‘Science, tech key to economic prosperity’

Inaugurating the centenary celebrations of the Institution of Engineers India (IEI) here, he said, “science and technology enable us to harness the resources provided by the nature so as to benefit the mankind. Stating that technological prowess, management, forecasting and innovation were vital for a nation’s progress, he said, “the desire to excel and attain perfection have to become keener for us to be able to cope up with the challenges of a changing global scenario.”

“The skills acquired by our engineers need to be constantly honed and updated,” he added.Purohit, referring to the Internet of Things (IoT), said it refers to billions of physical devices around the world that were now connected to the internet, collecting and sharing data.

“The analysis firm Gartner has said that by 2020 there will be over 26 billion connected devices...some even estimate this number to be much higher —over 100 billion. The IoT is a giant network of connected ‘things’ (which also includes people),” he added.

The relationship will be between people-people, people-things and things-things. “In short we are moving into a phygital (physical+digital) world, he said. In India, the IoT market was poised to touch USD 15 billion by 2020, according to NASSCOM fueled by a USD one billion investment from the Indian government every year for building 100 smart cities, the trade association also predicts that by 2020, India will account for nearly five per cent of the global IoT market.

Purohit also congratulated the IEI for bridging the gap between industries and engineering graduates.

Sounding a note of optimism and caution, he said, “let us advance in science and technology and outpace the world in pursuit of the latest innovative practices. At the same time, let our roots be Indian and our instincts be guided by spirituality.”