Mashelkar calls for synthesis of research, innovation

The National Science Day lecture series began here with noted scientist R A Mashelkar today calling for a synthesis of education, research and innovation to help India reinvent itself as an "Innovation Nation".
Speaking on the inaugural theme 'Reinventing India as an Innovation Nation', at the Raj Bhawan here, Mashelkar said India was innovative but had somewhere, along the way, lost this culture.
"The need of the hour is to regain that culture of innovation. We need to bring the scientific temper in order to help our nation develop," he said.
With initiatives like Make in India, Digital India, Skill India and Startup India underway, the atmosphere is ideal for inventing and innovating in the country, he said.

He also said education, research and innovation must go together in the universities.
"It is only this innovative India that will signal to the rest of the world that we are not a hesitant nation, unsure of our place in the new global order, but a confident one, that is raring to go and be a leader in the comity of nations," he said.
Governor K K Paul welcomed Mashelkar and introduced him to the audience as someone who had played a leading role in ushering in a new scientific era in India.
"Mashelkar valiantly fought and revoked the wrong US patents on turmeric and Basmati rice based on India's traditional knowledge," he said.