'Partner with developed nations to catch up in S&T'

India needs to partner with developed nations and collaborate with other institutions within India and abroad to achieve its goal of catching up with developments in science and technology, a senior ISRO official said here today.
"To catch up with development in science and technology, India needs partnership with developed countries and needs to collaborate with other institutions within India and also abroad to achieve that goal," Dr Mylswamy Annadurai, Programme Director, ISRO, said in his address to students of Kumaraguru College of Technology here.
He said it was needless to state that the Indian economy is linked to globalisation and there are apprehensions about this model. "But the fact is that each one of us today is connected, thanks to technology," Mylswamy said.

He recalled that ISRO succeeded in Chandrayaan-1 and Mangalyaan missions in their first attempt despite being not sure it was possible to do so, that too with less money and a restricted schedule.
Mylswamy said the present generation is immensely exposed to advances in science and technology and are better equipped to create a knowledge-based and technology-driven society.
Reffering to the economy, he said it has improved significantly and government's emphasis to improve the base and quality of education was clear from the massive national programmes like universal Right to Education.
India is still passing through a very crucial phase of development due to rapid population increase, he said, adding that leaders are faced with challenges to reconcile between poverty and plenty, development and corruption, tradition and modernism and most importantly, for the urban and rural divide.