Need 'out-of-the-box' thinking by people in top posts: Vardhan

The country needs "out-of-the-box" thinking from people occupying senior positions so that they may come up with innovative solutions to the problems faced by the common man, Union Minister Harsh Vardhan said here today.
"Innovative thinking must come from the top and there should be a focus on searching for problems and finding innovative solutions to those.
"We have to look for out-of-the-box thinking, become more pro-active in our approach to finding solutions," he said.
The Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences was speaking at an awards function organised jointly by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Indo-US Science Technology Forum.

He said that innovative ideas may not necessarily come from people at the top, but from anybody.
Talking about how he had faced obstacles while carrying out a pulse polio campaign during his stint as Health Minister of Delhi due to the fear of plague among the people, the Union Science and Technology Minister said it was out of the box thinking that had helped him ensure that the project was a success.
"Since there was a fear because of plague (which broke out in Maharashtra in 1994) people were apprehensive about the programme. We had worked hard for the programme and it was not possible to call it off. So, I met the officers of the education department.

"With them, we involved students of all schools in Delhi and asked them to convince the parents of infants. A child from Mangolpuri managed to convince parents of over 300 kids. So, we need some innovative ways to deal with our problems," stressed Vardhan.