Educational institutions urged infuse a spirit of innovation, entrepreneurship and experimentation in students
The Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu has stressed the need to create an enabling ecosystem for R&D for India to become a developed nation, for which educational institutions will have to increase interface with the industry to promote result-oriented research that addresses contemporary challenges such as climate change, pollution, health and poverty.
Inaugurating the Puducherry Technological University, in Puducherry on 13 Sept 2021, the Vice President underlined that it is the cutting-edge research in science, technology and other fields that puts developed countries ahead of the rest.
He urged students to conduct socially relevant research and come up with out-of-box ideas to make the nation strong and bring prosperity and happiness in people’s lives.
Puducherry Technological University (PTU) is the first state university of the Union Territory of Puducherry which has been constituted by upgrading Pondicherry Engineering College established in 1986.
Praising the Atal Incubation Centre, set up at the institute, for successfully incubating 15 start-ups in diverse areas such as Electronic Design, Manufacturing and Drone Technologies, the Vice President said that India is scaling new heights in the fields of entrepreneurship and innovation.
He expressed happiness over India becoming the world’s third largest start-up ecosystem and said that with the opening of the space sector for private players, several promising space-related start-ups have come up.
Noting that leadership teams of 45% start-ups have a woman entrepreneur, he hoped that this healthy trend will inspire more women to become entrepreneurs.
Naidu emphasised the need to provide equal opportunities for women, and called for ending artificial barriers created in the name of caste, religion and gender. “You must prepare a generation to see that all kinds of social discriminations are put to an end,” he said to the university authorities.
Terming the huge youth population as the core strength of New India, he urged the educational institutions to infuse a spirit of innovation, entrepreneurship and experimentation among the students so that they are able to drive the nation forward.
Mentioning several government measures to support start-ups such as broadening the definition, simplifying regulations and providing tax exemptions, he exhorted the industry to also come forward and support young entrepreneurs by handholding, providing funds and incubating their ventures. “Improved Industry-Academia Partnership has to be stepped up to give a further fillip in this direction”, he added.
The Vice President also praised the Indian start-ups for coming up with life-saving innovations amid the COVID-19 pandemic such as testing kits and cheap ventilators as well as innovations in supply chain management and logistics.
Observing that the education sector was one of the most affected by the pandemic, Naidu opined that the worst seems to be over and we are looking at the post-COVID recovery.
Complimenting Pondicherry Engineering College for raising the technical education standards, he said that the college has played a key role in the up-liftment of the socio-economic status of the UT.
Congratulating the people of Puducherry on getting their first state university, Naidu said it would offer many additional opportunities to excel such as collaboration with international universities and autonomy in starting new courses. He also termed the establishment of PTE as an important milestone in the history of technical education of Puducherry Union Territory. #startups #technology #research #investment /fiinews.com
