Innovations, enterprise key to India's development: PM Modi
Mumbai, Aug 11 : Innovation is the "buzz-word" of the 21st century and any society which does not innovate will stagnate, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said here on Saturday.
He said innovations, along with enterprise, shall be the foundation for making India a developed economy and pave the way for a long-term sustainable, technology-led economic growth of the country.
Modi was addressing the 56th annual convocation of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) during its ongoing Diamond Jubilee celebrations here.
The Prime Minister pointed out that India is now looked upon as a nursery of unicorn start-ups (worth more than a billion dollars), for which one of the biggest source of talent in this revolution are the IITs in the country.
"That India is emerging as the hub for start-ups shows the thirst for innovations... We must make India as the most attractive destination for innovations and enterprise," Modi added.
"We must build on this... It will not happen only through government efforts but by youngsters here... The best ideas come in their minds and not in government offices," Modi said.
He appealed to the young IIT graduates to innovate in India. Innovate for humanity -- mitigating climate change to ensure better agricultural productivity, water conservation, clean energy, combat malnutrition, effective waste management and other areas.
Earlier, the IIT-B conferred an honorary Doctor of Science on former alumnus, Romesh T. Wadhvani, the founder-chairman of Symphony Technology Group in California, US.
Modi gave away gold medals to three top distinguished students of IIT-B and silver medals to 43 others in various categories.
Later, Modi inaugurated the new building of the Department of Energy Science and Engineering and the Centre for Environmental Science and Engineering, at the IIT-B, that has been selected as one of the Institutions of Eminence by the government.
Present on the occasion were Maharashtra Governor C.V. Rao, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar, IIT-B Board of Governors Chairman Dilip Shanghvi, IIT-B Director Prof. Devang Khakhar and others.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
