Puducherry, Sep 13 (IANS): Vice President of India, M. Venkaiah Naidu has said that the educational institutions must have an increased interface with the industry to promote Research and Development to address contemporary challenges faced by society like climate change and other natural calamities.

He also said that pollution, health, and poverty are other major challenges that the society will have to address in a timely manner and only proper R&D based on the needs of the industry can solve this matter.

The Vice President was delivering the inaugural address at the Puducherry Technological University (PTU) on Monday.

He said that creating an enabling ecosystem for Research and Development (R&D) is required for the country to move ahead and become a developed nation.

Venkaiah Naidu said, "If you look around the world, you will find that it is the deep research in science, technology, and other areas that put the developed nations ahead of the rest of the world".

The Vice President called upon the industry to come forward and extend their support to young entrepreneurs by hand-holding, funding, and incubation. He said that improved Academia and Industry partnership is a requirement of the hour for the progress in Research and Development.

He called upon Institutions like Puducherry Technological University (PTU) to infuse a spirit of innovation, experimentation, and entrepreneurship among the students.

The Vice President said according to data provided by the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, there are 50,000 startups in the country spread across 623 districts. He said that there are more than 40 tech startups working in the field of space technology after the government opened up the space sector for private players.

Naidu said that these startups are mainly working in the areas of satellites, launch vehicles, and other space based applications and added that 45 per cent of startups have a woman entrepreneur which is laudable.

He also stressed on increasing the literacy level in the country and said that even after 75 years of garnering independence around 20 per cent of the population of the country is illiterate.

The Vice President also said that 22 to 23 per cent of the population is still below the poverty line and said that there was a need to focus on poverty and to eradicate it. He said that gender and caste discriminations have to be removed from the system for the all-round progress of the country.

Venkaiah Naidu called upon the state governments, universities, colleges, and other institutions to make sure that the syllabus includes the lives and teachings of great leaders and stalwarts of the country like Sri Aurobindo, Subramanian Bharathi and others.

Puducherry Lt. Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, Chief Minister N. Rangasamy and state Home Minister A. Namasivayam, who also holds the education portfolio, spoke on the occasion.