Gulbarga (Karnataka): President A P J Abdul Kalam today (Sep 23, 2004) called on the youth to become leaders and steer the transformation of India into a developed nation and a knowledge society.

"There are 540 million youth below 25 years in the population of one billion people. The nation needs young leaders who can command the change for transformation of India into a developed nation embedded with knowledge society," Kalam said addressing graduates at the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the Gulbarga University in Karnataka.

Stating that leaders are creators of organisations of excellence, he said, quality leaders are like magnets who attract the best of talent to build teams and inspire them even during failures.

"I have seen and worked with creators of vision and missions," Kalam said, in an apparent reference to former ISRO Chairman Satish Dhawan, who owned responsibility for the failure of ASLV rocket mission for which Kalam was the project leader, but gave credit to the President, when it succeeded.

He said an important ingredient for success of the vision of transforming India into a developed nation by 2020 is the evolution of creative leaders.

Kalam said creative leaders should be a coach, a mentor, delegator and a person who facilitates self-respect, adding, "The higher the proportion of creative leaders in a nation, the higher the potential of success of visions like developed India."