: There has been a greater push in innovation in the last five years, and there are about 15,000 startups out of which 5,000 are deep technology-based startups, secretary to Department of Science and Technology (DST) professor Ashutosh Sharma said Thursday.
We have 15,000 startups, but a country like India needs 1.5 lakh startups or 15 lakh startups which need to come up not only from IITs and universities, but also from the grassroots-level," he said.
"Hence, we started the MANAK (Million Minds Augmenting National Aspirations and Knowledge) programme and the aim is to reach five lakh schools in the country this year with competition on innovative ideas," Sharma said addressing the DST-FICCI 'Global Research and Development Summit 2019' that began he.
The department of science and technology has a very active partnership with 45-plus countries and MoUs with 100- pluscountries, he said.
"Our R&D expenditure in the last decade has tripled and the per scientist investment in science and technology is comparable to many countries of Europe and the US, he said.
Sharma further there were about a dozen MNCs that set up R&D in the country and they provide solution to global problems, and "we want Indian industries to ramp up their investment in technology."
He said, "India and Africa can come together also on locally relevant grassroots innovations and technologies in agriculture, health among other domains where we learn from each other and work together and deliver."
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