored path.  d. Leader must know how to manage a success and failure.  e. Leader must have courage to take decisions.  f. Leader should have nobility in management. g. Leader should be transparent in every action.  h. Leader must work with integrity and succeed with integrity.
For strengthening of the Institution of the Governance in the country, we have to generate number of creative leaders through nurturing of talent, and promoting innovation in every sphere of national activity. As an example, for enhancing the performance of the district, I would suggest creation of a district database which can become the bench mark for improving your performance.
District database 1. The present per-capita income of all the citizens  2. The data on literacy level of the people  3. The data on all the water bodies and their status in respect of de-silting and interconnection of inlets and outlets  4. The core-competence and resources of the villages which will enable taking up of rural development projects and provide value added employment to all the citizens of the villages.  5. The present IMR and MMR of all villages.  6. The availability of safe drinking water and electricity to the number of families in the villages.
This data base could become the basis for planning and action of all the developmental tasks of the district, as soon as you take charge. The type of performance which you should aspire are: improving the per-capita income of the district by three times, increasing the literacy by at least 20% in respect of male and 30% in respect of female, making all the water bodies de-silted and connected. Also reducing the IMR and MMR to be less than 10 per 1000 and generating value added employment opportunities to all the employable members of the district both urban and rural and providing safe drinking water and electricity to every home and every industry.
Conclusion Since I am in the midst of district administration, I would like to put-forth a thought: What would you like to be remembered for? You have to evolve yourself and shape your life. You should write it on a page. That page may be a very important page in the book of human history. And you will be remembered for creating that one page in the history of the nation - whether that page is the page of evolution of a new policy, the page of innovation in your way of working, or the page of creating action oriented missions for the people or the page of fighting injustice or a page of empowering the women, or the page of contributing towards inclusive growth of the district in a time bound manner.
Friends, finally let me now discuss about a very important area which is significant to our quest in evolving an economically developed nation by 2020. Of course, we are making significant progress in all directions. But we also have many challenges to overcome. They include, corruption and moral turpitude in the nation, environmental degradation and the need to build a compassionate society. These are evils which need to be defeated by the goodness of the citizens. Where do such evils arise from? It arises from the never ending greed of what can I take? The fight for corruption free, ethical society, good environment hence will have to be fought against this greed and replace "What can I take?" to the spirit of "What Can I Give"? And if we inculcate the spirit of What Can I Give, it would not only be our strength in overcoming moral degradation, but also ensure a society which is compassionate, environmentally conscious and caring towards each other. As citizens, we need to ask ourselves one question - What Can I Give? Let me give some examples:
A. Can I be an Environment Giver, thereby giving a clean environment and conserve the planet and its habitat from degradation? (Today we can decide, each one of us will plant five trees and nurture)  B. Can I be a Care giver, and providing care to those needy, those who are sick and those who are lonely in their pains? (Visit a hospital and give happiness to the patients who are not visited by any other relative. You can offer flowers, fruits and cheerfulness) C. Can I be a Good Governance giver, thereby ensuring that the highest ethical standards are maintained in all my work, and that I work with integrity and succeed with integrity, and I will spread the message of "we will work with integrity and succeed with integrity"?
Friends, let me now put-forth a unique mission in which I would like every member present here to be a part of. It is a called "THE WHAT CAN I GIVE movement. I am propagating this movement especially for the young students, young officers, young legislators and youth of the nation. What can I give is the mission to generate great citizens with ethics and great families with value system. This mission has nine unique chapters, each targeting different sectors where the youth of the nation can create impact by being givers. Each one of you, when you go back to your organization, friends, family or college, may like to spread this mission. You can find more information about the mission and register for it on the website:www.whatcanigive.info. You can also write about your thoughts and experiences of being a giver atapj@abdulkalam.com. I would be happy to interact with you.  My best wishes to all of you for success in your endeavours to build a better district, better state and thereby better nation. May God Bless you.

By, Dr. APJ Abdulkalam

www.abdulkalam.com