Union Minister for Science and Technology Dr Harsh Vardhan has called upon Private sector in India to come forward to support unheralded innovators in rural areas, who are coming up with solutions to solve everyday problems but do not have opportunities to promote and market them.

Inaugurating the first edition of the India International Science Festival (IISF) at IIT Delhi recently he said: "We need an inclusive approach to entrepreneurship and there is a lot of potential in the informal sector that the private sector too can tap".

The National Innovation Foundation in Ahmedabad, for instance, has identified a number of grassroots level solutions that can be scaled up, some of which have been developed by innovators from tribal communities, he said.

Dr Vardhan said the value of scientific research to the country's economy is estimated at between Rs. 1 lakh crore to Rs. 2 lakh crore every year. "An independent study by the National Council of Applied Economic Research has shown that weather forecasts by IMD alone have benefited the fisheries sector to the tune of Rs 34,000 crore annually," he added.

Describing the festival as a landmark event, he said, "IISF is not just another routine programme for three to four days, it is the stepping stone for realising the dreams of great leaders from the first Prime Minister of the country, Jawaharlal Nehru to the current Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, to make India a top country in the world".

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