As the Government of India launches ambitious programs and projects to accelerate India’s development, the focus is often on the end result. Project management challenges and lessons behind these initiatives are rarely the topic of discussion. So when the vice president of India focused his keynote on the planning and execution of some of the country’s largest projects, there was a lot for project managers to learn about.Mr. Naidu commended PMI and PMI Pearl City Chapter for organizing the mega conference and selecting a conference theme that is closely linked to the government’s mission to “reform, perform, and transform.” Calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi the project manager leading the project to transform India, he said, “Project managers are extremely important for a nation’s progress – whether it’s to plan and execute projects well, be change leaders, or inspire people from different locations, cultures, ethnicities to work together for the common good.”Addressing the project managers in the audience, he said that given the growth projections for India, it is a great place and time for project managers to grow their career. “My message to you is two-fold: acquire the right skills and keep yourself constantly attuned to the demands of the future. Secondly, PMI’s Global Celebration of Service is a great opportunity for project managers to give back to society. So go ahead and commit yourself to a cause that you believe in,” he said.On NITI Aayog’s task force on project and program management in which PMI is a knowledge partner, he said he believed this was the right time for such a step. “Our country has embarked on a development agenda that is bold, ambitious, and often at a pace and scale that has not been seen anywhere else in the world,” he added.Mr. Naidu spoke about some of the large programs that he had launched as the minister of rural development and later as the minister of housing and urban affairs, such as the Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojana to connect rural India with better road infrastructure, Swachh Bharat, and Smart Cities.He touched upon challenges faced and lessons learned in some of these large programs, such as the struggle to change people’s perceptions for the success of Swachh Bharat, strong leadership to make Smart Cities a reality, championship at the topmost level for recordbreaking success of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, and innovative thinking to overcome the problem of land acquisition to speed up highway construction.Throughout his address, the vice president continued to draw guffaws from the audience with his trademark style of creating acronyms and using rhyming words to drive home the message.