New Delhi: Keen on seeing India transform into a developed nation by 2020, President A P J Abdul Kalam on March 2 said no religion or individual fanaticism should be allowed to endanger the country.

"We should not allow any religion or any individual fanatic to endanger our nation. Because the nation is more important than any individual or party or religion," Kalam said at the India Today Conclave.

Stating that sometimes he felt "we as a nation of billion people think like a nation of million people", the President said no other nation has the civilisational heritage like that of India.

Indian minds absorbed the best of cultures from successive invasions, he said, adding, "Whenever there was a crisis, whenever there was a problem, the Indian leadership blossomed to overcome it."

"The nation needs young leaders who can command the transformation of India into a developed nation embedded with knowledge from now to 20 more years," the President said.

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, in his Independence Day address last year, had declared that India would become a developed nation by 2020, Kalam said explaining the plan for the same through video-clippings at a hotel.

"The higher the proportion of creative leaders in a nation, the better the potential of success of visions like that of a developed India," Kalam said.

The five key areas of agriculture and food processing, education and healthcare, infrastructure development, Information and Communication Technology and critical technologies and strategic industries had been identified for an integrated action to realise the goal of a developed India by 2020, he said.

These five areas are closely inter-related and lead to national food and economic security, he said, adding, "Everyone has a role to play. When people perform, the nation performs."

"Today India is in the knowledge age which provides an opportunity to become a developed nation with a strong economy," he said.

Referring to rich bio-resources, Kalam said instead of allowing export of such resources and importing value added products at a high cost, India must add its own technology for conversion of such resources to value added products for use in domestic requirements and also for export.

Lauding the efforts on networking of rivers, the President said besides other benefits, networking would lead to enhancement of environment and national connectivity.

PTI