Water needs may exceed availability in future

Water needs of the country will reach 1,027 billion metre cube in 2025 compared with 525 billion meter cube in 1997. Though the demand will double, availability will drastically reduce, said principal of National Institute of Engineering G L Sekhar here on Monday.

Speaking at the inaugural function of a state-level seminar on ‘Nano-Science and Technology’ at JSS College for Women, he said it is high time we develop technical expertise and human skills to avert the threats to humanity, due to water shortage.

He said: “India will be soon become the ‘third pole’ of global economy after the USA and China. Indian economy will be about 60 per cent of the US economy by 2025. Indian share of world Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will rise from six per cent, currently, to 11 per cent in 2025.”

Recent developments in nano-technology promise a bright future for the country.
With the development of nano devices, there will be a revolution in the fields ranging from healthcare devices to tools for transportation and security, he said.

Pure science

P S Anil Kumar from Indian Institute of Science said, pursuing studies in pure sciences is more beneficial than everyone joining engineering courses. “Considering the remuneration received by engineering students, science students may feel that they are on a wrong path. However, they are the ones responsible for laying the building blocks, which are then utilised for development of devices by engineers,” he said.

He said one best way to help science is to become good science teachers, however, everyone can become scientists.

He also delivered a lecture on ‘Spintronics’. It is a field in electronics that has the potential to revolutionise electronic devices, especially by boosting processing power of computers, apart from other applications.