Scindia urges scientists to develop 'disruptive' technologies

Pune, Jun 18 (UNI) Calling upon scientists to develop ''disruptive'' technologies to propel India to a permier position in the global market, Minister of State for Communications&IT Jyotiraditya Scindia today said ''multiplexing'' including IT, nano, bio-tech and cognitive sciences, is the future.

Inaugurating the fifth edition of 'Hi-Tech Pune', a conference on innovations led inclusive growth (IT and BT) focusing on 'Gaming and Animation', the Minister said the innovations in disruptive technologies is the future and cited an example of the telecom sector.

He said it had led to inclusive growth by creating employment and reducing poverty. The service sector was helping remove poverty.

He said the corporates and academia work together on R&D to foster 'initiatives', for which the governement would provide appropriate fiscal incentives.

''We need to harness and produce the knowledge for comparative advantage in the global market, and innovation would be our intellectual property rights (IPR). For this, the temples of modern India should be housed in Indian Institutes of Technology and not religion,'' Mr Scindia said.

On the occasion, two personalities were given the lifetime achievement awards, Padma Vibhushan N R Narayan Murthy and Padma Bhushan Dr K I Varaprasad Reddy, Managing Director of Shantha Biotechnics Pvt Ltd.

In their acceptance speeches, Mr Murthy said the IT will continue to witness growth and provide employment in the coming years.

However, Dr Reddy lamented that the huge salaries offered by IT sector was attracting youth and that very few were pursuing science.

The scientists are a dimishing community. There was already an imbalance, and a balanced approach has to be followed, he said, adding, China had already started working in the bio-technology sector and had four incubation centres whereas India still has to get the first one.

Mahratta Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture IT Committee chairman Deepak Shikarpur said the IT industry had already done business worth 10 billion US dollars and would cross the USD 15 billion-mark soon. It has registered the highest rate of growth, specially in engineering, services, e-governance, e-security and sport sectors. The government policy of allowing software development in residential complexes was another reason for the rapid growth of the IT sector, he added.

Senior Congress leader and MP Suresh Kalmadi welcomed the guests.

A short animation film, 'the bad egg', was screened on the occasion.

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