Canada India Foundation (CIF).

Visiting here to promote trade ties with Canada

Former president, eminent scientist and national visionary all in one, Abdul Kalam has an ambitious goal for his native India: to see it join the ranks of developed nations by 2020.

But it must be done, he insists, in a way that enhances social equality. The technological revolution that has transformed India's cities and created a burgeoning middle class has to be carried into the thousands of villages where the people remain poverty-stricken and ill-educated.

Kalam, who's in Canada to help launch a new organization called the Canada-India Foundation, shared that vision at the University of Toronto via his trademark PowerPoint presentation yesterday, before joining Prime Minister Stephen Harper to present the Global Indian award to Sam Pitroda, the architect of India's telecom revolution, at an inaugural gala at the Liberty Grand.

An aeronautical engineer who helped create India's space and nuclear programs, Kalam, 76, stepped down as the country's 11th president last July, returning to his first love: teaching.

Known in India as the "people's president," the lifelong bachelor was hugely popular with young people, whom he urged to "dream, dream, dream."

He was known for personally replying to the emails he received by the hundreds daily.

He has persuaded several of India's largest companies, including Wipro and Satyam, to help provide free computers and training in villages, part of his PURA (Providing Urban Facilities in Rural Areas) concept.

Compulsory free education for girls at least to age 14, which India will implement by next year, is another pillar of his vision.

India is on track to achieve his vision for 2020 if gross domestic product continues to grow at 10 per cent a year for the next decade, he said. But Kalam also espouses a new way of measuring GDP to include how many people are lifted out of poverty each year, and a measure of a nation's character or value. The extended family, still a core structure in Indian society, adds to the nation's value because of its supportive nature, says Kalam.

The new Canada-India Foundation aims to foster closer trade ties between the two countries, facilitate South Asian participation in Canadian politics and advocate public-policy issues.