B.N. Suresh, former Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, said on Friday that priority must be given to develop science and technology to facilitate progress of the country. He was inaugurating the eighth international-level Control Instrumentation System Conference (CISCON – 2011) organised by the Department of Instrumentation and Control Engineering (ICE), Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT), here.
Mr. Suresh said that Instrumentation and Control Engineering had been playing a dominant role in the daily lives of people. It was one of the important constituents of science and technology. Although technology had grown exponentially, India had not been left behind. This was because of the vision of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. There were now talks of developing all kinds of nuclear reactors. But the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan had raised concerns of nuclear safety. Hence it was necessary to build all safeguards in the reactors and assure the public about their safety.
Three “Ts” had become important in the 21st Century. They were biotechnology, information technology, and nanotechnology. The barriers between various disciplines were disappearing, Mr. Suresh said. Pro-Chancellor of Manipal University H.S. Ballal said knowledge was growing at such an exponential pace that textbooks were getting outdated in a short span of time. Hence it was necessary for teachers and professionals to update their knowledge by attending seminars.
According to a survey, only 30 per cent of the engineers coming out of the colleges were employable. This was because of the gap between the industry and academia. Smriti Mishra of the Department of ICE, MIT, bagged the Best Outgoing Student Award.
