Sibal was in the City to receive the honorary fellowship conferred on him by JNCASR for his contribution in growth of science, technology and recently in higher education. The minister also inaugurated the new students' hostel in the campus.
Addressing the students, he pointed out that India was slowly becoming a hub for scientific research and would lead the world in this field in future. He also stressed on why India should divert attention to generating more skilled, scientific workforce.
Paradigm shift
"In 1980s, a large part of wealth owned by multi-national companies was related to physical assets. In 2006, there has been a paradigm shift, as now ownership of non-tangible assets or knowledge comprises their wealth," he said. “This non-tangible wealth was of the highest quality and if a national acquired this wealth it was bound to become a powerful country”, he added
Right to Education
The Minister said that the Right to Education bill would ensure that youngsters were encouraged to pursue post graduation courses. “Political establishment needs to realise the link between science and technology institutions and non-tangible assets for the economic growth of the country. He also said that while IPL for whatever faults it had was a metaphor for India of tomorrow, JNCASR was a metaphor for future science based research in India”, he said.
Speaking on the occasion Scientific Advisor to the Prime Minister CNR Rao mentioned that the Union government would launch the national science and engineering research board, at par with the national science foundation in USA or China, this month.
