President Pranab Mukherjee asks scientists to work for Nobel in time-bound manner

Pointing out that no Indian has won a Nobel Prize in science in over eight decades, President Pranab Mukherjee today asked the scientific community to work in a "time-bound" manner to help the country bag the "long overdue" prize in this field.

"...it has been 83 long years since C V Raman won the Nobel Prize for Physics. Another Nobel Prize in the sciences is long overdue for India. I call upon the scientific fraternity gathered here to rise upto this challenge and work towards this goal in a time-bound manner," he said inaugurating the Indian Science Congress here.

Expressing the hope that India would emerge as a major economic power by 2035, he said "we should also emerge as a major knowledge power with high human and societal value"

"We need an educational system which lays importance on development of a scientific culture within the society.

"Mere economic growth without the attendant knowledge capacity to manage the dimensions of change would neither suffice nor be appropriate," he said.

Underscoring the need for innovation, he said it was vital for the country if "we have to compete in a globalised economy".

The recently announced science, technology and innovation policy, he said, has laid the road map for the development of an ecosystem for innovation and for encouraging, recognising and rewarding the innovators in society.

Thanks to technological innovation, he said telephony and Internet has brought about a transformational change in the society.

While mobile phone users in the country are the second highest in the world, he said India ranks only third after the US and China in terms of Internet users.

Referring to the works of great scientific minds like J C Bose who motivated generations of people to move towards scientific endeavour, the President felt public and political understanding of science is crucial.

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