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He called for a creative leadership that would ultimately lead to economic development and competitiveness for national prosperity and evolution of creative leadership. Former president APJ
Abdul Kalam today said there was a "large gap" in the availability of employable skill in the country and asked management institutions to play a role in contributing for skill
development as India has the largest number of youth. With 550 million people below the age of 30 years, a growing economy and developments in communication and transport, India is poised
for a surging growth led by next generation entrepreneurs, he said. "These enterprises would be identified by their competence, skill and high technology products and services. They
would be hallmarks of quality with cost effectiveness and efficiency with continuous improvement," Kalam said addressing the AIMS 22nd Annual Management Education Convention. He said
bridging the "large gap" in the availability of employable skill and how to make many of them as employment generator rather than employment seeker is a challenge. "Certainly,
AIMS and its partner institutions can play a major role in contributing for the skill development," he said. He emphasised on the physical, electronic and knowledge connectivity to
ensure, the earning capacity leading to economic connectivity and to find newer methods of cooperation so that core competence of even remote villages can be synergised for competitive
products. He called for a creative leadership that would ultimately lead to economic development and competitiveness for national prosperity and evolution of creative leadership. Kalam said
his pet project 'Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas' (PURA) can lead to upliftment of rural areas, attract investors and introduce effectively useful systems like Rural BPOs,
Micro Finance. "The need of the hour is the evolution of sustainable systems which act as enablers and bring inclusive growth and integrated development to the nation. One such
sustainable development system is the mission of Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA)," he said.