A lot of positive disruptions have happened in the field of healthtech and edutech delivery systems in India which demonstrated the value of these systems, Kris Gopalakrishnan, former Chairman, Infosys Limited, said.
Delivering the Presidential address at the Second Edition of TechBharat 2021, organised by Laghu Udyog Bharati and IMS Foundation, Gopalakrishnan said despite a good measure of developments in both the spheres, unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic literally exposed and amplified the digital divide in our country. “In this backdrop, I strongly feel that access to Internet and technology access should be made a fundamental right of every citizen of our country.”
Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister CN Ashwath Narayan said, “Karnataka is emerging as the leader in the edutech and healthtech domains. We need to further enhance our capability and hasten the use of technology adoption to stay ahead with the changing landscape and the Karnataka government will go one step ahead to support this initiative.”
He further said, “With this enabling ecosystem in place, we can see a better future for our society and people. We need to keep upgrading and using technology consistently so that we can reach the society in a more holistic manner in delivering healthcare and education services.”
On tech adoption, the Minister said, “The case in point is that the way technology was adopted, education and healthcare services were delivered efficiently and seamlessly during this pandemic. Digitalisation has worked wonders in delivering services by way of conducting classes, digital learning, hosting exams, telemedicine and consultation services, etc. Hence, technology adoption is the way forward to transform society and enable better standards of quality of life for people.”
Re-look at ancient education
Prahlad Joshi, Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs & Coal and Mines Minister, said, “I strongly believe that active collaboration between private and government entities can bring revolution in both the HealthTech and EduTech sector. This is one way of achieving Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call of AtmaNirbharat.”
He called upon educational institutions to seriously give a re-look at adopting the ancient education system which encourages better learning experience for young Indians.
Joshi said, “We need to seriously give a re-look at the ancient education system and see if we can replicate some of the thought processes to better the learning experiences for our young Indians who are considered as the most receptive and open to learning experiences in the world.” He also advocated the idea of adopting regional language as the medium of instruction in the educational institutions.
He said, “There is a misconception that teaching in local language will hamper research and development activity. Take the example of Japan, Korea or Russia their medium of instruction is vernacular. They are doing wonders in the field of R&D. Hence, I strongly feel that regional languages should be advocated to R&D activity so that we can also produce the best of research papers.”
