Commonwealth nations must join hands on “mega science projects”, President Pranab Mukherjee said at the inauguration of the Commonwealth Science Conference here on Tuesday, where hundreds of scientists and students from over 30 countries have gathered.
The technical complexity and scale of mega projects are “manifestly multi-agency and international in nature” and Commonwealth countries should get together “to explore how best science can be used to address the pressing challenges that confront humanity,” he said.
“India will soon be embarking on international collaborative programmes in disease biology, marine biology and bio-informatics. India is happy to help in whatever manner possible to strengthen the scientific base and research capabilities of the smaller countries of the Commonwealth.”
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Indian scientists were “proud partners” in experiments at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, in the building of the 30-metre telescope project in Hawaii and other such international collaborations, he said. India hopes to focus in the future on “blue sky research” dealing with important developments in fundamental science, including advanced materials and medical biology and research and development related to water and diseases specific to India. “We in India see our future as inextricably linked to the progress we can make in the field of science and technology,” the President said. ICT and the digital revolution were rapidly transforming lives in India. The number of mobile phone users, for instance, was 930 million at the end of September 2014, which is the second highest in the world after China.
“India also ranks third after China and the U.S. in terms of number of Internet users. The penetration of Internet use as a percentage of our population is only around 19.2 at present indicating the huge potential that exists for further growth,” he said.