'Innovation more vital than capital'

NEW DELHI: Emerging technological advancement should be complimented by proper innovation to reap benefits, stated Minister of state (independent charge) of the Department of Science and Technology, Kapil Sibal. He was speaking at the Emerging Technology 2004 event organized by CII.

"Broadly, there are three kinds of technologies that are going to emerge in future — Nanotechnology, Biotechnology and Geo technology. Innovation is the need of the hour and it would go hand in hand with cutting edge technologies. Capital investment no longer generates exponential growth and what is relevant is innovation. The task at hand is how fast can innovators change the way people think," he added.

Talking about India, he said that 70 percent of its GDP is generated in rural areas. "We have to make sure that the rural sector is well connected to manufacturing industries in IT sector. We need to concentrate on manufacturing sector as jobs get generated there. As 36 percent of the people are illiterate in this country, we need to change this scenario and work towards making India a 100 per cent literate country," Sibal explained.

Emphasizing on the education aspect, he said that in automotive industry India doesn't have any institutions where people can get trained. "Government of India should come forward to set up these institutions in design and materials," he added.

Emerge Tech 2004, 2nd Conclave on Emerging Technologies, featured two concurrent conferences focusing on Automotive Materials and Automation in Manufacturing respectively, and discusses linkage between technology and industry.

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