New frontiers of knowledge : Innovations

When Sir Anerood Jugnauth announced the formation of his new government in December last, he displayed his lifelong experience of government business by consolidating existing Ministries through the addition of relevant portfolios, namely Innovation, Ocean Economy and National Emergency and also by creating a new Ministry responsible for Financial Services, Good Governance and Institutional Reforms.
     The new  configuration and appellation of some Ministries are very much in line with the developments happening on the world scene. In this article, I shall dwell exclusively on Innovation. When I was Head of the Ministry of Civil Service in 2004-2005 I came across a competition organised by the Commonwealth Association for Public Administration (CAPAM) to attract projects on Innovation from all Commonwealth countries . Later, I had the opportunity of attending the presentation of the selected projects. I considered it important for our Public Service to participate in such ventures and invited our government ministries and departments to submit entries for the subsequent competitions. Having  left the Ministry in 2005, I hope that more progress has been made to stir up our interest  in this promising field.
 Now that there is a Ministry responsible for Innovation there is no doubt that it will elaborate a full-fledged strategy to incorporate Innovation as an integral part of the developmental activities of not only the Public Service, but also the private sector and indeed the entire nation.  The field of Innovation is boundless as there can be no limit to research and imagination. We need to unlock the innovation potential of our population.