 Namaskaram, this Independence Day is very special because it marks the beginning of the 75th year of independent India. India has come a long way since 1947. We have made great strides in terms of health, industry, scientific achievements and more importantly, lifting millions of people out of poverty. But many challenges still face the nation. To overcome these challenges, responsible and conscious action from the leadership and every citizen will be most essential. The immediate and obvious challenge is the pandemic, of course. I know a lot of people are thinking of virus as an enemy to fight with. No, please do not attempt to fight the virus. What is needed is social distancing, masking, vaccination and following all the other guidelines being issued by competent authorities. I beseech all of you, India has already lost nearly half a million people. And across the world, nearly five million people have died. Let us put an end to this. If all of us follow the protocols, live responsibly and consciously, this virus will definitely dissipate. Well, the virus may be grabbing all the headlines, but that is not the only challenge we face as a generation of people. There are many other things that need urgent action as well. Among these, the most important challenge that we face right now is soil degradation in the country. Unfortunately, this is a reality in large parts of the world, but particularly in India, it is a big challenge. We are heading to a place where our food and water scarcity is reaching a dangerous point. A couple of failed monsoons, we could face severe levels of strife and suffering happening in this country. Unless we turn this situation around, the planet that we hand over to the coming generations will be in such a state, they will look back and curse us. That's how we are living it. It's extremely important we leave rich soil, clean water and clean air for people to live, because good life comes not because of wealth, but because of clean water, clean air, nutritious food. These things are being severely threatened right now with soil degradation. This is the most important aspect that we need to address. In our concerns of the pandemic, we should not miss this point that our soil needs care. Well, I've been speaking to a lot of experts in the field and everywhere, there is enough awareness about the problem and also the solutions. It is just that to implement, it needs people's cooperation, most nations on the planet being democratic. It's very important, large numbers of people need to understand this and support the governments in implementing long-term processes for soil regeneration and in turn prevent water scarcity and other fallouts. Today we are seeing everywhere climate change issues have become big and they have become big only because disasters are hitting us. As conscious human beings, let us not wait for a disaster to come and strike us. If we are conscious, if you're civilized, we must wake up before disasters come. A disaster is not a pleasant thing, it's not a news. In the newspaper or watch something on the television, people who are there either have lost their lives or lost everything that they had. In rectifying this, the most important aspects are we must attend to the government policies to ensure that significant amount of budgets and government machinery is invested in this. For this to happen, the government policies are very important. Coming up with the right policies to protect India's soil is very important. A determined action on the part of the administrations, industry and the people is very, very needed right now. It is not a tomorrow's problem anymore, it is today's problem. We need to address this. These problems have been mounting for the last fifty years. In the last fifty years, the level of damage we have caused to the biodiversity in the country's soil is immense and unpardonable. To fix this, we need a committed and a determined approach and ready for a long haul to turn this around. It is possible to do this and this is the best gift we can offer to our children and their children. One thing about our nation, which is a kaleidoscope of cultures, kaleidoscope of ethnicity and in every way we are a mix, an impossible mix of people, which is our strength, which is our quality. It is very important that we understand, though for small things we will bicker, when really big issues come, we have always come together to act as one nation. And once again this is very needed. We are entering the seventy-fifth year of India's independence. I beseech every one of you that we must act as one nation to beat the pandemic and also to revive India's soil and make this soil rich because the richness of our soil naturally determines the richness of the life that we are. Richness of the life that we are will definitely determine the wealth of the nation because people and in turn the soil is the only wealth the nation has.