By Newsgram Staff Writer

Innovation is the key to progress and prosperity. The process of innovation converts knowledge into social good and economic wealth, said President Pranab Mukherjee during the inauguration of a weeklong 'Festival of Innovations' at Rashtrapati Bhavan Saturday.

"India always has had a strong tradition of knowledge. Our knowledge system offer tremendous scope for research involving land-to-lab investigation and lab-to-land transfer of technology. It is important that the vast repository of indigenous knowledge is protected, documented and preserved' in active collaboration with prominent practitioners of traditional knowledge," Pranab Mukherjee said.

The President said building viable linkages between formal and informal sectors also call for deepening the involvement of the leaders of technological, financial and educational sectors with the creativity of common people and young students.

"A "Festival of Innovation" has been started at the Rashtrapati Bhavan this year. It will help to provide a platform to bring different stakeholders together and make these entities active partners in inclusive innovation. The innovators participating in this programme have come from various parts of our country. I hope that an empathetic value chain for disseminating good ideas can be built upon this initiative," he added.

India is ranked 76th in the Global Innovation Index 2014, much below China which is at the 29th position. Even Russia, at the 49th place and Brazil at 61, perform better than us.