APJ Abdul Kalam's last book launched at IIM-Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad: Former President APJ Abdul Kalam's last book about how can new initiatives like 'Make in India', 'Swachh Bharat' can be used to unleash country's vast potential, was today launched at the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad(IIMA) here.

The book 'Advantage India-From Challenge to Opportunity' has been co-authored by IIMA alumnus Srijan Pal Singh, who along with IIMA director Prof Ashish Nanda were present on the occasion.

According to Singh, who had earlier co-authored 'Target 3 Billion' with Kalam in 2011, Kalam had completed 99 per cent of the book before he died in July this year.

Singh has spend many years with Kalam after passing out of IIM-A. In this book, Kalam tried to provide insight into how can the new initiatives, such as 'Make in India', 'Swachh Bharat', skill development and 'Smart Cities', can be used to unleash the country's vast potential, Singh said.

"This book also contains his last lecture which he was supposed to give at IIM-Shillong, but died while giving it. This book contains his thoughts and views about how India can surge ahead. Kalam sir also used some imaginary and humorous conversations in the book to put forward his point on difficult subject matters," he added.

As a tribute to the former President, Singh also announced to start a library project titled 'Kalam Library'. "I believe that there should be a memorial of Kalam sir, and what could be better than a library as a memorial for him. I am planning to launch this project with 25 libraries across India, which will provide books to those children who can not afford to buy it" Singh added.

When asked about what Kalam would have said about the 'rising intolerance' in the country if he was alive today, Singh said that righteousness is the key to tolerance and the legend himself gave an answer in the book about how to be more tolerant.