Now which other country can boast that? That’s exactly the question my friend Vineet asked me over dinner a few hours ago..
India’s current Prime Minister,  Dr. Manmohan Singh, is by far India’s most highly qualified Prime Minister, having a PhD in Economics from the University of Oxford. |
India’s current President,  Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, an engineer turned rocket scientist by profession, is the undisputed father of India’s missile program. He has been awarded honorary doctorates from 30 universities and institutions, which include prestigious schools such as IIT-Roorkee. |
| He has held several key posts in his career. Some of which include, Chief Economic Advisor in the Ministry of Finance (1972), Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, etc.It was his five year tenure (1991-1996) as India’s Finance Mnister, during which he ushered in comprehensive policy of economic reforms, that earned him worldwide reputation.In 1987, he was awarded India’s second highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan. | He made significant contribution as Project Director to develop India’s first indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle which successfully injected the Rohini satellite in the near earth orbit in July 1980 and made India an exclusive member of Space Club. He was responsible for the evolution of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle programme.After working for nearly 20 years in ISRO, he took up the responsibility of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme(IGMDP), India’s most successful military research task to date. The program involved developing the Nag, Prithvi, Akash, Trishul & Agni missiles.In 1981, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan. Then the Padma Vibhushan in 1990; and in 1997, the Bharat Ratna (India’s highest civilian award). He is a recipient of several other awards and Fellow of many professional institutionsHe may be easily perceived as a “bomb maker” (or variants of it), there have been several instances where he has used technology developed for rockets (used for launching satellites) to help benefit people. Once such instance involves, using a very light material called carbon-carbon (developed for the Agni a re-entry structure), to build much lighter callipers for children affected by polio. In a rare interview, he notes
Although, a Muslim, he not only studies the Qur’an, but also the Bhagavad Gita as well! |
And now for some trivia.. The second president of the Czech Republic, Dr. Vaclav Klaus, who has a doctorate in Economics, had previously also been the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic (from 1992-97). He is also an Adjunct Professor in the University of Adelaide‘s School of Economics. For further reference
| Dr. Manmohan Singh – Quick facts – Academic qualifications comparison with predecessors – The Prime Minister of India’s official site | DR. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam – Summary, from Wikipedia – Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, Indian Missiles – The President of India’s official site – Speech in Hyderabad – Dr Abdul Kalam Interview (by Pritish Nandy) – The President of India’s official site |
But does it really matter. Condisering the amount of “real” power they have.
While the PM is stuck in a coalition that seems to head nowhere, The president is happy just attending conferences and making speeches with lofty ideas. He is not taken any strong stand on any of the issues affecting the country.
It’s a good thing to boast of, but thats all. I dont see either of them using their knowledge and skill. More so, since they don’t even look like they could use it. The surroundings, the party, the people, the politicians don’t allow knowledge to come in the way of politics.
Sad state.
Sir, pls give me the e-mail address of the President of India.
Please refer to the official site of the President of India, http://presidentofindia.nic.in/
India is a big democratic country. Our congressmen who fought for the India’s freedom have forgotten that the reservation will ruin the country. Our politicians have made such reservations for the caste & creed based which have divided the country by their ill motives behind. These type of selfish goals made the country corrupt and like a beggar before the world community. We go on begging for world loans. Our bureaucrats & political leaders do not bother to collect money from the business community, which steal millions of rupees by evading tax, thus our deficit is growing every year. But on the other hand the servicemen are bound to pay tax in the real sense. This is all happening as our leadership is selfish and they have no respect for the country except earning money by illegal means. Whenever elections are held, the inflation rate increased as the factory owners, businessmen, dons pay crores of rupees to these parties and in reward they give their due benefit whenever they come in power.
The reservation policy started earlier for 10 years has become a cancer for the Indian society. Whereas I know there is no reservation in any country of the world. They are giving benefits to the economically weak in different way. I’m afraid, if the system is not scrapped by making a consensus in all the parties, this country will become like Afghanistan one day.
Politicians talk much about the brain drain, but it is all nonsense to befool the public. There are several examples, we fail to recognise the talented youths in our country and they are serving in the European countries and have achieved great honour in that country. What India gives him? India failed to give credit to his abilities. Then who will like to live in the corrupt state, where there is no rule, no policy, no administration, only jungle raj. Policies are made in papers but never implemented.
Many of those countries that have achieved freedom after us have now become financially richer and now one of the strong & wealthy states. But where does India stand? India is rich, but people are poor. We have enough natural resources & manpower. If we use them properly, I am sure that America like country will be forced to bend before us. But we have become so selfish that we cannot think about that. Who will come forward to do this?
We cannot expect such things from our leaders because they have already killed their soul and dumped under the land. We need a strong president/prime-minister who can implement his policies. The congress party accepted Britain’s constitution for India but due to their selfishness kept the two party system away from the constitution. Now in India parties are mushrooming day by day and thus the regional parties have upper hand in controlling the government of India.
In India in my view we require a dictatorship government as the democracy has crumbled. If the leaders of all the parties will not sit together and learn from the past, we shall be again come under the slavery of foreign powers. (Perhaps Americans, who have become no.1 powerful country in the world. Being citizen of India, I am sincerely thinking about our children future, which is in dark, and no ray of hope is coming.
Sorry to say that its a request rather than a comment. I am a student doing engineering from Guru Nanak Dev University , Amritsar. I need the E-mail address of The President of India. There is something which has to be seriously focoused in The President’s eye .Please give me the E-mail address. Thank you
I’ve been getting repeated requests to publish the e-mail address of the President of India. I don’t know and neither would they ever divulge such sensitive information. For those who wish to send emails to the President of India, they can do so by going to http://presidentofindia.nic.in/scripts/writetopresident.jsp
I would like to respond to the hysterical post by Shailendra Pathak.
He is not way off mark when he talks about corruption, poverty and misrule in the country however the reason for the abysmal state lies in the armchair patriotism of people like him and people like me. We as a people love to talk and do do nothing about anything. We stand up for nothing and fall for everything.
He has talked about India failing to recognise and give due credit to its talented citizens. Of all those that stayed in India how many of them are actually wallowing in self pity and poverty. Give me 10 names. If you want the names of those that did well in India two of them are our president and PM. Both come from humble backgrounds but made it to the top courtsey of their talent and hardwork. To succeed one does not need only intelligence, but something called emotional intelligence as well. All those that fail inspite of being talent lack this important trait. There are countless examples of people like Narayan Murthy, Sunil Mittal, Dhirubhai etc etc who made it the very zenith. So much so for India not living upto the expectations of its talent pool. It is nothing but ranting and raving of people who try to justify their escapism.
When we rant about the success of the developed countries we ignore the attitude of its citizens towards their countries. Try foulmouthing America in front of an American and you would know.
So my friend, whenever you want to holler about the lack of respect and recognition India has for your talent remember the words of John Kennedy.
Neeraj
Here’s another response to the comment made by Shailendra Pathak, in September last year.
On Dr. Manmohan Singh’s current visit to the US, he has had the distinction of being just the 5th foreign dignitary to be invited by President Bush, to a state dinner at the White House.
President Bush and his wife have hosted only 4 state dinners since he took office.
State dinners, are a big thing in Washington DC, so this goes to say lot for the currrent leader of the world’s largest democracy.