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Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Addresses IIFT-CDC National Consulting Symposium

It was a management lesson of a different kind that the 400-odd B-school students and corporate delegates got at the IIFT Campus on Monday. For it was a lesson given by none other than eminent scientist and former President, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.

Dr. Kalam took to the podium and spoke at length about the "Role of Consultants in an Emerging Knowledge-based Economy". Later, he even fielded questions with elan from both the Delhi as well as Kolkata campuses on the topic.

In his major focus, Dr. Kalam mentioned that of the $ 300 billion worth consultancy opportunity world-wide, India today caters only to only around $ 4.4 billion. He suggested strategies for increasing the Indian share of the global consultancy market from 1.5% to 10% within the next five years. He said that for an organised growth of Indian consultancy, agri-business, industry and services need to collaborate towards nullifying the urban-rural divide.

He also spoke of how out of the 10 million micro, small and medium industries in our country, nearly half a million small scale industries are known to be in the red. Consultancy industry can determine the methods by which they can be provided with the right technology and financial support to make them succeed.

Dr. Kalam laid great emphasis on the need to have a vision which eminent scientists like Dr. Vikram Sarabhai had. "Sarabhai did not go to a B-school, but he had vision which led to the birth of India's space programme." Stressing on the importane of being a leader rather than a manager, he said while answering a student's question, "You have come here not to become managers, but leaders. And a leader has to have vision."

He also encouraged students to take an active part in politics, for that was the only way political will could be created to execute the vision for Indian as a developed nation. "Politics today is 70% political politics and 30% development politics, when it should be the other way round," he said.

Concluded.

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* Contributed by -
Vividha Kaul,
Media Co-ordinator,
IMF-IIFT Students's Body,
IIFT, New Delhi.