Hindustan times, July 10, 2011


Sam Pitroda, advisor to Prime Minister on public information, infrastructure and innovations on Saturday said innovations are critical for growth and transformation of the country as present systems have become obsolete.

Pitroda said information brings in transparency, accessibility and efficiency and through innovations, the systems can be transformed for good.

He was delivering the second CUTS Thought Leader Lecture on Public Information, Infrastructure and Innovation.

At the national level, the council has been working, but every state should have its own innovation council and Rajasthan too needs one as it has its own requirements.

“Apart from state innovation council, we will require domain innovation councils. More than 50 clusters have been identified and by November, eight of these will start functioning”, he added.

“The government needs to intervene at every level otherwise innovation cannot be sustainable. The private sector will not be interested in panchayat level innovation so it is up to the government to act”, he said.

“Thankfully the government has taken up this task and we are moving in the right direction though there is resistance in the system. We are growing today at 9 to 10% and plan to grow at that rate for the next couple of decades”, he said.

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Hindustan Times, New Delhi, July 10, 2011