About Lead India 2020

In his book India 2020: A Vision for the New A.P. Millennium J. Abdul Kalam says, “A developed India by 2020, or even earlier, is not a dream. It need not be a mere vision in the minds of many Indians. It is a mission we can all take up – and succeed.”Following the UNDP lead of putting people at the center of the development and keeping in perspective that 54% of our population is youth, Prof. N.B Sudershan Acharya integrated Dr. Kalam’s ideals, vision and mission and created a training program for the youth titled Aap Badho Desh Ko Bhadao– the fundamental philosophy being Individual development leads to National Development.Lead India 2020 Foundation, is now on the path of carrying the torch forward, focused on igniting and channelizing hidden potential in our youth.

Most of the training is delivered to the students by their peers, Change Agents, who form the Lead India National Club (LINC) in their respective schools. Guided by 10- point oath designed by Dr. Kalam, the Change Agents embrace a new way of living. Graduates of Lead India 2020 training program set high goals in life and become Change Agents to change society and environment around them. The training was first delivered to 6,000 tribal students in remote villages and then to 25,000 tribal students in the next two years. Later on mass transformation in high school students was accomplished with over 1 lakh students participating in Medak and over 2 lakh students in Karimnagar. In 2008, partnering with Government of Andhra Pradesh, about 5.5 lakh students underwent training. The training ignites scientific temper, inculcates human values, and inspires leadership with patriotism. At the end of the training session, each student not only sets a “mission for life” but also writes his/her mission statement and is kept in his/her file. With support from corporations like GE and IT industry’s HYSEA member companies’ employees, a mentor network is being created to help the students to work towards their career goals. Lead India 2020 Foundation works to ensure that the student’s “mission for life” is accomplished. In his last speech as out-going President, Dr. Kalam said, “Lead India 2020 is the 2nd National Movement, a mission oriented program transforming youth, gave me an assurance that this will transform develop- ing India into a developed nation by 2020.” Lead India 2020 is in the process of publishing the results of its experiments to be shared with Chief Ministers of all states.