Our Correspondent
Lumami | May 15
President of India, Pranab Mukherjee said that innovation is the key to progress and prosperity. Formally inaugurating the ‘innovation exhibition’ at the auditorium before the start of the Third Convocation at Nagaland University headquarters at Lumami here today, the President pointed out that the process of innovation converts knowledge into social good and economic wealth.
“It breeds a culture of deep thought and brings in poise, balance and discernment in behavior. It encourages the engagement of young talent with the society to improve quality of life,” said Mukherjee.
While congratulating the Nagaland University for organizing an Innovators’ Exhibition, Mukherjee termed it a pioneering initiative which recognizes creative and innovative talent at the grassroots and links it to a formal education system. In this regard, he called upon the University to strengthen this linkage and extend it to various institutes of science and technology in the region.
“This will enable innovators to establish technology for commercial use. The next step should be to develop a marketing strategy to attract entrepreneurs and investors,” said Mukherjee. He further called upon the faculty and students of the University to ‘search, spread, sense and celebrate innovations in the region and let this be the beginning of a festival of innovations in our country’.
While speaking at the Third Convocation, Mukherjee declared this as the decade of innovation which should benefit the common man. He said there are grassroots innovations that require technical and commercial assistance for converting them into economically viable products and therefore Indian Universities should mentor such initiatives.
He asserted that India’s economic progress will depend on our “ability to innovate”. He lamented that India lags behind some of the major economies in innovation. “Though Indians comprise one-sixth of the world population, only one in 50 patent applications in the world are filed in India. We have abundant manpower whose capacity should be developed by a sustained programme of education and training. Bit more importantly, we should revamp systems to encourage and generate innovation,” the President maintained.
