Vice Prez abhors dynastic politics

Bengaluru, Sep 27: Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu today abhorred dynastic polity in the country and said merit should count in personalities entering politics. Responding to queries from students at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) here on dynastic politics, Mr Naidu said dynastic politics is not good for healthy democracy. 'Dynasty is nasty in that context' he said adding 'there should be no helicopter landing in politics just because of dynasty'. He also made it clear that he was above politics after having assumed Vice President Post and would act in a non partisan manner. Earlier addressing the students after visiting the IISC here he said he was hugely impressed by the state-of-the-art facilities and the high quality research being carried out at the Center and complimented IISc for delivering highly sophisticated Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) pressure transducers to DRDO for use in the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA). He called upon the students to draw inspiration from the rich scientific heritage and add to this the rich repository of thought and innovation. Since Independence many scientific institutions, universities and premier educational institutes like IISc have made significant contribution to India’s growth story. From green revolution to making India a leading power in space technology, Indian scientists have shown that they can rise to the occasion not only to feed the growing population, but also harness state-of-the-art technology for socio-economic development from agriculture to urban planning, apart from using it for telecommunications, television broadcasting and meteorological services. He said India had shown improvements in most areas, including in infrastructure, business sophistication, knowledge and technology and creative outputs. Innovation played a key role in driving knowledge-based economy and wanted the country to capitalize on its demographic advantage as 65 per cent of the population was below 35 years of age. Mr Naidu said 'Young and budding scientists must be encouraged to come out with out-of the- box solutions or disruptive technologies that will help in finding solutions to scientific problems and leapfrogging development'. To achieve this, scientific institutions should have a proper ecosystem. He said 'academic circles, industrial houses and the government must look at the societal challenges and seek answers through collaborations and partnerships. We must build upon the strengths of each partner. There must be a unique synergy in our working. Only then can we move faster with greater confidence', he added. UNI