Urging Indians to be proud of the country’s achievements in various sectors, S Sadagopan, former Director of the Bengaluru-based IIIT (Indian Institute of Information Technology), has said that there has been focus on Indian Knowledge System (IKS) in the recent years.
Delivering the Founders’ Day lecture of Karnataka Bank Ltd on the topic ‘Technology and Life’ in Mangaluru on Saturday, Sadagopan said unfortunately the country has been teaching generations of students only about technologies from the West in the post-independent era. “We have forcefully not talked about anything from this country which is little unfortunate. Don’t know why it happened,” he said.
Stating that the things are changing now, he said IKS is gathering momentum from the last few years. These are all the large projects across the Indian Institutes of Science, Indian Institutes of Information Technology and Indian Institutes of Management, he said.
Giving the example of irrigation infrastructure from the era of Karikala Chola, he said the Kallanai anaicut (dam) built during 150 BC works even today. “There is no reason why we cannot be proud of genuine achievement this country has done,” he said.
He also gave examples of IKS in the areas of textile, housing, education, healthcare, computing, material science, transport, communication and music.
Mahabaleshwara MS, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Karnataka Bank Ltd, gave an overview of the journey of the bank over the last 99 years. P Pradeep Kumar, Chairman of the bank, and Sekhar Rao, Executive Director of the bank, were present on the occasion.