Education, corruption in politics, languages, reservation and governance were among the topics he discussed with the students. “Government should set standards for education and not run educational institutions”, is what he opined. Increase in number of colleges, but availability of good teachers is the major problem. The reason why NGOs like Art of Living who have schools across the country has been successful in retaining teachers is because of commitment to the work the volunteers have.
Talking about infrastructure, he said Indian economy is a fastest growing economy that too without any infrastructure. The growth will be faster if our infrastructure is taken care of. Also, defining inflation he said, it hits the poor and not the rich. But inflation is good; it is like a little love affair for a girl, too much of love affair is bad. He added that development is what makes India lag behind in being the superpower. Even the answer to poverty is development and development is brought about only by knowledge.
Talking to the students to become future leaders he insisted on 6 things viz Dharma, My country right or wrong, Excellence, Nirbhay, Sahanubhuti and Tyaga. He told them the best way to inculcate ethics is to practice it. He exhorted the students to think for themselves and reiterated that the only way to be entrepreneurial was to be creative.
Earlier, on the previous day, SSIMS had organized a public talk at N.D Naik Hall (Adarsh High School), Margao on the topic “India: Today and tomorrow”. He left the audience astounded with his thought-provoking and powerful speech. This is one old man who, if given an opportunity can shake the entire political system.
Knowledge can be obtained from various sources, he said, adding that he personally found the Bhagwad Gita to be an immense source of managerial wisdom.