PUNE: India must shed its fear of failure if it hopes to emerge as a global innovation powerhouse, senior chemical engineer Man Mohan Sharma said, arguing that scientific breakthroughs are impossible without unsuccessful experiments and the courage to pursue uncertain research. Accepting the Vigyan Maharshi Award 2026 at the three day National Scientists Round Table Conference (NSRTC 2026) which concluded on Sunday, at MIT World Peace University (MIT WPU), Sharma said the country’s biggest challenge was the absence of a culture that accepts failure as a natural part of scientific discovery. The former director of the Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT), Mumbai, urged researchers to remain driven by curiosity rather than guaranteed outcomes.“The problem that we are facing in India is that we don’t have the culture of owning failures. Without failures, you will not have invention. If you don’t have inventions, you will not have innovation,” Sharma said while receiving the award, which carries a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh and a citation in recognition of his lifetime contributions to science, engineering, industrial innovation, higher education and nation building.Sharma urged researchers to remain driven by curiosity rather than guaranteed outcomes. “Research is inspirational. It is not preordained. You do not know the end of your investigations. Sometimes, it is like walking down a blind alley to find out whether it is truly blind. Researchers who become mentors and innovators are a very different class of people. They are curiosity driven, work endlessly, have passion and a desire to achieve something,” he said.The three day conference has brought together scientists, researchers, industry leaders, academicians and students from across the country to deliberate on emerging scientific advancements and their role in achieving the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047.Delivering the keynote address, eminent scientist R. A. Mashelkar said India’s journey towards becoming a developed nation must be driven by scientific excellence and innovation. “The question before us is not whether India can become a developed nation. The real question is whether India can become a nation that creates knowledge, owns knowledge, converts knowledge into wealth and finally converts that wealth into societal well being,” he said.Mashelkar stressed that India must create science powered startups instead of merely increasing the number of startups. “A nation becomes truly developed not merely when it consumes advanced technologies, but when it creates them. It becomes even greater when it creates technologies that improve the lives of all humanity,” he added.Rahul V. Karad, executive president of MIT WPU, said universities and governments must work together to nurture scientific temper and create an ecosystem that encourages young researchers to pursue fundamental science and innovation.Speaking on “Generation of National Wealth through Science and Technology”, Padma Bhushan Prof. J. B. Joshi, chancellor of ICT, Mumbai, said India had achieved political freedom in 1947 but remained dependent on other countries for technology and knowledge. “We need another freedom fight for our own abundant knowledge, our own abundant innovations and our own abundant wealth,” he said.During the event, the first DeepTech Young Entrepreneur Awards, carrying a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh each, were presented to Narayana Rao Sripada, co founder of Swaasa, for developing an AI based smartphone respiratory screening solution, and Capt. Nikunj Parashar, founder of Sagar Defence Engineering for indigenous marine autonomy and defence robotics technologies.
