‘Innovate to transform young population into asset’
| Date :20-Oct-2019 |
Staff Reporter :
Raipur
With a view to encourage, popularise and inculcate scientific temper among the children of the country, National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has organised national level science exhibition at BTI Ground in Raipur from October 15 to 19 where children showcase their talents in science and mathematics and their applications in different areas related with our everyday life. On the second day of the 46th Jawaharlal Nehru National Science, Mathematics and Environment Exhibition (JNNSMEE) for Children-2019, Speaker Professor Sanjay Tiwari, Head, School of Studies in Electronics & Photonics & Renewable Energy Technology & Management, said India aspires to be 5 trillion-dollar economy by 2024, India needs to emerge as global innovation, entrepreneurship and startup hub. Considering India’s current demography, youngsters need to be in forefront of this innovative movement and higher education institutes need to play a key role and emerge as centers of excellence producing global quality research and innovation?
He said that India has jumped five places to rank 52 in the Global Innovation Index 2019, up from the 57 it had in last year’s rankings. India is consistently among the top in the world in innovation drivers such as ICT services exports, graduates in science and engineering, the quality of universities, gross capital formation - a measure of economy- wide investments - and creative goods exports. Dr Tiwari said that the buzzword across the globe for the 21st century is ‘Innovation’. In the simplest term, Innovation could be defined as converting ideas into new or improved products, processes and services. Undoubtedly, Innovation is about taking inventions to marketplace by translating scientific knowledge into products, services and offerings for economic growth and social development. Even, Prime Minister of India has declared decade 2010-20 as the ‘Decade of Innovation’, to unleash the creative potential of every Indian.
A range of government policies and programmes, including the ‘Make in India’, ‘Start-up India’, ‘Innovate India’ and ‘Digital India’ initiatives, have fuelled this innovation drive. India is consistently among the top in the world in innovation drivers such ICT services exports, graduates in science and engineering, the quality of universities and scientific publications, economy-wide investments and also creative goods exports. Our investment in R&D is a paltry 0.7 per cent of GDP. Very little of this goes to universities considering that a bulk of public R&D goes into space, energy and defence sectors, he said. He added that our young population can be converted into an asset if we innovate and for this reason, innovation is most important.