R A Mashelkar, former director general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), on Wednesday stressed the importance of innovation for growth and execution of dynamic ideas into commercial activity.
He spoke on the three freedoms which have catapulted the country into a major economic force — 1947 - political freedom, 1991 - trade and economic freedom and 2008 - technological growth — that have taken the country to the third most powerful economic giant . India has the potential to be the number one country by 2039, he said.
This year it is awarded to R A Mashelkar, National Research Professor and CSIR Bhatnagar Fellow, who is also the President of Global Research Alliance, a network of publicly funded R&D institutes from Asia-Pacific, Europe and USA.
Mashelkar enthralled the audience with a thought-provoking lecture on ‘Reinventing Business, Reinventing India’. His thesis also in building the largest grassroot refinery at Jamnagar was also used to develop Reliance Communications where a call was made cheaper than a post card.
The Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers (IIChE) will award distinguished Chemical Engineers with Chemcon Distinguished Speaker (CDS) award instituted by Industries and National Laboratories. Some 15 distinguished speakers both from India and abroad will be conferred with CDS awards for their contributions to the field of Chemical Engineering.
The unique feature of Chemcon - 2011 is industry institute interaction wherein the recent inventions made by leading scientists will be discussed. Apart from manufacturing bulk and specialty chemicals, the discipline has made ways into the energy, aerospace, biotechnology, environmental engineering, among other disciplines, where several processes and design are based on principles and fundamentals of Chemical Engineering. Chemcon - 2011 is a platform to emphasize the synergy between Research, Education and Industry.
Meanwhile, U R Rao, Chairman, PRL Council, ISRO, stressed the need to develop scientific temper among youngsters as against astrological predictions and warned against being superstitious.
