Renowned environment scientist Ram Ramanujam on Tuesday asked students of Super 30 to shine and build a better nation.
The students of Anand Kumar's Super 30 in Patna got the chance to interact with California-based Ramanujam.
The theme of his lecture was "East is East, West is West; What is the Best".
Ramanujam spoke on how to lead a good life and what extraordinary things a man can do and how these can make differences. Addressing the students, who are preparing for IIT entrance, Ramanujam said: "If you reshape and reform yourself into a good person, the world would become a good place."
He added that there are two types of knowledge, the one needed to live in and the other needed to live for.
"The first one implies the means of living and the second is for the goals of living. Ordinary men can do extraordinary work by achieving their goals," he said.
Super 30 provides free education to meritorious students from economically weaker sections of society to prepare for IIT entrance.
He cited instances of a few renowned people, including Bill Gates, a dropout of Harvard University, who went on to start Microsoft. Ramanujam cited the case of Steve Jobs, who worked in a car garage but later transformed the lives of many through innovative thinking by building Apple.
On budding entrepreneurs, Ramanujam said: "We are all part of the growing society. We owe a lot to the society for all that it has given to us. You have an obligation to yourself because our individual salvation depends on our collective salvation. More than anyone in the world, only you can re-imagine and remake the world better. New businesses create many jobs and all businesses start from scratch. Employment can improve a country's economy."?
Encouraging the students, he said: "Our land has enormous potential but needs job. Some of you can be budding entrepreneurs searching the boundaries of unchartered territories. You can create a lasting impact on our land and beyond. If anyone has a reasonable plan to start a small-scale industry that can generate at least nine jobs within a year, then you can contact us."
The man from California also informed the participants that if someone came up with a viable plan for a small-scale industry, he would provide a starting capital of Rs 3 lakh because "it's your time to shine and build a better nation".
Super 30 founder Anand Kumar said: "Self-awareness is important and the best we can do is to improve our own understanding of what we do or why we don't do and what we'd like to do. Sincere and well-timed encouragement, well-crafted mentoring and demonstrating help students know their goals."
