Kolkata, July 16 (IANS) West Bengal needs to innovate in areas like education, health, and technology to create jobs and help in its resurgence, Sam Pitroda, who heads the National Innovation Council, said Saturday.
"My background is technology, education, innovation and I have done some good work on health. So, wherever I can help...I know experts in these fields who would join us in this effort," Pitroda, who has also been appointed an advisor by the state government, told mediapersons.
"In Bengal, we have to learn to innovate to create jobs. We have talked about industrial clusters. As the part of the National Innovation Council, we are now working on innovation in clusters," Pitroda said after talks with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Industry and Information Technology Minister Partha Chatterjee at the state secretariat Writers' Buildings.
Pitroda, considered the father of India's communication revolution, shares a very good rapport with Banerjee, who had roped him during her stints as the railways minister for laying of optic fibre cable network along tracks for commercial utilisation.
Banerjee announced that Pitroda will act an advisor for West Bengal.
"We have invited Sam Pitroda to help us in converting Kolkata into a knowledge city. He will also help in resurgence of Bengal. He will act as an advisor for Bengal in terms of modernisation, industrialisation and creation of knowledge hub," said Banerjee.
Pitroda added: "Maybe we will select first five clusters and see innovations. What it means is set up incubators, provide training on packing, copyrights, trademark, entrepreneurship and really force people to think of innovating in clusters. Innovation is going to be the most important element in industry going forward. For industry, we have to innovate, for jobs we have to innovate."
"There is lot more work ahead of us and there is very little time. Both of us (Pitroda and Banerjee) are in a hurry," smiled Pitroda.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in August 2010 gave a go-ahead to the setting up of a National Innovation Council, under the leadership of Pitroda, with special focus on micro, small and medium enterprises.