There is a need to continue to make bold investments in science and technology to develop solutions to for the problems that society is facing. This was stated by Dr. Ray O Johnson, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Lockheed Martin. Dr. Johnson was speaking at the US India Technology Summit organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry, the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India and the US Department of State today.

According to Dr. Johnson, a lot of technologies required to address the current problems faced by society across the world simply does not exist off the shelf. There is a need for continuous investment in R&D and innovation. Dr. Johnson was of the view that rather than rely on grants and donations to fund innovation, there is a need to develop sustainable business models for the same.

He stressed on the need for diversity of thought and called for collaboration between industry, academia and governments across the world to develop solutions for the world’s most pressing problems.

Highlighting some of the key attributes that will drive innovation in the future, Dr. Johnson stated that innovation will require creativity as well as engineering. Design would play a very important role in this process. Citing the internet as an example, he pointed out that the original creators of the internet would not have imagined that it would become such a major change agent.

Speaking about climate change, Dr. Johnson observed that it is impacting all areas of our lives and the effect of climate change needs to be factored in while developing technology in the future.

Dr. Johnson highlighted that the world is becoming more interconnected and we now have an “Internet of Things”. Virtually every device or appliance will have an IP address and can be accessed remotely. He was of the view that new technologies developed will need to balance affordability with accessibility.

In his view, some of the new emerging areas included advanced manufacturing and materials, data analytics, clean and renewable energy, life sciences, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals as well as the development of smart cities among others.

The session was moderated by Mr. Udayant Malhoutra, Chairman, CII National Committee on Design and CEO and Managing Director, Dynamatic Technologies Ltd.

November 19, 2014

Greater Noida