List 100 problems

While addressing a meeting of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), Prime Minister Modi has thrown a challenge to the scientists of the country. He has told them to list at least one hundred problems being faced by people in various parts of India, and take up the challenge of solving them technologically within a specified time period. This is not the first time that the Prime Minister has shown his penchant for rapid growth of scientific and technical temperament in our society. He knows that real and speedy development can come only through scientific and technological innovation. That is the reason why he is attaching extraordinary importance and relevance to picking up various skills by our youth so that they become employers and not the employed. There are many conspicuous areas in which our country needs extensive contribution by the scientific and technological community. Agriculture, forests, water resources, road connectivity, health services, defense and many others are the areas in which there is tremendous scope of making very remunerative input.
Even if a small innovation is made that can make professional life more rewarding, it should be promoted at all costs. Imagine if we are able to provide skill to even one per cent of our population, what an unimaginable skilled manpower we shall have in this country. Apart from skill, it is the intelligence and innovative spirit that are needed to make the country prosperous. Scientists and technocrats have huge responsibility of carrying forward the nation along the path of development and modernization. This is the age of science and technology and we are lagging behind many countries in making best use of technologies. We have to develop scientific temper.