The epaper should set a new tradition. It should celebrate the success of the people wherever they are. It may be from an agriculture village, or fishing village, it may be from a diary village, it may be from the industrial or service sector

1. E-Paper
WWW.ABDULKALAM.COM
Vol. 2, Issue : 3
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Back 2
school
“When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are”
Friends
for
Bringing smiles to drop outs
Life
Back2school - an innovative project to bring back the drop outs to schools
UN
Counter
Terror-
A girl was sitting in the corner of a
ism
Force
street in the nearby village of Hosur with a
sour face. Looking at her face, a village
volunteer just enquired her. She refuses
to talk initially. After little bit of consola-
tion, she told that she lost her father a
week back, that situation made her to
bother two much and suddenly their fam-
ily becomes jobless, no income, and no
help. Her mother become a lone bread
OATH for NDA winner, she had to go to some menial job
and also made her to abandon her stud-
Seven point Oath for
Officers of Indian Army ies and to go for work. She wants to study,
1. I am proud to belong to she wants to become an engineer, but her
ambitions are nipped in the bud. She was
the Indian Armed hopeless.
forces of great
tradition. Immediately, this case was brought to the A team of about 20 to 30 youngsters called
notice of District Collector Mr. Santhosh the Village Volunteer Force (Grama Tannarva
2. I will always win and Babu through the website Padai) in each of the 337 Village Panchayats
win and lead my nation ww.back2school.in by the village volun- who were trained through UNICEF. There are
to victory.
teer electronically. The next day, the fam- about 10,000 such volunteers have been
ily has been awarded a family pension enlisted and they would identify, track the
3. I will always be a useful and the necessary support from the dropped out children, find out the reasons
citizen and be helpful schemes of the Tamilnadu government by for their drop out and bring the requests of
the district administration. Yes, she is the family for help to the Collector through
to my countrymen
back to school with smiling face. We do www.back2school.in.
the website www.back2school.in.
when they are in hope that her ambition of becoming an
distress. engineer was given a new leash of life. This website has been designed to capture
This has happened in Hosur, which comes very simple periodical information about
4. I will work with integrity each child, like whether he or she is continu-
under Krishnagiri district.
and succeed with ing in school, what are their difficulties, what
integrity. Back2school is a novel initiative of bring- are their requests etc. Specially trained vol-
ing the out-of-school children into the
out-of- unteers of the Village Volunteer Force in
5. In every operation, I will each Village Panchayats will capture this
school back pioneered by the then district
always have vision and collector Dr Santhosh Babu in Krishnagiri pre-
information in a pre-designed format every
a passion to District, Tamilnadu in 2007. The vision is quarter and the data so collected will be en-
to enroll all the school going age children tered through the village panchayats com-
accomplish the vision. in Krishnagiri District into school. He has puter if connectivity is available or all these
6. I will proudly celebrate devised a novel method to identify the data will be entered at the Block Office,
the success of my problems of the family on which ground bio-
where connectivity is available. Detailed bio-
the child has to forego the school studies data of the each identified child, his/her
troops, my country and by establishing the Village Volunteer family has also been captured.
my people. Force.
7. My flag is my life.

2. E-Paper billion beats 2
Back2school…...
This information will be periodical meeting with the outs tracked back in
periodically fed into the child by the Panchayats schools. In this initiative,
web based software, such level Village Volunteer force around 10,000 Village Vol-
that, this will serve as a volunteer and data entry. unteer Force members,
Management Information If for any reason, the child 337 village panchayats
System for top officials of were to drop out, their de- board presidents and head-
My childhood the district to know about mands or needs can be masters of the 1700 odd
the child’s status even posted on line by the moni- schools in the district are
In my childhood (Age without visiting remote lo- toring team and the need involved. This was possible
cations. This will help the can be met without any due to the effective use of
10) one experience officials of various levels to procedural delay by the allotted funds to the tune
deeply entered into monitor the schemes and district administration and of Rs. 51000 per school
finalize schemes that can the child can be brought per year for the dropout
me. I would like to
help each family from their back to school. students below the age of
share with you. Every- desk at their convenience If the volunteer defaults on 14 years. This kind of novel
day when I return from even at late night or after routine reporting, this will initiative with effective
office hours. The software also be reflected in the monitoring mechanism with
my school in the eve-
will pop up a dash board dashboard. This is an the use of ICT by the collec-
ning, my father would showing the details of each online service which works tor himself will have to
have gone to namaz and every identified child. 24/7. This initiative has spread across the country
Its success depends on the put 7600 of the 8867 drop with the participation of the
(Prayer). And my people. — By V. Ponraj
mother will look an-
10 missions Vs 10 teams - Friends for Life
gelic in the namaz.
