In the coming times, India will have to recognize its existing weaknesses and convert them into opportunities and for this it is very important to keep technology and innovation at the center. Dr. Nikhil Aggarwal, Director of Foundation of Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT) said this during the ABP Entrepreneurship Conclave. He said that today the hesitation or taboo that was seen earlier regarding startups in India has ended to a great extent.
Now there is a need to further strengthen this thinking so that more and more youth move towards entrepreneurship. Referring to the RDI (Research, Development and Innovation) fund of about Rs 1 lakh crore recently announced by the Prime Minister, he said that this fund will give a new direction to research and innovation in the country and will provide great support to the startup ecosystem.
new discovery opportunities
Dr. Nikhil Aggarwal also told that earlier in the education system, professors and researchers were expected to be limited only to teaching or academic research, but now the situation is changing rapidly. Today, emphasis is being laid on commercializing research, i.e. connecting it to the market, so that the society and economy can directly benefit from innovation. According to him, India has a golden opportunity today, where with the right policies and resources, big inventions and new technologies can be developed in the future. Technology based solutions in health, food processing as well as other areas can make India strong at the global level.
Describing the agricultural sector as very important, he said that the challenges related to farming are continuously increasing in India. The size of fields is becoming smaller and over-fertilization has become a major problem, which is negatively impacting the fertility and capacity of the soil.
Dr. Aggarwal said that there is no dearth of hard work and dedication among Indian farmers, but they do not get proper compensation as per their hard work, which is a serious challenge. In this context, he gave the example of a new innovation related to soil testing, ‘Bhoo-Tester’. According to him, whereas earlier it used to take three to four days for the soil test report to arrive, now through this technology the condition of the land can be detected in just a few seconds, which will help the farmers in taking right decisions at the right time.
AI is an important part of business-industry
Regarding Artificial Intelligence (AI), Dr. Nikhil Aggarwal clearly said that there is no need to be afraid of it. Comparing AI with technologies like telephone and computer, he said that just as these technologies changed the way of working with time, in the same way AI is also becoming an important part of business and industry.
According to him, instead of taking away jobs, AI will make people more capable. He said that just as there was a change from the typewriter era to the computer era and new types of jobs were created, similarly AI will also bring new opportunities. Therefore, India will have to strengthen itself by adopting AI and using it properly, so that the country can move towards global leadership in the field of innovation and technology.
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