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Abdul Kalam promises faster supercomputer

"Thanks to the series of technology missions launched in 1986, our scientists could develop the Anurag supercomputer at Hyderabad, which is five times more powerful than the one developed in the US. By next year, we are going to develop another supercomputer which will be 50 times more powerful than Anurag," he said.

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Delivering the first Dr Channa Reddy Memorial Lecture, Dr Kalam recalled that India had built the indigenous supercomputer within five years of the US refusal to sell the Cray-XMP in 1986. The US had argued that the Cray-XMP supercomputer would be misused for defence purposes.

Exhorting the youth to strive for making India a developed country, he said India had all the resources, natural and technical, to be developed into one of the most advanced countries in the world.

"What we require is a vision to realise our dreams. We have proved to the world that nothing is impossible for us," he said.

Dr Kalam, who is also the Defence Research and Development Organisation chief, said India requires core competence in three sectors to grow into a developed nation - agriculture and agro-industries, services and information technology.

Efforts should be made to achieve the maximum output with minimum inputs in a sustained manner, he said.

He said the agro-industry is the biggest potential area for generating employment and wealth and could be developed purely with indigenous technology. With regard to the services sector, areas such as arts, culture, textile designing, archaeology and tourism could be exploited, he noted.

On information technology, the DRDO chief said India has the richest technical manpower and the capability to emerge a leader in the area. The supercomputers developed by our scientists have applications not only in the Integrated Guided Missile Programme, but also in various other fields such as automobiles, molecular designing and infrastructure development such as designing of bridges and buildings, remote sensing technology and health care.

He said the Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences, in coordination with the Defence Research and Development Laboratory, has developed several defence spin-offs in medicare. Defence research is also being employed in the drugs and pharmaceutical industry, he said.

Dr Kalam said Andhra Pradesh is fast growing into a technologically advanced state and it would soon blossom into a centre of great bio-diversity. He commended the state government for having provided infrastructure facilities for the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme in Hyderabad.

Andhra Pradesh Home Minister A Madhav Reddy, who presided over the meeting, recalled the services rendered by the late Dr Channa Reddy for the development of the state in general and rural areas in particular. He described the late chief minister as a man of vision and integrity.

- Compiled from the Indian media

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