After Thakbhir posi- Mr. Sebastin Britto Stephen, who lost his transformation missions with their own
tion, she will recite
father at the age of 10, had a mission in contribution. The theme that has embed-
his life. He wanted to see that his fellow ded in their mind was that “Every student
two suras from holy brethren shouldn’t suffer the way he has is an NGO” and they have also taken the
Quran. One starts with gone through the challenges of life. When mission “Educate the literates” by which
he became an IT professional based on their main work will be diverting today’s
Alhamdhu, and the
the sheer hard work with indomitable spirit professionals to spend time for the de-
other “Lakkum, Then- in facing the challenges of his life, his serving society. Also the groups vision
ukum”. One day I mind was thinking something else. As one was every Indian should take oath as
of the millions of ignited minds of the na- serving one fellow under privileged indi-
asked my father and tion, his mind was thinking on some lines vidual as their fundamental duty in their
mother what is the to extend the helping hand to the needy, life, so that they can spend time, share
drop outs and the disabled persons. He their money, love and affection to one
meaning of Lakkum
started the friends group called “Friends poor child. They have formulated 10 mis-
Thenukum? My mother for Life”. They visited the school nearby sions with 10 wings to address the socio,
in a graceful voice their locality and brought back the 30 cultural and economic issues:
dropped out students from the 8th std in Environment awareness team - PRAKRITI
recited the sura their locality and helped them to appear Team to work for Orphanages - AALAYA (A
“Lakkum Thenukum for their 10th public examination. For the home for all)
Valiyatheen” that is
last two years, they have collected money Team to work for mentally retarded, old
to give scholarship for more than 50 stu- aged homes - CHHAAYA (It means shade)
the end of the sura dents, 10 orphanages from Pondicherry Team to work for hospitals - CHIKITSA
Alkhafbeerun. My are given free coaching classes for the Team to work for Rural areas - KARUN-
students. Organized blood donation camps YAM & CHAITANYAM
father interpreted, it
and the group donated eyes in the eye Team to create awareness on Blood and
means “everyone fol- bank. They took up tree planting in several eye donation - DAANAM
lows a path. He or she places. Visited blind, deaf and dumb Teams to work to eradicate child labour
schools distributed learning aids to those - RAKSHA (Protection)
who decides the path students. They have visited observation Team to work in physically challenged
is accountable for the homes gave lectures and counseling to schools - SALAMBA (With Support)
those students. “Friends for Life”, started Team to work for under privileged
actions”.
with 10 members in 2006, today has 100 schools - SAAKSHARAM (Education)
members working towards the societal - From the email to Dr. kalam
January 25, 2009

3. WWW.ABDULKALAM.CO
billion beats 3
Create International Counter Terrorism Force: Dr. Kalam to UN
While addressing the Anti Corruption Seminar jointly organ-
ized by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in
partnership with Regional Office for South Asia (ROSA), Cen-
tral Vigilance Commission (CVC) and United Nations Informa-
tion Centre for India and Bhutan (UNICIB) to address corrup-
tion and interrelated issues on the theme “You Can Stop Cor-
ruption – Your NO Counts” at New Delhi, on 8 December
2008, Dr. Kalam called for setting up of International
Counter Terrorism Force by UN. He said, Friends, today we
are meeting under difficult circumstances of terrorist at-
tacks. It is essential for the citizens: “When evil minds com-
bine, good minds have to work together to combat”.
