New Delhi: Apparently taking note of the thaw in Indo-Pak relations, President A P J Abdul Kalam tonight (Jan 25, 2004) said peace was a paramount ingredient for continuing the mission of national development and economic growth in the sub-continent and declared that the country would always be grateful to successful peacemakers.

"Most nations have realised that low intensity proxy wars, deterrence based build-ups and real wars are too expensive detractors from the perceived visions of development," he said addressing the nation on the eve of the 55th Republic Day.

Noting that the development of the society weaned away its people from destructive activities of alienation, leading to celebration of peacemakers, Kalam recited his poems "When guns are silent, Flowers blossom on the earth; Fragrance engulfs good souls, Who created beautiful silence."

"India will always be grateful to the successful peacemakers," he said.

Observing that Lok Sabha elections would take place this year, the President appealed to all eligible voters to exercise their franchise without fail, fear or favour.

Large voter turnout will be the first step towards reaching the goal of developed India 2020 and the second step is to become enlightened righteous citizens, Kalam said.

Underlining that India is a nation of the youth, the President desired that the manifestoes of political parties take into account the aspirations of the youth and design them to meet the dream of the young and be resonant with their aspirations with identified missions and action plan.

Every political party must clearly state their vision, action plan, and approaches for the developed India vision 2020 and how fast they can realise these missions in quality and quantity.

He said every citizen has got a role to choose the right representative to the Parliament and Legislatures. "The right to vote is the greatest power given by the democracy to you, so that you can reinforce further democratic values," he said.

The President dwelt on a wide range of issues from the economic scenario, developments in the education field, examination reforms and the need to review syllabus, nation's space programme and modernisation of the Armed Forces and unveiled profile of a competitive India through a 10-dimensional transformation.

On India's space programme, the President said that with the country's self-reliance in the field "it is time we should enter into the global market aggressively. The exploration of the moon through 'Chandrayaan' (Mission to Moon) and keeping our sight on the Mars will electrify the entire country, particularly young scientists and children."

The President said modernisation of the country's Armed Forces with force multipliers is indeed progressing to meet the national security needs.

He said Defence technology has led to the development of long-range missile systems and supersonic cruise missile, Light Combat Aircraft, Electronic warfare systems, radars, under-water sensors, combat vehicles and armaments.

The Indo-Russian joint venture programme - BrahMos is one of the leading examples of development, production and marketing of state-of-the-art missile system, he said.

A highlight of the address was the President administering a 10-point oath to 100 schoolchildren of which 75 were in the capital to participate in the Republic Day celebrations.

He told the youth that the greatest contribution they could make without disturbing their academic pursuit was to commence a silent revolution for removal of corruption by rightly reforming those who go against righteousness in their families.

"You all must endeavour to make the home you live, beautiful and righteous. You definitely have the power on your parents to do so, with love and affection," he said.

"We can create any number of laws in the country. No law can remove corruption fully. However there are only three members of the society, who can remove corruption. They are father, mother and the elementary school teacher," he said.

Referring to the recent leak of examination papers for entrance to various institutes of higher education including the prestigious Indian Institutes of Management, he stressed the need to find a technological solution that would ensure a tamperproof examination system.

"Often, we have witnessed that many important national examinations have been the target of attack by a select group of corrupt individuals who undermine the very fabric of secrecy and transparency of the conduct of these examinations.

"While we should deal with such individuals with sternness to protect the image of our national selection system and the quality, we should also find technological solution that can ensure tamperproof examination system," Kalam said.

Turning to the economic scene, Kalam said the economy has shown a very robust and continuous growth and has registered 8.4 per cent GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth in the second quarter of 2003-2004 and the foreign exchange reserves has risen to over 100 billion Dollars.

He wanted the interest rates from the banks to be "more proactive" to stimulate the growth of the right type of small, medium scale industry and agro-food processing industries.

Indian industries in certain sectors have matured to be very responsive to the national and international needs and have shown steady growth in spite of earlier adverse predictions," he said.

The combination of entrepreneurship education in schools and colleges, the hassle-free flow of venture capital and evolution of good market will give additional momentum for national growth," Kalam said.

Dwelling on the need of service to society, the President emphasised the necessity of scientists in the country to become civic scientists and contribute towards societal transformation.

"In the new capacity, scientists should step beyond their campuses, laboratories, ministries and institutes and move into the centre of their communities to engage in active dialogue and action with their fellow citizens," he said.

Likewise, he also asked civil servants and others in the service sector to become "fearlessly people-friendly", have a positive attitude, and provide responsive, proactive, transparent and unbiased administration and service to the people.