Chennai: Union Minister for Science and Technology Harsh Vardhan today urged scientists to come up with cost-effective and implementable solutions to the problems of the common man, saying science is 'of no use' if it was not connected to people.
Addressing scientists and stakeholders at the CSIR- Structural Engineering Research Centre (SREC) here, he said that though India had made tremendous progress in the last 60-70 years, a lot was still left to be done.
"I strongly feel that all this knowledge we have, all the scientific temperament and all the acumen that we possess and all the experience that we have developed over the years in our research labs, it ultimately has to be connected to the people. If we cannot connect science to people, it is of no use," he said.
He said that the time had come to reorient research into finding out new innovative solutions to the problems faced by the country.
"I feel that the time has come when we have to start reorienting our research also into finding out new innovative solutions to the problems of our own countrymen; solutions which are cost-effective, solutions which are easily implementable, solutions which can be implemented with timeliness also," he said.
Recalling the 'glorious past' of the country, he said the structures built stood testimony to the 'finest brains we had' and exhorted the scientists to take inspiration from the past.
Holding that Indians had the acumen and capacity, he said that India should produce things which should be emulated by others and that we should not look up to the West for solutions.