Peace of the nations is very vital for economic development
and societal growth. Recent terrorism waged against the people of Mumbai and similar activities are the crimes of the
highest order. Such type of crime emanates from people who have been injected and nurtured with ideologies from
fundamentalist organizations of nations. Terrorism is inhuman and it is against the humanity, so it is the responsibility
of the responsible sovereign nations to fight against terrorism to bring peace and also provide a sense of security to its
common citizens. While India is preparing itself to counter the terrorist attacks with state-of-the-art systems, it is time
that UN action to counter terrorism is intensified as a global mission to tackle terrorism from any part of the planet
earth, including an international counter terrorism force. Organizations like UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and
Crime) can progress the creation of counter terrorism force by United Nations. Dr. Kalam has given a plan of action for
brining Efficiency and honesty in services and deterrence against corruption as follows:
Black-listing corrupt organizations: Large value international corruption is associated with mainly procurement of sys-
tems and services. I understand that banks use a number of mechanisms like know your customer, world check and anti
-money laundering procedures to prevent fraudulent transactions. However corrupt practices take place through paral-
lel illegal financial systems. It would benefit if UNODC can analyze various loopholes and come out with recommenda-
tions for overcoming them. To curb such corruption, it will be advisable to impose certain types of sanctions against
the individuals, organizations or enterprises who have found to be engaged in corrupt practices. UNODC can publish in
their website such information, including fraudulent persons and organizations. UNODC can consider such action in a
coordinated way among multiple agencies and countries.
Transparency in banking: Another area which could be addressed by UNODC is prevention of parking the money real-
ized through corrupt practices. There are certain banks in certain countries which in view of their confidentiality provi-
sions are not able to share any information. Such a situation enables sometimes funds realized through large scale cor-
ruption to be parked safely for future use. Sometimes, these funds could also be channeled for promoting terrorism or
extremism in some form. Time has come for to find a method by which clandestine international transactions which can
cause large scale injury to the society are prevented. This issue is sensitive where the right balance of individual pri-
vacy, sovereign rights and information on public interest has to be exercised through multilateral engagement.
Training and empowerment: Services like police, land administration, judiciary, municipal services and income tax
have been found to be the key areas for anti corruption movement. There is a need to train the personnel working in
these services about the importance of providing hassle free services to the citizens. They should be specially trained
to be citizen friendly. Personnel working in these departments must be provided with reasonable housing and transpor-
tation facilities including empowerment in their task. They should become accountable for the services to be provided
to the citizens and also be penalized for wrong decision. These measures will improve the quality of services being pro-
vided to the citizens and the perception about these departments. Bureaucrat should become facilitators. Political
leaders should get citizens feedback and work for continuously improving the service delivery system.
Law enforcements: The following are the components that influence corruption free society: Corruption detection,
Fast police action, Court proceedings with minimal adjournments, fast judgments with nobility and right to appeal re-
stricted to a minimum level and also there must be provision for punishing the biased allegation bringing the account-
ability into the system. All these process should be completed within a prescribed time frame and all the pending cases
in the court particularly pertaining to corruption should be cleared in a time bound manner using a special tribunal.
Vigilance mechanism and timely visible actions based on the same: Citizen and good governance centric vigilance
mechanisms need to be propagated through well publicized web sites. They should give latest updates on pendency on
investigation and actions taken. Accountability for fair fast disposal on vigilance detected cases has to be established
and sustained.
Protection of honest persons: Sufficient safeguards are required for protecting honest persons from being implicated
for corruption on fabricated cases. Detailed guidelines are required for tackling this complex issue.
Recognition of honesty: Organizations like ROSA (Regional Office for South Asia) can create a mechanism for determin-
ing the rate of reduction in corruption index in a particular country and publish performance periodically. In addition,
the countries where deliberate methods have been taken for reduction of corruption could be recommended for provid-
ing incentive by the funding agencies like World Bank.

