Innovate or stagnate: Modi at IIT Bombay convocation

 ​Mumbai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said innovation is the ‘buzz-word’ of the 21st century and India must be made the most attractive destination for innovation and enterprise with the best ideas coming from its laboratories and its students.

“Innovation is the buzz-word of 21st century. Any society that does not innovate will stagnate. That India is an emerging as a hub for start-ups shows the thirst for innovation. We must make India the most attractive destination for innovation & enterprise,” he said in his address at the 56th convocation of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B).

“Let us affirm that the best ideas will come from Indian laboratories and from Indian students,” he said. Recalling that IIT Bombay had in the last six decades made a place for itself in the select group of Institutions of Eminence by dint of sheer effort, he announced financial aid of Rs 1000 crore for it to help in its infrastructural development.

The Prime Minister said that IITs were conceptualised to contribute to nation-building through use of technology, and it is innovation and new technology will decide future direction of development in which IITs will play important role. “IIT is known around the country and the world as the Indian Institute of Technology but for us, its definition has changed. They are no longer just associated with teaching of technology but have today become India’s Instrument of Transformation,” he said.

Modi said that the nation is proud of the IITs and what IIT graduates have achieved, with their success leading to the creation of engineering colleges around the country, making India becoming one of the world’s largest pools of technical manpower. “The confidence I can see on your face confirms that we are moving in the right direction. It was a large number of IIT students who built the IT sector of India, brick by brick,” he said.

After delivering the convocation address, Modi inaugurated the new building of the department of energy science and engineering, and centre for environmental science and engineering at IIT Bombay.