SPEECH BY HER EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT OF INDIA, SHRIMATI PRATIBHA DEVISINGH PATIL, AT THE INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, KANPUR

Kanpur, 6th March 2010

Honourable Members,

Dear Students and Faculty,

I am happy to be present at IIT Kanpur today, on the occasion of its Golden Jubilee Celebrations. The Indian Institutes of Technology are a product of the vision of our first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who believed that educational institutions of the highest standards for teaching science and technology were an absolute necessity for India's overall development. The purpose of setting up IITs was to train students, who would have the knowledge and skills to conduct original research and provide leadership in technical innovation, for the growth and development of the nation. The commitment and hard work of the faculty and staff, as also the success achieved by the students and alumni of the IITs have validated the rationale for their establishment.

IIT Kanpur has come a long way in the 50 years of its existence. From a small beginning in 1959, with just 100 students and a small faculty, today it is known for its strong academic and research activities in many fields. It has made an impact on technical education within the country, while its students through their innovations, have played a transformative role in India, as well as around the world. Their efforts continue. The Nano Satellite built by students of this Institute and handed over to the Indian Space Research Organization today, is a preface to the complex nature of tasks that they are equipped to handle. I was also very happy to have placed into the ground, a time-capsule of the achievements and history of IIT Kanpur, so that in time to come, people will know about the pioneering work undertaken here.

India has built considerable capacity in science and technology since independence. If training and mentoring young science students and encouraging work on research was envisioned as a high priority in the early years, it is now of even greater criticality in the 21st Century, as India seeks to sustain its position as one of the knowledge power centres of the world. There is, thus, an urgent need to bring new vitality in our work. As Swami Vivekananda said "Great things have been done in the past in this land, and there is both time and room for greater things to be done yet". You are all aware about the dramatic changes that are taking place in science and how these are having an impact on society. We need to not only keep pace, but infact, stay ahead in technological advancements. Basic research, laboratories and experimental facilities require extensive material, human and intellectual resources. Our efforts should be to constantly build and replenish our stock of scientific personnel.

Over the past years, Government has been making efforts to broaden the educational base, so that an expanded pool of young students interested and talented in the study of science, is available for institutes of higher education, whose numbers have been increased. Academicians, faculty members and students must strive for excellence and work with dedication and thoroughness to create the greatest of technologies. Science involves strenuous efforts and hard work, it is serious work, in which the mental faculties in their entirety have to be fully engaged at all times. Therefore, those pursuing studies and research in science must be rigourous in their observations, their documentation and their testing, so that their work stands-up to scrutiny and cannot be doubted. Science is also becoming increasingly inter-linked and multi-disciplinary. This calls for multi-institutional and, in several cases, multi-country participation. Institutes must, therefore, develop robust mechanisms for collaboration with other institutions in the country and outside as well.

There are several challenges that confront our nation, and certain issues are global and affect us as we speak. Energy and environment come immediately to mind. IIT Kanpur's mission, I am informed, includes in addition to imparting education, inculcating human values and concern for the environment and society, among its students. Therefore, it would not be amiss to have expectations from this IIT, to accept the challenge to inspire engineers and scientists, to develop devices which can harness energy in more efficient ways, while at the same time having minimal negative impact on the environment. There is a great scope for wind and solar energy in India. But where are the technologies that are both efficient in performance and effective in costs? Will the brain power of the IITs provide the nation some options in this regard? The next ten years, declared as the Decade of Innovation, can be a fruitful decade in India. Qualified and talented individuals of our nation have to find innovative solutions to our myriad challenges, keeping in mind our specific conditions. What is also required is the application of new technologies in helping solve the problems of everyday life. Therefore, I would urge that as much effort that is placed on high end research, is also placed on the development of appropriate technologies for application at the ground level. In agriculture, given the large number of small sized land holdings in the country, for example, can there be sugar harvesting machines that are suitable for such land holdings? Development requires peace and an environment of law and order. Can there be equipment for our security forces based on technologies like thermal imaging or laser penetration or any other, which can be effective in tracking and surveillance including in densely urban populated areas or in thick forested areas? Can there also be devices that provide a greater protective shield to our law enforcing personnel?

IITs have great promise and potential. You, who are associated with it, are in many ways the selected few who have the privilege of being part of the IIT system and, therefore, a great responsibility rests upon you. I am confident that there will be many opportunities during your careers to participate in major scientific projects, which would have relevance for our national contemporary needs and which will also be of relevance for tomorrow's needs.

I have also observed that there are many persons, not necessarily scientists, but ordinary people, in our country who have demonstrated the ability to find innovative solutions to problems which they face. I had the opportunity to see such inventions and innovations last year at the National Grassroots Innovation Awards. Technologies such as air conditioning in earthen fridges, scooters running on flow of air and devices that enhance agricultural productivity had been developed by grassroots innovators. I urge our IITs and other major institutes of technology to link up with such people, help them fine-tune their work and also provide a new dimension to their knowledge, by mentoring them on even better approaches to Research and Development.

In conclusion, I can say that the IIT system is often mentioned as a model for professional education that enables graduating students to create a future of their dreams. Yet, life's journey never ends in self-satisfaction and this is especially true about you. Your plans for the future should also include a mission or an objective on how you can serve society through your skills. In recent times, a number of successful IITians in India and abroad have given funds and support for development of society and science in India. This is a good way of giving back to the country. I am sure that the IIT alumni will continue with this and look at ways to share in some part, their inventions with the nation.

With these words, I convey my best wishes to the IIT Kanpur community for achieving even higher levels of academic excellence in the years to come.

Thank you.

Jai Hind.