Innovations often come from people who are hungry and are looking for solutions to their problems: DST Secretary
Recently, National Conclave on Techneev@75 was organized in Delhi, which was the culmination of the yearlong Techneev@75 program organised jointly by the Department of Science Technology (DST), Department of Biotechnology (DBT), the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) to bring together communities, societal change makers, and experts on one platform.
The conclave exhibited the major outcomes and discussed key learnings and the way forward to explore how the absorption of science and technology could be augmented at the community level. Moreover, it set a framework for strengthening the local innovation system in partnership with the formal innovation System.
Secretary of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) Dr S Chandrasekhar was also present during the inauguration of the National Conclave on Techneev@75. In his address, he said: “Innovations often come from people who are hungry and are looking for solutions to their problems. Several efforts are being made to scale up such technologies and address gaps in them. Working together towards this will help bring forth the edge that technology needs for successful implementation.”
He added that we need to recognize the strength of local knowledge systems, bring in necessary S&T interventions, market the innovations, and find innovative mechanisms to reach the masses.
Dr Debapriya Dutta, Head SEED Division, DST noted the crucial role that community change makers play in adopting technology by the communities and emphasized the need for demystifying the role of technology in improving the life and livelihood of the community.
The press release noted that the learning from the Techneev@75 program, including the models for strengthening the local innovation system, exploring the PPP model for sustainable livelihood system, S&T-based rural entrepreneurship development, commercialization and market orientation of local products, effective capacity building mechanisms and digitally enabled livelihood systems were presented at the conclave, by Dr Kinkini Dasgupta Misra, Scientist, Vigyan Prasar.
Notably, awards were presented to the winners of collage-making and video-making competitions conducted as a part of TechNeev@75. It also included experience sharing of eminent science filmmakers, feedback from Techneev@75 coordinators, and lastly, a way forward session.
