'India needs to nurture innovation'

Cheers filled the serene atmosphere of the Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology (DAIICT) campus as students received their degrees at its 8th convocation on Saturday.

Chief guest at the function, chairman, Board of Governors at IIT, Kanpur,  M Anandakrishnan, reminded students 'to keep in mind that the signature of innovation must be engraved' in their professional journey. DAIICT director Prof S C Sahasrabudhe and other dignitaries and senior faculty shared the dais with the chief guest and cheered loudly as the students stepped up to receive their degrees.

Anandakrishnan said innovation is the transformation of an idea into a marketable product or service, a new or improved manufacturing or distribution process, or even a new method of providing a social service.

"There is growing recognition that innovation encompasses a wide range of activities in addition to R&D such as organizational changes, training, testing, marketing and design," he said.

He said it is now universally recognised that a nations' economic growth is influenced to a large extent by knowledge creating activities.

"Sometimes, innovations are measured as patents per capita. Now, the United States takes first place, followed by Japan, Switzerland, Finland and Israel. Sweden, Germany, Canada, Denmark and Hong Kong rank in the top ten. Turning to the BRIC countries, India is 26th, Russia 34th and Brazil 41st. In this sense, we need to nurture more innovations," he said.

He said encouraging innovation is not only government's or educational institute's responsibility, but also the industry's.