It’s time.
The Year was 1947, and a country was finding itself at the start of a new chapter.
The road that led to that point had been arduous and difficult, but the collective vision of the people as to what a Free India could be, and the sacrifices made along the way through nearly 90 years of freedom struggle led to a inflection point. Independence.
On August 15th 1947, the momentous speech was made, yes the one about our tryst with destiny. If you had paid close attention to that speech, there is a mention of a promise being redeemed - but it comes with a caveat.
On August 15th 1947, the momentous speech was made, yes the one about our tryst with destiny. If you had paid close attention to that speech, there is a mention of a promise being redeemed - but it comes with a caveat.
The vision for what India would be, was a grander one. However in 1947, with the backdrop of a country that was facing very many challenges, the leaders of the country knew that while we were redeeming a pledge of independence, we still had a long way to go.
That day in 1947, we did redeem a pledge, but it was not whole or in full measure. Yet.
We as a country, and as an ecosystem have been through quite a journey over the last 75 years, and the past 20 odd years have been the most exhilarating. From agonizing over what we don’t have, we have come to see the strength in what we are, and the confidence to face the world - and not just talk, but contribute to the globe.
The 2019-22 pandemic was a difficult period for most of the world, and India stepped up. Our work in producing a vaccine that was both effective, scalable and affordable builds confidence that we are almost ready to redeem our pledge fully.
Over the next few years and decades, we as a state, nation and world have immense challenges. Some are challenges that we must overcome, to achieve the qualify of life in an equitable manner to citizens, and some are challenges that we must step up to, because they are global and affects all of us.
Over the past decade or so, we have proven to ourselves and the world that we can build a vibrant ecosystem that can create; that we can imagine; and that we can create systems and experiences, that can scale globally.
But just as every developed country has, it is crucial for us to build out our innovation ecosystem, to lead. From the current ranking of #46 in the Global Innovation Index (as of 2021), our aspirations to become a trillion dollar economy state, and a 10 trillion dollar national economy rests on us being able to move up on that index.
But how does Tamil Nadu factor into this? We are glad you asked.
And for that, we need a purpose and direction. The challenges that we see ahead of us require a multi-disciplinary approach to solving them leveraging emerging and Deeptech, in a collaborative ecosystem.
The collaboration of the government, Academia, Industries, Innovators and Entrepreneurs. Serendipitously, all of which have come together to form the iTNT Hub. We envision the iTNT Hub, as a global innovation and deeptech network, based out of Tamil Nadu, India, focused on solving global and local problems. It is by making a significant contribution to the world, that we find our place, and redeem that pledge fully.
