PM calls for "focused innovation" to combat poverty, health issues

Prime minister Manmohan Singh has called for a new model of innovation that addresses problems in areas such as poverty eradication, people's health, rural communications, development of agriculture and animal husbandry, green energy and similar other challenges.

Addressing a meeting of the National Innovation Council in New Delhi today, the prime minister said most of the innovations in the country in recent times been in areas such as space technology, atomic energy, and automobiles. These innovations have by and large focused mostly on the needs of the upper income groups and not did not give adequate attention to solving the problems of the poor and the underprivileged.

Towards this, he said, the National Innovation Council has focused on nurturing a culture of innovation through education.

The National Innovation Council is building on the earlier work of the National Knowledge Commission towards creating a National Knowledge Network, which would ultimately connect all colleges in our county, he said.

It also proposes to launch a meta-university, which would provide a student the opportunity to pursue another discipline of study in another college that is part of the network. ''This would enable a student of astrophysics in the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, for example, to take up a course in comparative literature at the Jadavpur University,'' the prime minister pointed out.

''Such creative reconfigurations are expected to create ''new minds'' conducive to the growth of innovation,'' he added.