President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on Monday called for initiatives to attract youth to science learning, creating "attractive" job opportunities for those who take up basic sciences as a career and scaling up investments in research and development (R&D) to make India a cost-effective knowledge hub.
"Attracting youth to science learning, focussed national R&D programmes, urge for the industry to become competitive globally, and connectivity through four grids like education, healthcare, e-governance and providing urban facilities in rural areas are needed for the evolution of a knowledge hub," he said while inaugurating a "Global Conference on India R&D 2005 — The World's Knowledge Hub of the Future."
He asked private sector industries such as pharma, IT, oil and natural gas, transportation, agriculture and power to contribute to research and development and employ an additional 400 M.Sc and 200 Ph.D candidates every year for carrying out research in frontier areas.
There was a need for the country to utilise the cost-effective and skilled human resources available here to accelerate economic growth and help India become the engine of global growth, Mr. Kalam said.
Delegates and scientists from across the globe have gathered here to participate in the two-day conference, which aims at projecting India as a cost-effective knowledge hub.
The use of uranium-based fuel had given a boost to nuclear power generation. However, a ten-fold increase in nuclear power generation was needed to attain a reasonable degree of energy self-sufficiency.
Mr. Kalam also suggested that the scientists take up research in nano-technology and its applications as "it has great potential both in terms of economic and social development."
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