MillenniumPost
Nation

Prez inaugurates 1st engineers conclave

‘By virtue of our achievements in multiple fields, India stands poised to emerge as a leading nation in the 21st century. Innovation capability of our scientists and engineers will play a critical role in enabling India achieve this goal’, said Pranab Mukherjee, President of India, while inaugurating India’s first ever ‘Engineers Conclave’. Bringing together India’s best brains in the area of Engineering, from Industry, Academia and Government R&D organisations to discuss national issues, the ‘Engineers Conclave 2013’ was inaugurated by the President  on Tuesday at a function in Vigyan Bhavan.
        
Inaugurating the event, Mukherjee said, ‘It is befitting that this conclave is being jointly organized by the Indian National Academy Engineering (INAE) and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO); the two themes of ‘Manufacturing of Aerospace systems’ and ‘Transforming Sundarban through engineering interventions’ are apt and timely’. He stated that he looked forward to the transformation of these themes into practical reality, based on the ideas discussed at the conclave. Engineers convert knowledge of basic science into products.  

Mukherjee said that innovation is a key managerial strategy for growth. He said that we must lay emphasis on its various dimensions such as process innovation, product innovation, business model innovation and new technology innovation. Strong capabilities in designing and building machine tools are particularly critical. He called upon the industry to develop close partnerships with universities and research institutions to take this aspiration forward. He stressed that in our country, a large population lives in villages and there is need for specific technological innovation for rural areas.

R Chidambaram, principal scientific advisor to the Government of India, brought out the importance of the manufacturing sector for the national economy in his keynote address. ‘If you want to be a global leader, you must have stomach for being the first introducer of new technologies. You must be willing to live with products with somewhat lower specifications (compared with what the global leaders can provide) as long the indigenous products meet the critical requirements’.

Avinash Chander, Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) chief and chairman of Engineers Conclave 2013 delivered the theme address. Calling the concept of Engineering Conclave, ‘a game changer’, Avinash said that it marks a historic day and a new chapter in the history of Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) and the country. 

Avinash said that India is ready to take its new role in technology leadership. This is also the appropriate time to assess our ability to translate these successes into production, he said. The year 2013 has been a laudable year in Indian aerospace history, with the Agni-5 launch, Arihant criticality, Mars Mission on 21 October & LCA. 
Next Story
Share it