Will prepare a policy by next month:

Committee to help grassroots innovators

Ramani KANGARAARACHCHI

MINISTER of Science and Technology, Prof. Tissa Vitharana has appointed a high-powered committee headed by the Chairman, National Engineering Research and Development Centre of Sri Lanka (NERD) Engineer Jayantha Ranatunga for grassroots innovations for the first time in Sri Lanka.

The other nine members of the committee comprise Dr. Ray Wijewardena, Dr. Vindya Ariyaratne, Dr. Siripala Hettige, Dr. D. Mubarak, Prof. Sirimali Fernando, Dr. Noel Jayasuriya, Engineer Lalith Kahatapitiya and Dr. Nimal Somaratne.

The objective of the committee is to help innovative people in the country to develop their ideas and

 products to make them economically and socially benefited, Engineer Ranatunga said. He said that there are large number of school dropouts and people between the ages of 25-45 fall into this category specially from rural areas and their talents and knowledge should be utilised and recognised properly.

The committee will prepare a policy by next month to work out a mechanism to identify and develop grassroots innovators.

The Head of Asian and Pacific Centre for Transfer of Technology (APCTT) Eng. K. Ramanathan said that the Indian Government has made progress in grassroots innovations and wanted to share their experience with other countries in the Asia Pacific Region.

Four countries including Sri Lanka wanted to implement grassroots innovation at a meeting held by the senior policy makers in the region and APCTT selected Sri Lanka to hold the first workshop with the help of Indian expertise, Professor Anil K. Gupta.

Participants from universities, NGOs, and Government institutions were present at this two-day workshop.