Technological developments and new innovations are helping in creating a united world that accelerates globalization. The advancement of new technologies and innovations is easing making business interactions globally and streamlining tasks. Considering the growing benefits of technology, world’s technology companies and technology and research institutes are busy in a new era of competition to innovate latest products in the sector.
Countries, both in developed and developing world give due attention to the development and advancement of technology. Countries are investing their maximum capacities both to introduce and make available technologies to bolster their development endeavors and to develop their own technological products using local initiatives. This shows that technology is becoming a daily chore in every country.
In this regard, technology companies and research institutes in the technology and innovation sectors play a vital role in developing the technological advancements in each country. Countries are exploiting the benefits of technology for their economic development and to make businesses in a simple and easy way. Likewise, technology helps to improve the education system of countries and enables the new generation to be skillful to invent and create new innovations.
Especially, higher educational institutions play a paramount role in accelerating the technological development and innovations of a country. Higher education institutions and research centers in the technology sector are becoming technology and innovation excellence centers and countries are investing in developing research hubs.
India is among the rising countries of the world in the technology sector. India is home to internationally known technology manufacturing companies and well-known higher education institutions in the technology sector. These higher education technology institutes based in India are full of modern and improved research tools and experiments that allow their students equipped with practical experiments.
Recently, the Indian government has invited journalists from 18 African countries to take a tour of technology institutes and innovation facilities in India. I was among the journalists gathered from Africa to visit India. It was my first visit to India and I visited different technology institutes, centers and technology companies during my stay in India, including one of the most noted technology institutes, the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi.
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi is one of the 23 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) established to be a center of excellence for training, research, and development in science, engineering, and technology in India. Established as the College of Engineering in 1961, the institute was later developed in to an institution of national importance under the “Institutes of Technology (Amendment) Act, 1963” and was renamed “Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.” It was then accorded the status of a deemed university, with the power to decide its own academic policy, conduct its own examinations, and award its own degrees.
Since its inception, over 48,000 students have graduated from IIT Delhi in various disciplines, including engineering, physical sciences, management, and social sciences. The students graduated from this well-known technology institution are now scientists, researchers, managers and innovators in various disciplines. IIT graduated over 5070 in Ph.D. degrees, 15,738 in Bachelor Degree in Technology while the rest obtain master’s degrees in engineering, sciences, and business administration. These alumni, today, work as scientists, technologists, business managers, and entrepreneurs. In doing so, they are contributing a significant role for the promotion and development of industrialization across the world.
Speaking to African journalists who visited the institute, Shiv Prakash Yadav, Institute’s Public Relations Officer, made a briefing about the history and current status of the institute and its contributions in the technology sector for India and beyond as well. In his explanation, he stated that the institute has a lot of workshops that enable students to carry out their experiments and practical research tasks. The workshop stations include 3D printers, metal and metal fabricators, aluminum fabrication machines, laser cutters, metal 3D machines and other basic materials for experiments and researches.
In addition to the teaching-learning process and the research tasks, the institute creates linkages between technology industries in the country and students of the institute. The linkage between the students-industry helps the students to understand the practical activities of the technology companies that also help them to easily create connections for job opportunities after graduation. The linkage also helps the students innovating new products and ideas and present ingtheir innovations to industries.
The second visit was to the technology hub of Hyderabad city, a place where talented young researchers and innovators with various creative endeavors conduct research activities. In the center, startup technology innovators submit early drafts of their work. The draft works are evaluated at the center, and the center helps investors to develop their ideas and research outcomes in to products and investments. The startup technology innovators who join the center got professional supports, advices and other supports that equipped them to change their innovational ideas in to products.
T-Hub (Technology Hub), India’s largest incubation center synergizes startups, corporations, government institutions, academia, and investors to drive transformative change. In 2022, T-Hub have completed seven successful years of empowering India’s innovation ecosystem.
T-Hub is a premier innovation hub and ecosystem enabler based in Hyderabad, India. It leads India’s pioneering innovation ecosystem and strives to create impact for startups, corporations, and other ecosystem stakeholders. The hub aims to enable and empower technological ecosystem as well as promote innovations.
Incorporated in 2015, T-Hub has provided over 2000 national and international startups access to superior technology, talent, mentors. It also creates connections between customers, corporations, investors, and government agencies and other stakeholders in the innovation ecosystem to work together and to create business connections.
T-Hub has elevated innovation for leading national and global corporations, transforming their business models for the better. Collaborating with innovation partners and enablers in Telangana, India, and across the world, T-Hub is building a future-ready innovation ecosystem.
During my visit there, I observed that young technology innovators are striving to develop their creativity and skills through the support they receive. Experts are assigned to support the talented innovators at the hub, who following and supporting the innovators to change their ideas in to products. The expert helps the novice technology innovators by pursuing their ideas and works. In addition to this, a center has been facilitated for budding technology innovators to demonstrate their works.
This place is known as Technology Workshop. It is a place where tech startups can prototype their works. There are technologically advanced tools for every task. Particularly, laser cutters and 3D printers account for the highest number. With the help of these tools, they turn their technological innovations into reality.
BY MERID KIFLU
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD FRIDAY 29 DECEMBER 2023