4. 4
Work with integrity and succeed with integrity
- Address to the Golden Jubilee Convention of the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants
of India (ICWAI), Pune on 15 Jan 2009
APJ ABDUL KALAM
Friends, we are meeting at a time when the whole country is experiencing a shock wave by
Billion Beats
No: 10, Rajaji Marg an unfortunate happening in the corporate sector. From the points of view of our national
New Delhi - 110016 pride, investor confidence and employee reassurance, I am sure that a professional body
Phone: 011-23015522 like you will contribute expeditiously to systemic studies and root cause analysis so that
Fax: 011-23793601
For publishing send E-mail with such an event is not allowed to repeat in the country. With a strong will, the country is on
photos to : its march towards development. The progress is visible in many sectors. Citizens are will-
billionbeats@abdulkalam.com
Feedback through website
ing to contribute their might to the development actions. Still we have to overcome certain
bottlenecks. Despite a political vision, well articulated schemes, and adequate funding,
THE PULSE OF INDIA many major programmes are not on schedule and the benefits are not reaching the in-
tended beneficiaries. How can we reverse this trend through better organization, better
transparency, better feed back, better visibility of timely actions through purposeful audit-
www.abdulkalam.com
ing ?
Chief Editor:
National Ethics and sustainable development
apj@abdulkalam.com Profit with integrity leads to sustained growth. How is it possible? We need to have Na-
Editorial board: tional ethics for sustained growth and peace. Where from it starts?
editor@abdulkalam.com 1. Nation has to have ethics in all its tasks, for sustained economic prosperity and peace.
ysrajan@abdulkalam.com 2. If nation is to have ethics; society has to promote ethics and value system.
rswaminathan@abdulkalam.com 3. If society is to have ethics and value system, families should adhere to ethics and value
dnmoorthy@abdulkalam.com system;
billionbeats@abdulkalam.com
4. If families have to get evolved with ethics and value system, parenthood should have
vponraj@abdulkalam.com
inbuilt ethics.
5. Parental ethics come from great learning, value based education and creation of clean
Sunday, January 25, 2009 environment that leads to righteousness in the heart.
Righteousness
Small Aim is a crime Where there is righteousness in the heart
APJ Abdul Kalam There is beauty in the character.
When there is beauty in the character,
There is harmony in the home.
To publish into billion beats: When there is harmony in the home.
Send your articles, success stories, There is an order in the nation.
innovations, cartoons, poetry into
When there is order in the nation,
billionbeats@abdulkalam.com
There is peace in the world.
Along with photographs and evidence
documents if any
So friends, finally the beauty in the character, harmony in the home, order in the nation
and peace in the world emanates from the righteous hearts. Righteous hearts can be
evolved only by three people, who are they? They are father and mother and a primary
school teacher. Now you understood the linkage. While I was addressing the Company
Secretaries rendering value added services to the corporate both in the public and private
sectors in January 2008, I referred about the document prepared by the Institute of Com-
panies Secretaries of India on Corporate Governance released in November 2007, particu-
larly, I liked the statement in the document about the situation arising out of India achiev-
ing full capital account convertibility. It was stated I quote “in a couple of years, India will
have full capital account convertibility. When that happens and Indian investor who has
rupees 36 to spare will seriously consider whether to put it in Indian company or to place
it with a foreign mutual fund. What does all this mean for better corporate governance?
Everything. The loyalty of a typical Indian investor is far greater than its counterparts in
USA or Britain. But our Indian companies must not make the mistake of taking such loy-
alty as given. To nurture and strengthen this loyalty, our companies need to give a clear
cut signal that the words “your company” have real meaning. That requires well function-
ing boards, greater disclosures, better management practices and a more open interac-
tive and dynamic corporate governance environment.” Such a situation will definitely lead
to consistent support of share holders and creditors and improve the competitiveness of
Indian companies. Members of ICWAI have a very important role to play in realizing this
goal.