Ignited Minds

Nations consist of people. And with their effort a nation can accomplish all it
could ever want. Motivating India’s people, and its youth especially, is the
central theme of Ignited Minds, which continues the trajectory of thoughts taken
up in my earlier two books, Wings of Fire and India 2020: A Vision for the New
Millennium, written with my friends Arun Tiwari and Y.S. Rajan. I have chosen
to write about this subject of igniting young minds so that India turns into a
developed nation by the year 2020 because all through my career in the field of
technology and its management, I relied on the power and potential of youth. My
strength has been my young teams who never let me down. And what
satisfaction there was in working with them on some of the most complex
projects in some of the most challenging situations! Given the freedom to
achieve and guided properly, I am convinced the young of India can accomplish
far more.
As I began writing, I wondered if I was not overreaching myself. I thought:
Who am I to write about this capacity of India to realize its destiny as a
developed nation? What do I really know about how this can be accomplished
beyond what I have learned in my projects and missions evolved around science
and technology? Isn’t this an area that political leaders, economists, thinkers and
other competent people would address better? How am I qualified to tell others
about an ability that has been generally ignored?
At first as I was putting down my experiences with youth, I had no idea of
what I would have to say. However, I put aside my doubts and began to examine
what I hear from the people I meet during my visits to different places,
particularly children, saints and seers, teachers, scientists, industry leaders and
even political leaders. I am sure on my part that India has the ability to transform
itself into a developed nation. Through my projects in space, defence and nuclear
sectors, I know that our people have the ability to achieve the best in the world.