from Anju D'Souza for Daijiworld News Network - Mangalore

Mangalore, Jan 21: A two-day national workshop on R&D activities at NITs, review and planning, was inaugurated at the seminar hall of NITK, Surathkal on Friday. The event was organized by TEQIP.

IIT Madras Metallurgy department professor, T S Prasanna Kumar who inaugurated the workshop said that communication technologies bring worldwide information at the click of a mouse.

He said that technologies have naturally opened up new areas of venture making. The industrial world, quick to grasp the potential of the new avenues for creating wealth, broke international barriers in trade, opened up new markets, reduced delivery time and reduced cost of manufacturing.

He said that there is an increase in international competition in almost every conceivable commodity, including the farm sector. "We have to develop technologies of our own, develop saleable products and safeguard our economic interests," he added.

More people must be trained as researchers in our universities. Research and teaching must become the two inseparable faces of our work culture, he added.

Most of the bottlenecks are completely up to us to remove. Particularly when the national institute of technologies (NITs) are becoming autonomous or deemed universities, the time is ripe, he said.