Borrowing of technology can’t bring progress: Expert

Renowned scientist and NITI Aayog member Dr V K Saraswat says ‘creation of wealth’ only can sustain development in the country

Hyderabad: Dr V K Saraswat, internationally known scientist and NITI Aayog member, underscored the ‘creation of wealth’ in the country so as to sustain development and take it to the next level.

Delivering the Maulana Azad National Urdu University’s (MANUU) 19th Foundation Day lecture on Monday, Dr Saraswat said the progress of the country could not be left to borrowing of technology and improving upon it.

“We need to focus on developing our technologies and massively changing those that we import. That would lead to creation of wealth. The road to development is full of perils; we should take risks,” he advised.

Maulana Azad National Urdu University was established in 1998 in Hyderabad. Initially, it offered education in distance mode but slowly introduced on-campus learning.

Today, it has seven schools that offer courses from bachelor’s to PG to doctorate levels in Social Sciences, Commerce and Arts and Humanities.

Dr Saraswat, who worked under Dr A P J Abdul Kalam on developing Agni, Prithvi and other missiles, said India could make progress in the field of defense technologies in spite of restrictions from the US because it demonstrated an unbending will.

It was the determination to win the technology race that led the country to a globally enviable position. Still, he said, the country was required to fill in huge gaps in agricultural and industrial production. “We are good in eating food but not so good in cooking food. We need to fill that gap,” he added.

He drew parallel between Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said both believed in the road to innovation.

MANUU Vice-Chancellor Dr Mohammad Aslam Parvaiz, referring to India’s freedom at midnight, said the country was standing at the threshold of second midnight journey.

“The students have to take the lead from here and carry it forward,” he said.