BENGALURU: Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara expressed hope that Indian students would excel in robotics and stressed on improving the quality of education, here on Saturday.He was speaking at an event to inaugurate Zebra Robotics, an Indo-Canadian venture that offers students courses on robotics. Parameshwara recalled having visited the Suzuki car manufacturing plant in Japan a few years ago, when he saw almost all the assembling being done by robots.
“There were more than 1,500 robots involved. I was wondering where we Indians stand in this regard. Even today, we are only talking about introducing it in classes in India. But let us not get disappointed as our children are bright. India could launch 104 satellites in one go — that is our achievement,” he said.
The minister said India still needed qualitative improvement of education. He marvelled at the number of diverse areas in which robotics could be used, including industry, health sciences and agriculture.
‘City’s problems, a challenge’ Speaking of his role as Bengaluru Development Minister, Parameshwara said the city was not built for this big a population, and managing it was a challenge.
“A total of 75 lakh vehicles ply on roads daily. We have to improve infrastructure, but we can’t widen roads at the cost of breaking homes. I have taken it as a challenge to improve traffic in the city over the next few years,” he said.
Located at Jayanagar 4th Block, Bengaluru, Zebra Robotics will begin classes on August 1.
“What merely started as casual sessions to teach robotics to our family friend’s children quickly transformed into a multi-location evening, weekend and summer camp programme in the neighbourhood,” said Sharmila Govindarajan, co-founder of the firm. Zebra Robotics plans to open five centres in Bengaluru by the end of this year, and 20 centres across the country next year. The event was also attended by Jayanagar MLA Soumya Reddy.