MURTI research facility inaugurated at GITAM

Visakhapatnam:National development and national security are two sides of the same coin because development without security is vulnerable and security without development is meaningless, said former Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India R Chidambaram here on Tuesday.

Participating as chief guest in the 'National Science Day' celebrations organised by GITAM, he inaugurated MURTI (multidisciplinary unit of research on translational initiatives) research facility on the campus. Addressing the gathering, Dr. Chidambaram spoke about self-reliance as immunity against technology denial.

Technology domination is sought in fields as diverse as human genomics and nuclear weapons through mechanisms of intellectual property rights and technology control regimes and there is a need to counter this through technology leadership, he opined.

Dr Chidambaram observed that India needs transformational technologies in energy, nuclear, space, defence, artificial intelligence, machine learning, electronic systems and network for climate change mitigation.

Speaking on the occasion, managing director and CEO of Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone Jitendra Sharma said with new technologies, AP MedTech Zone is aiming to make healthcare affordable in the country. He briefed about the recent developments made by the zone. Later, a MoU was exchanged with the institution for future collaborations.

Sharing details, GITAM president M Sribharath stressed on the need to strengthen science and build a knowledge economy. In order to give top priority to research and development activities, he said, the institution was investing about Rs.45 crore to develop MURTI labs in three campuses. He mentioned that as part of the new education policy, the UG students have been encouraged to explore research activities.

The institution's Vice-Chancellor Dayananda Siddavattam highlighted future research goals and how the institution is actively pursuing to build research collaborations with national organisations in and around Visakhapatnam.