The coronavirus pandemic is like world war and if some funds could be marshalled into certain areas, there could be another wave of innovativeness arising out of a problem just like what happened in World War II or the Cold War, according to veteran industrialist Ratan Tata.
The current health crisis is a time to support "our own innovativeness", invest in it and "not dismiss something as being too far out but being something we should look at", said the Chairman Emeritus of Tata group holding firm Tata Sons in an interview on business news channel CNBC-TV18.
"It is not a world war but it is like a world war. There is a dramatic need for vaccine, there is a dramatic need for solutions and strange things happen," Tata said.
He further said, "I think we have to look back and say where so and so innovativeness has its roots. Quite often it has its roots at time of crisis and we have a crisis on our hands today and so there is an issue of throw your hands up, you have this crisis and then there is our own innovativeness, it comes to play, that is a time we need to support to invest, to not dismiss something as being too far out but being something we should look at."
Reiterating that "this situation does give us an opportunity to innovate", he added, "but it tests us and it involves going through the transformation of looking at a different way to do things caused by shortages in this case or caused by strictures or legislation on the other side. New partnerships, everything is up for grabs."