Revamp Education to Activate Students for Innovation. Dr. Ajit Prabhu

KOCHI:
The education system needs radical improvement to build the spirit of enquiry in the children to create an environment for new ideas and innovations, said Dr. V. Ajit Prabhu, State Nodal Officer, Patient Information Centre and Joint Director, Kerala State Council for Science Technology and Environment.
He was delivering the National Technology Day Oration at Cochin University of Science and Technology.
According to Dr. Prabhu, Idea Box and Innovation Workstations are essential in the University system to promote Innovations. Adequate care should be taken to protect the innovation by patenting and other Intellectual Property protection. Innovation ecosystem and metamorphosis for converting ideas to industry needs to be promoted, he added.
“Level of Technology determines the economic standard of any country and is in reverse proportion with poverty. Before 1000 years our country was rich in S&T and was a centre of knowledge. But now we are trailing behind as we lost knowledge as it was not protected. Even now India may be economically poor but not mentally or intellectually.
Innovation has four components: Curiosity, Creativity, Compassion, and Collaboration” said Dr. Prabhu.
According to Dr. Prabhu, China stands on the top of filing maximum number of patents around 1.8 lakh a year. Even South Korea has beaten Japan by investing heavily in science, technology and innovation. China and South Korea are doing very well in science because their investment is very high. Invest more in education and science to
secure the future of India. India needs to invest more in science as its future is linked with it.
If India invests in science over the next 10-20 years as much as China and South Korea do, we would be able to make up the lost time and catch up with them he said. Cusat Vice Chancellor Dr. J. Letha inaugurated the programme. The celebrations organized jointly by the Cusat Directorate of Public Relations, Centre for Science
Communication and K.M. School of Marine Engineering was presided over by Dr. K. A. Simon, Director, K.M. School of Marine Engineering, Dr. S. Anil Kumar, Director, Public Relations and Publications, Prof. N. G.
Nair, Course-in- Charge, K.M. School of Marine Engineering, K G Binimol, Section Officer, DPR&P spoke. Dr. Ajit Prabhu presented prizes to the winners of Techno-Quiz.