PIB Delhi – A total of 33 awards were conferred on companies and academic and research institutions for their industrial innovations at the 27th DST CII Technology Summit 2021 today. The 8th CII Industrial Innovation Awards 2021 conferred by Secretary Department of Science and Technology (DST) Government of India Dr. S Chandrasekhar and Past President, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) & Chairman, CII National Startup Council Mr. Kris Gopalakrishnan, included top 25 Innovative Company Awards, 7 awards to academic and research institutions and 1 grand award. The company awards were given for processes, products, services, technologies, and other types of innovations which have the ability to fuel growth in the industry, and the awards to academic and research institutions were given for their contribution in assisting various private and public enterprises in their endeavours.
The grand award was given to the most innovative company of the year. A special category of award was introduced this year for the industry fostering innovation through Industry-Academia collaboration. “We as a nation stand today as one of the leading nations in the world in terms of scientific and technological prowess. India climbed to 46th rank in Global Innovation Index 2021, a leap of 35 places in just 6 years, and we look forward to reach among the top 5 innovative countries in the world,” Dr. Chandrasekhar said in his keynote address. He stressed on the need for agricultural innovations to reorient agricultural practices to match up to global benchmark and increase our per hectare production to match up to Brazil or China.
“We need to further focus on creating the right environment for innovation-led enterprise (by catering to internal market needs such as energy, water, transport, healthcare, food security) to reap the benefits. Both Indian government and industry are closely working together for convergence of technology and enterprise, but need to work more closely for handholding and embracing. This will be a game-changer for the economy and society,” he added. He also urged innovators to bring in innovations to make the healthcare sector affordable and sustainable and continue nurturing them to revolutionize the industries for an exciting future. Dr. S. Chandrasekhar emphasised that awards like the Industrial Innovation Awards will help the innovators to find investors which will turn the innovations into products of tomorrow.
Mr. Kris Gopalakrishnan, Past President, CII & Chairman, CII National Startup Council, stressed the need to focus on research, innovation, and entrepreneurship as the key to achieve our goal of $10trillion economy in his special address. He emphasized that emerging areas like Cloud Computing, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, robotics, Machine Learning, and so on are going to drive the innovation economy, and this is a good opportunity for India to not just march towards a $10 trillion economy but to provide leadership to the world in creating innovative products. Mr. Sanjeev K Varshney, Head, International Cooperation, Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, also participated in the award ceremony along with DST and CII officials and winners and other applicants.
The CII Industrial Innovation Awards were instituted in 2014 to identify and celebrate innovative Indian enterprises across industry segments and sectors. The awards give national and international platform to the companies for their innovative products and services. These awards have established themselves as one of the most coveted innovation awards in the country. The awards evaluate all kinds of new processes, products, services, technologies, and other types of innovations which have the ability to fuel growth in industry. They also assess new ideas and approaches along with tangible results.
