Stressing that Bengal was a “slow starter” in IT and ITES sectors, President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday said it has “another chance” to make a mark thanks to the “explosion of digital technologies”.

Addressing the closing ceremony of centenary celebrations of Bose Institute, a premier research institute established by Acharya Jagadis in Kolkata, Kovind said Bengali technologists turn entrepreneurs can be “very successful”.

“Bengal was a slow starter in IT (Information Technology) and ITES (Information Technology enabled Services). Now it has another chance. We are in midst of explosion of digital technologies,” Kovind said.

“Precision manufacture and bioinformatics are changing how we work. And robotics how we live. All this throws up opportunities for Bengal,” he added.

Citing successful Bengali entrepreneurs like Rajendra Nath Mookerjee, Amar Bose PC Ray and JC Bose, Kovind said “when Bengali scientists and technologists turn entrepreneurs, they can be very, very successful.”

“We need to bring back the magic of that synthesis Engineer father-son Rajendra Nath Mookerjee and Biren Mookerjee established the Indian Iron and Steel Company in Burnpur. Founder of Bose Corporation in the US was Amar Bose, a technologist and academic of Bengali descent,” he said.

“Acharya PC Ray established Bengal Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Ltd as the first Indian-owned pharmaceutical company,” he added.

In particular, Kovind heaped praises on JC Bose, who is acknowledged as the father of modern scientific research in India.

“JC Bose was an innovator and scientist of world-class distinction. He laid the foundation for revolutionary technologies like modern wireless communication,” he said.

“He demonstrated wireless transmission of microwaves as far back as 1895 Bose Institute occupies a unique and exalted position in the landscape of Indian science”.

On his four-day maiden visit to West Bengal, Mizoram and Nagaland after assuming office, Kovind had earlier in the day paid tributes to Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore and nationalist leader Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in Kolkata.