Biggest mistake governments make is to think that they alone can bring about change, says PM Modi

Calling for Smart India with smart innovations, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that everything is possible with people's participation and governments makes the biggest mistake of trying to go it alone.

"Once the people decide to bring about change, everything is possible. But the biggest mistake governments make is to think that they alone can bring about change,” Modi said at the Grand Finale of the Smart India Hackathon through a video conference on Friday.

Stressing upon participative governance, the prime minister expressed his utmost hope in youngsters and urged them to contribute towards achieving the vision of New India.

“I am happy to see young minds thinking about ways to take our nation forward. It is a delight to be among smart innovators of smart India," Modi said.

Laying emphasis on innovation to overcome the challenges of development facing the country, the prime minister gave the mantra of IPPP i.e. Innovate, Patent, Produce and Prosper.

“These four steps will lead our country towards faster development, for that we will have to innovate and turn our innovations in patents, making our production smoother and taking products speedily to the people will make them prosper,” he said.

“Innovation has the power to overcome the challenges our world faces, we should think about how our innovation can transform the lives of our fellow citizens”, he added.

Modi also highlighted various decisions made by the government to facilitate research and innovations:

· Introducing Modern Techniques based on Educational and Learning concepts in Atal Tinkering Labs. Students of class 6th to 12th will be benefited from this.

· Prime Minister Research Fellowship to around 1000 best students of BTech, MTech and MSc courses in institutes like IITs, IISc and NIT every year. These students will be given financial assistance of about 70-80 thousand rupees per month over a period of five years.

· Focus on providing greater autonomy to Higher Educational Institutions.

· Setting up of 20 world class Institute of Excellence.