President Pranab Mukherjee today stressed on the need to have increased 'open' innovation in the government to serve citizens better as he was honoured with a global leader award for initiating outstanding innovative programmes from the top office of the country.
"Open innovation is a way to future as it captures knowledge-flow from all sources, both internal and external, in an organisation. Open innovation is most essential for government entities, who are tasked to serve the citizens.
"Placing of data in public domain without compromising the privacy, promotes transparency, innovation and opens up new avenues to solve problems of citizens efficiently and effectively," Mukherjee said.
He expressed these views after being presented the Garwood Award for 'Outstanding Global Leader in Open Innovation' by the UC Berkeley-Haas School of Business in California, United States of America, at Rashtrapati Bhavan here.
Mukherjee dedicated the award to people of the country, his staff and colleagues at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, who he said, "rendered their support" to him in improving the lot of common people of India through such initiatives.
Mukherjee, in the about three-and-a-half years of his Presidency, has initiated a number of measures to encourage innovation amongst the young and others alike and the President's Estate also held the first-ever 'Festival of Innovation' early this year in this context.
The President, in almost all his speeches to institutes of higher learning in the country, has stressed on innovation and focused attention on Research and Development along with forging of national and international collaborations by these institutions.
During the event held here, Mukherjee said innovation is "critical driver" of growth and development.
"Open innovation takes the innovation to next level and creates a new eco-system of access and equal opportunities to all. I firmly believe that open innovation has a potential to transform the global social landscape and help achieve the goal of a more fair and just world," he said.
Prof Solomon Darwin, Executive Director of the Garwood
Center, who led a team of academicians and faculty from the US to hand over the honour to the President, called Mukherjee a "champion of innovative thinking".
The California-based University, renowned for having produced the maximum number of Nobel laureates across the globe, is also offering a first-of-its kind course on building Smart Cities, with a special focus on India.
"It is a privilege to be associated with the first public university of the world established in 1868, which has consistently ranked overall fourth," the President said after receiving the award.
He said in order to sustain the growth rate of 8 per cent through the next two decades, India will need to increase its electricity supply by at least 5 to 7 times of its current consumption.
"This is a huge responsibility and challenge because we have to achieve this while preserving the environment," Mukerjee said as he also sought the University's academic help in this regard.
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In his circulated speech, Mukherjee spoke about former prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi and also asked the political leaders to learn from strengths and mistakes of Gandhi, who he termed as his "mentor".
Addressing the India Today Conclave here, he said courage, fearlessness in action and boldness in decision making was the unique hallmark of her character.
Mukherjee said she fought relentlessly against communalism and rose above all divisions of religion, caste, community and creed during her entire life.
The President said 1971 Bangladesh war was a high point of her career as she demonstrated her leadership skills as well as ability to take tough decisions in the interest of the people and the nation.
Speaking on the topic "Such a Long Innings: Politics, Power, Office", he said excessive power and popularity led his "mentor" Indira Gandhi into making mistakes.
"The misadventure of Emergency is an example of this. It is also believed that the tendency to overcentralise decision making and the evolution of the Prime Minister's Office into a powerful centre of decision making, began from the tenure of Mrs Gandhi," he said.
The President said it would be wise for succeeding generations of leadership in India to learn from Gandhi's "strengths as well as her mistakes".
"Our system of governance is Parliamentary and not Presidential. In a Parliamentary system, all Ministers are collectively and severally responsible to the Parliament and through it, to the people.
Quoting Nehru, he said "the Prime Minister is 'Primus inter Pares' or first among equals. It is my belief that a country as complex and diverse as India can be administered only through delegation of authority."
He invited scholars and political scientists to analyse the consequences and long term implications of moving away from the classic tenets of a Parliamentary system.
Underlining the need for a strong opposition standing guard, the President quoted the first Prime Minister who had said, "I do not want India to be a country in which millions of people say 'yes' to one man, I want a strong opposition".
Mukherjee said Nehru strongly discouraged all forms of "hero worship" as he used to say "India is too large a country with too many legitimate diversities to permit any so-called 'strong man' to trample over people and their ideas."
"In Nehru's thinking, only a democratic structure which gave space to various cultural, political and socio-economic voices could hold India together. Nehru was unhappy with the banning of the Communist Party in 1948 by Dr B C Roy, then Chief Minister of West Bengal, even though he was against its policies," he said.
Mukherjee said despite the majority enjoyed by the Congress Party, he ensured that the Parliament always reflected the will of the entire people.
He said if India is today admired across the world as the largest functioning democracy, it is because of the strong leadership and liberal values provided by Nehru which enabled democracy take deep root in our country.
