With India Inc rapidly expanding its global presence, President Pratibha Patil said on Wednesday the country must strive for opportunities in new fields of high-end-technology to maintain the trend.

"We are leaders in the IT sector. We must try to maintain that lead and also invest in new fields of high-end-technology like bio-technology and nano-technology so that over a range of technologies, we occupy a pre-dominant position", Patil said addressing the platinum jubilee function of the Merchants' Chamber of Uttar Pradesh in Kanpur.

Patil said, given cost advantages India can become one of the manufacturing hubs and with focussed agricultural growth it can also become one of the granaries of the world. 

"The movement towards this goal would depend upon the skills and education of our people, the creativity and enterprise of our industry and the growth of the agricultural sector", she said.

Highlighting the fact that Indian economy has come a long way in the last two decades and gained reputation for its resilience and prospects for expansion, she said it is one of the fastest growing economies and many studies suggested that India would become third largest economy of the world by 2050.

The President said globalisation has made competition global and the country's industry, businesses and firms now have to compete with those of all other countries.

"Globalisation brings with it opportunities and challenges. We must seize them and address the challenges" she said.