A call to budding engineers to think creative, innovate and use the technology developed by them to meet the needs of the society was made by R. Jayavel, Director, Centre for Research, Anna University, Chennai.
Inaugurating the Science & Humanities Association at the Thanthai Periyar Government Institute of Technology here on Thursday, Dr. Jayavel said that while in school, the students pursued promotional education aimed at getting promoted to the next grade, in college, they were pursuing professional education.
Gone are the days when people talked of the need for providing education and imparting literacy to the people. “Previously, education was an investment. But today, for an engineer, innovation is the investment,” he said.
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The Director of Research said that in realisation of the fact that the developments in the IT sector were not permanent, the Government of India has initiated sincere efforts at making India a manufacturing hub by encouraging the development of the manufacturing sector through the ‘Make in India’ campaign. There are 365 Raman spectrometers in the laboratories in the country, but unfortunately none of them has been developed in India owing to lack of ideas and innovation. “What is needed today is a technological revolution starting from the students, institutions and the society,” he said.
Adverting to the demographic dividend that India possessed today with 42 per cent of its population constituting youth, Dr. Jayavel said that this has made India the wealthiest country in the world since this youth population constituted India’s work force. “The youth have to ensure productive growth of the country through useful innovation. You should use technology for societal development. That is what we are looking for from you”, he told the students.
M. Arularasu, Principal, TPGIT, called upon the students to give useful ideas to the Vellore Corporation to help it qualify for the Smart City status. “Research should become a habit.”
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The Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, has sanctioned Rs.50 lakh to TPGIT under FIST (Fund for Improvement of Science & Technology Infrastructure) for purchase of equipments for various departments. The DST has released Rs. 32 lakh as first instalment. After spending this amount and sending an utilisation report, the DST would release the balance amount, he said.
Later, Dr. Jayavel released a CD in connection with the Science & Humanities Association. S. Prakash, Head of the Department of Chemistry welcomed the gathering. P. Manivel, Associate Professor of Chemistry, spoke about the association. M. Thamil Selvan, HOD, Physics, introduced the chief guest. J. Rex Martin Shayaraj, HOD, Maths, proposed a vote of thanks.