Kharagpur/Kolkata, May 17 (IANS) President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Thursday said convergence of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), aerospace and nano-technologies will revolutionise the aerospace industry and electronics leading to nano-computing systems.
“This technological convergence will enable building of cost effective low weight, high payload, and highly reliable aerospace systems, which can be used for inter-planetary transportation,” Kalam said in his address to the students and teachers of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Kharagpur, about 120 km west of Kolkata.
“Emerging trends in areas like nano, information technology, biotechnology, space research, hypersonic systems, high power lasers and microwaves will dominate the future in every field and applications,” he said.
After laying the foundation stone of Dr B.C. Roy Multi-speciality Research Centre at IIT-Kharagpur, Kalam said IT and communication technology have already converged leading to ICT.
“Information Technology combined with bio-technology has led to bio-informatics. Now, Nano-technology is knocking at our doors,” he said.
“Convergence of bio-nano-info technologies can lead to the development of nano robots.
“The convergence of computers, communication and sensing into a single smart device and the ability to have mobile and communicate between them is leading the research and development in an important area of Sensor networks,” the president said.
Kalam said India was fast coming up as a knowledge society with all-round growth in sectors like agriculture, manufacturing and services.
“India is well on its way to become a knowledge society. There is all-round growth in all sectors of the economy namely agriculture, manufacturing and services,” he said.
“We now have an opportunity to take the leadership in the knowledge revolution. Knowledge revolution is indeed the foundation for leading India into a developed nation,” Kalam added.
“For this, the time is ripe because of the ascending trajectory of the economy, availability of great institutions for capacity building of the human resource, abundant bio-diversity, and other natural resources and above all, our 540 million youth who are determined to make the nation prosperous, happy and a safe place to live well before 2020,” he said.
Later Kalam addressed the teachers and students at the National Council of Education, Kolkata and stressed on the role of education to ensure employment generation.
“A three-pronged strategy is needed to make education more attractive, make it skill imparting and simultaneously create employment potential,” he said.
“Firstly, the educational system should highlight the importance of entrepreneurship and prepare the students to get oriented towards setting up of enterprises which will provide them creativity, freedom and ability to generate wealth.
“Secondly, the banking system should provide venture capital right from every village level to the prospective entrepreneurs for undertaking new enterprises and thirdly, entrepreneurs have to produce the competitive products for becoming successful in their missions.”
Kalam visited Monovikas Kendra, a rehabilitation and research centre for the handicapped and spastic, to meet the “differently-abled” children and the caregivers.
He also attended the city’s prestigious Calcutta Club to launch the club’s centenary endowment scheme.
The president will return to New Delhi in the evening.