Monsoon prediction is known worldwide, but accurate and timely prediction of onset of monsoon is a global research priority, Kalam said while inaugurating the 13th National Children's Science Congress in Bhubaneswar.

The President said the quantum of rainfall in a particular area within a specified duration has not been determined by the present monsoon prediction system.

Recent heavy rains in Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad and Katrina hurricane in United States have created enormous loss of life and property. In Mumbai, in one single day, 900 mm rainfall was recorded bringing the life in the metro city to a grinding halt.

He said a mathematical model has to be evolved in predicting the quantum of rain for the particular cloud conditions to solve the problem that the people of Mumbai faced.

Kalam said the researchers now felt that a new type of radar called Polarimetric radar should be deployed which would provide the information for the particular cloud condition, and how much rain was likely in that period.

The President said he was delighted that the 13th National Children's Science Congress had chosen to focus on the 'harnessing of water resources for better future' and called upon the 1000-odd child scientists gathered from across the country to have a vision and do research in energy and computer apart from monsoon research.

The President said the problem of water management must be debated and discussed to have a networking of water to solve the water and drought problems. He said the government has decided to have a task team to look into the linking of all the major rivers, which could solve the problem of the floods as well as mitigate the drought problem besides generating nearly 60,000 MW of power.

But at the same time, one should also look at the geological and the environmental aspect while linking the major rivers.

Mr Kalam said the forecasting of earthquake was also the paramount importance for future research and hoped that in the next five years, it would be possible.

On the energy sector, he said increasing the solar photovoltaic cell efficiency from the existing 12 to 14 per cent to 45 to 50 per cent using technologies such as nano material Carbon Nano Tube and nano electronics was an important mission.

The solar power in comparison to others was indeed more competitive as it would cost Rs. 10-12 crore for generating one MW of power whereas in other cases, it would cost only Rs 3-5 crore.

He, however, said in the next 50 to 100 years gas and coal would be reduced and we have to depend upon the solar and nuclear power to generate power and this could be possible only through research to convert from Thorium fuel to thorium reactor, a big challenge for the young scientists.

Mr Kalam said that by the end of this century, there would be a strong trend towards convergence of human thinking with the world of machine intelligence that the human species initially created.

The President said the solutions to problems like forecasting of monsoon; energy, healthcare and earthquakes were vital for the growth of the society. It needed the pooling of best of researchers in multiple fields and also required very intensive computing environment, he said. In short the world should become a virtual laboratory with virtual computing environment leading to the Knowledge Grid across the globe to solve the complex scientific challenges for enriching the humanity.

Computers, Kalam said were going to give us a challenge. Not only the biologists, neurologists and psychologists but the entire scientific community would have greater responsibility of keeping mankind above man-made computers.

Unfortunately, the creativity and imagination components of human brain had not been fully explored and utilised, he said and called for a unique database with special application of pharmacogenetics (personalized medicine) for focusing healthcare delivery.