Madhya Pradesh: The second day of the workshop at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Indore, by former President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, started with his lecture on "Knowledge Society and Leadership".

In the lecture, Dr. Kalam spoke about the importance of technology in the future growth of the nation and the aspect of creative leadership and the evolution of leadership in the current era. He said, "Technology can lead to non-linear growth."

He further said that everyone has something to learn from everyone else. The way of life of great personalities and leaders have touched everyone's life and will continue to influence many others.

He said, "Leaders in the fields of technology, engineering, medicine, management and other fields should be knowledge driven to cater to the current developments."

On the matter of making a differentiation, Dr. Kalam quoted the famous saying from the book by Dennis Whitney, "Empire of the Mind", "What worked yesterday won't work today".

To substantiate, he drew a stark differentiation of the values and facets of yesteryears and brought contrast to what would succeed in the current era.

He said that, "The days of natural resources being power are long gone and knowledge was the new power. Creativity has taken over from seniority when it comes to driving status and the focus has shifted from the shareholders to customers."

Today's leaders must evolve to ensure that they are in accord with the new values of knowledge driven systems and with those who achieve success with perseverance.

He continued his lecture by talking about the great leaders, of yesteryears and today, who have been an inspiration to millions across the world and who have led in different aspects of life.

While coming to the platform of a great political leadership, the former President took the example of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Nelson Mandela and expounded their efforts to fight discrimination using non-violent agitation.

Speaking about the Nobel Peace laureate, Prof. Wangari Maathai, an environmentalist from Kenya, he praised her pioneering work in the Green belt movement and was also awarded the Jawaharlal Nehru award for International Understanding.

Dr. Kalam mentioned Sister Antonio, while he spoke about leadership with compassion. With vivid examples, he illustrated how Sister Antonio, living amongst 2500 prisoners, could still instill love and compassion among hardened criminals.

Jamshedji Tata and Ratan Tata along with the Tata Group were mentioned by Dr. Kalam, who, according to him, were leaders in the industry.

He said, "Jamshedji Tata's vision about the Steel industry, IISc and Air India were not only commendable, they turned out to be one of the biggest movements in India's development."

He then spoke about Ratan Tata's initial failures in NELCO and Empress Mill and still how he managed to take the Tata Group to the highest levels.

He also spoke about Ratan Tata's dream of a 1 lakh car which he converted into Tata Nano.

He then spoke about Nanaji Deshmukh, a social leader.

"Nanaji has been striving for the self reliance of 500 odd villages around the Chitrakoot region. He was also solely responsible for the first rural university: Deendayal Research Institute (DRI)."

Speaking about the DMRC and its GM, E Sreedharan, he said that, "His leadership with transparency gave India one of the world's best transport system at the most economical costs."

His speech was followed by a small talk by Dr. Narayana Moorthi, from the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

He spoke about leadership in Indian Space Program where he mentioned the great leadership qualities of Dr. Kalam several times.

He said that the most important facet of a leader must be trust in his team. He then spoke about the Chandrayaan Mission and the technological Managerial and Leadership challenges faced during the mission.

He said, "This was made even more difficult by the complex interdisciplinary nature of the mission. Madhavan Nair, the then director of the mission showed extraordinary confidence in the team, his decision making abilities with delegation and mission focus made the mission eventful."

Dr. Moorthi concluded his small yet compelling talk by saying that the future leaders of ISRO should have passion and show excellence in the Indian space dreams.

The talks were followed by the workshop session of PURA realization.

The participants of IIM Indore made presentations to Dr. Kalam and his team.

The ideas presented were debated, discussed and value added by everyone present in the gathering and were well appreciated by him.

Dr. Kalam picked a few selected ideas like micro financing system with introduction of pre paid systems and vocational training by field experts, and he promised that they would be implemented in all the PURAs.