“RESTART” Conference

• 13 May 2020

Why in News

A digital conference on ‘Rebooting the Economy through Science, Technology, and Research Translations (RESTART)’ was organised on the occasion of the National Technology Day (May 11).

• The conference was organized by the Technology Development Board (TDB), an autonomous organization of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) along with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
• CII is a non-government, not-for-profit, industry-led and industry-managed organization.

Key Outcome

• Strengthen Medicines & Medical Technologies:
  
  • Experts are of the opinion that the Covid-19 pandemic is a great opportunity for R&D and needs to be used for strengthening ‘Medicines & Medical Technologies for better preparedness to face future Pandemics’.
  • The crisis has unfolded some of the best medical advancements and innovations, like drug discovery, vaccines, and diagnostic tools, etc. as well as ways to preserve electronic health records.
    
    • Example: Aarogya Setu app, BiPAP ventilators, use of combination of drugs to treat Covid-19.
  • Technologies such as appropriate face masks and best practices like physical distancing need to be made a part of life.
• Use of Advanced Materials:
  
  • Novel materials such as smart materials, special purpose alloys, engineering polymers & blends, graphene, composites, etc. will be the key to revamping the industry’s product lines in the future.
  • To tackle pandemics like Covid-19, research needs to quickly switch over from being capital intensive to knowledge-intensive and should be brought closer to industry.
• Advanced Manufacturing Technologies for Sustainable Future
  
  • In addressing short term and long-term challenges, advanced technologies provide avenues to the industry to re-stimulate innovation, sustainability and employment.
  • Covid-19 has forced the Industries to go for digital transformation.
  • The world is moving towards mass customization and mass specialization today, and technology like 3-D printing plays a major role in it.
• Global Innovation & Technology Alliance:
  
  • In today's pandemic scenario, virtual collaboration is the key to connect globally to fight against the common challenge of Covid-19, and collaboration between countries must continue with much vigour.

National Technology Day

• India observes its National Technology Day on 11^th May every year.
  
  • It is the day India successfully tested nuclear bombs in Pokhran on May 11, 1998.
• It was first observed in 1999, and aims to commemorate the scientific and technological achievements of Indian scientists, engineers.
• It is organised every year by the Technology Development Board of India. The focus this year is ‘Rebooting the economy through Science and Technology.’

Key Terms

• Capital intensive and Knowledge intensive
  
  • The term "capital intensive" refers to business processes or industries that require large amounts of investment to produce a good or service.
  • Knowledge Intensive includes reliance on professional knowledge for business services. Here the workers need a lot of education, skills, and experience in order to work effectively.
• Mass customization: It allows a customer to design certain features of a product while still keeping costs closer to that of mass-produced products.

Source: PIB