President Pranab Parnab Mukherjee launches IMPRINT India

The research areas will also dovetail with the “Make in India” campaign to boost indigenous manufacture.

In his remarks on the occasion, the Prime Minister laid stress on the importance of innovation and technology for the progress and development of the nation. Society is becoming technology-driven.

Under the “Imprint India” mission, the Indian technical institutions will be encouraged to conduct research works and for which the government will have a single window funding clearance with a reserve fund of Rs 1,000-crore. “IMPRINT India is being launched during the Visitor’s Conference so that wide discussion can be held among the academic community, leading to further scientific collaboration between various institutions in these areas”, said an official. “IMPRINT India’ is a Pan-IIT and IISc joint initiative to develop a roadmap for research to solve major engineering and technology challenges in ten technology domains relevant to India”.

Indian youth are second to none in entrepreneurship and educational institutes must work towards creating an innovation and research network that will produce entrepreneurs and nurture innovations, President Pranab Mukherjee said here on Thursday. “Promotion of research at the under-graduate level would assist such an objective. Skill development is extremely vital as I believe that Science is universal but technology has to be local”. He congratulated the IIT Delhi for awarding 120 students a PhD degree this year – the highest in country by any institution and said that in the next four years more than 400 new PhD awards would be given.

IMPRINT India will focus on 10 themes, with each to be coordinated by one IIT or IISc, including Health Care (IIT Kharagpur), Computer Science and ICT (IIT Kharagpur), Water Resources and River systems (IIT Kanpur), Defence and Manufacturing (IIT Madras), among others. They will clear projects jointly through a core committee for research and release funds promptly. This initiative should enable Indian institutes of higher learning to realize their potential and emerge as world-class institutions. Union Minister of Human Resource Development Smriti Zubin Irani may even tackle the gathering.