Pune, April 08, 2005
Award Winning Technologies Showcased

Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Pune celebrated its 18th Foundation Day today, with a grand ceremony marked by the presence of distinguished luminaries from the field of science and technology. In keeping with its annual tradition of inviting an eminent luminary to share their views and thoughts on the present day technology scenario, this year, the C-DAC, Pune Foundation Day Lecture was delivered by Padma Vibhushan Dr. R. Chidambaram, Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India and Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Cabinet.

Addressing the audience, Dr. Chidambaram spoke on Technological Foresight and Information Technology highlighting the technological needs of the country and the areas of technological success. He went on to describe the Indian IT scenario and the success achieved by India in supercomputing technology against the denial from U.S.A., Japan and Europe. He defined technological foresight as a determination of possible futures, taking into account existing as well as emerging technologies, and of strategies likely to yield the maximum economic, social environmental and security benefits. Differentiating technological foresight from technological forecasting, he explained Technology Foresight must be distinguished from Technology Forecasting, which attempts at prediction of future technological developments, without worrying about the impact of these developments on the economy, society or the environment.

He believed that a strong and vibrant innovation ecosystem requires an education system, which nurtures creativity; an R&D culture and value system which supports both basic research and applied research & technology development; an industry culture which is keen to interact with academia; a bureaucracy which is supportive; a policy framework which encourages young people to enter into scientific careers; and an ability to scan scientific developments in the world and to use technology foresight to select critical technologies in a national perspective. He expressed his view that an industry sector which is doing well tends to support R&D, while a stagnating industry shuns R&D. An overly-protected industry also does not bother about
product improvement.

Dr. Chidambaram commented that India must develop new and innovative products based on our own R&D and that the Indian IT industry must support R&D, with a national perceptive, focusing on R&D capabilities that exist or can be developed and with an eye on global markets. Attributing the success of Indias atomic energy programme to the existence of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and other R&D institutions in the Department of Atomic Energy, he said that the Indian industry must increase its spending in
R&D. He was of the opinion that India could become an innovation leader – particularly in the New Product Design and Development area of the Manufacturing Sector, provided we have proper 'technology foresight' to make the right technology choices, in a national perspective, and provided we introduce 'Coherent Synergy' in our S&T related activities to establish an effective 'innovation ecosystem'. Dr. Chidambaram also unveiled the fifth anniversary issue of C-DAC Connect, the house magazine of C-DAC, on the occasion.

During the programme, C-DAC, Pune showcased the latest award winning products and technologies from its R&D stable, namely Shruti Drishti - a web page browser for visually impaired users by the Applied Artificial Intelligence Group, predictive & non-predictive Indian language inputting & localization solution for cellular phones by the GIST group, a set of two CDs on the 'Life and Work of Srinivasa Ramanujan' by the National Multimedia Resource Centre. The CDs on the 'Life and Work of Srinivasa Ramanujan' were presented to His Excellency Dr. A. P. J. Kalam, the Honble President of India recently.

INVWAV - A seismic full waveform inversion software by the Seismic Data Processing team for the ONGC in collaboration with GEOPIC, ONGC, Dehradun and Identification of Hilly regions within Pune Municipal Corporation limits using high-resolution satellite images by the Geomatics Solutions Development Group were also showcased.

Shruti Drishti was the recipient of the Golden Icon Award from the Department of Administrators Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), Govt. of India & the Government of Orissa at the 8th National Conference on eGovernance, recently. A booklet compiling the details of the showcased technologies was released by Dr. A. K. Chakravarti, Group Coordinator (R&D in IT), DIT, Govt of India as part of the event.

Mr. S. Ramakrishnan, Director General, C-DAC commented that the 18th Foundation Day was a momentous occasion for all of us to reflect and take pride in the legacy and contributions of C-DAC even while we look forward to the future with aspirations and, inevitably, trepidation. Tracing the origins of C-DAC, Pune when India entered the post reforms era, he said that C-DAC has constantly positioned itself and continues to consolidate itself from the sound foundations laid earlier. He expressed his opinion that this was not a time to relax but is a time to redouble our efforts in the areas where there are opportunities and where we are uniquely positioned R&D, productization, R&D services or what is called contract R&D, partnership and called upon C-DACians to develop a USP for ourselves and continue to win the confidence of
our stakeholders.

Mr. Ajeer Vidya, Jt. Secretary and Financial Advisor, DIT, Govt of India and Prof. Ashok S. Kolaskar, Vice Chancellor, University of Pune were the other guests of honor.

A cultural programme-Hindi Hasya Kavi Sammelan- has also been organized by C-DAC, Pune on April 9, 2005 to commemorate the celebrations.

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