New Delhi: President A P J Abdul Kalam on January 17 said there was need for fine-tuning of efforts to make India a developed nation by 2020.

"We have a tremendous responsibility to give our future children a happy India, secured and prosperous India and make it a developed nation", Kalam told the children after giving away prizes of Shankar's International Children's Competition for Painting and Writing for 2002 in New Delhi.

Stating that this goal was also set by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, the President said that there should be a strong and secured nation and a standing for the billion of people in the world to propagate peace.

"We need today unity of mind", Kalam said asking a large number of children to rekindle their bubbling creativity of best of science, technology and leadership.

Lauding the efforts of Shankar Pillai, popularly known as Shankar, a renowned cartoonist, the President said that Shankar had visualised the potential of children half a century ago.

A unique feature of the event was that it was conducted by children who were selected through an elocution competition and trained for the purpose.

A total of 1076 prizes were awarded which included the President's Gold Medal and 18 Jawaharlal Nehru Gold Medals.

PTI