The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : State's prosperity should be the motto: President

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 29, 2005

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

State's prosperity should be the motto: President

Special Correspondent

Competitiveness, innovation and creative leadership hold the key

SHARING HIS THOUGHTS: President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam having a word with Industries Minister V.K. Ebrahim Kunju at the inauguration of `Indusearch', an initiative for research-industry linkage, in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday. On the left is Chief Min ister Oommen Chandy. Photo: C. Ratheesh Kumar

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam has urged the policy makers to evolve a focussed strategy for networking Research and Development (R&D) institutions, academia and the industry for Kerala's economic development.

Inaugurating `Indusearch,' an initiative for research-industry linkage launched by the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) in association with the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment here on Thursday, the President said the cause of the State's prosperity should become bigger than the cause of individuals and organisations.

Once this was achieved, "Kerala will succeed in becoming a developed State, especially because of its core strength of unity of minds, being the number one in Human Development Index and also with the wealth available from 2.7 million Keralites working in various parts of the world," he said.

Mr. Kalam said competitiveness, innovation and creative leadership were the key factors that contributed to industrial development.

Delving on the `development patterns and the dynamics of connectivity between nations,' he said competitiveness was a common challenge for both the developed and developing nations. A developed country has to market its products in a competitive way to other countries to stay developed. Likewise, a developing country has to ensure that its products are competitive in the market to get itself transformed into a developed country.

Staying competitive calls for innovation. Most of the new ideas and innovations are generated by scientists and engineers on the university campuses. `National innovative capacity' stems from the country's potential to fortify its political and economic relevance in the world by the strength of its `commercially relevant competitive products.'

This capacity is distinct from purely scientific or technical achievements, but depends on the economic application of new technology.

"For building innovative capacity, we require the partnership of a cluster consisting of public and private sector industry, R&D and academia," he said. And developing innovative products through totally native technology and making them competitive in the world market require `creative leadership.'

Mr. Kalam said that `creative leadership' involved changing the traditional role of the leader "from commander to coach, from manager to mentor, from director to one who delegates and from one who demands respect to one who facilitates self respect."

The President also released an R&D directory and launched a website of `Indusearch' on the occasion. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy presided over the function. Industries Minister V. K. Ebrahim Kunju, chairman and managing director of the Synthite Industrial Chemicals, C. V. Jacob, Vice-Chancellor of the Cochin University of Science and Technology P. K. Abdul Aziz, executive vice-president of the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment A. E. Muthunayagam and managing director of the KSIDC P. H. Kurien addressed the gathering.

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