May I extend a warm welcome to you on this momentous occasion
at the dawn of this new millennium? We are meeting in this great
city of Pune, the intellectual, cultural & educational capital of this
state. The arrival of the new millennium, which going by cold arithmetic
is one year away has been advanced by all of us, so keen are we all to
embrace the future. To us, emotionally, the new millennium has already
arrived and the mood of the new millennium has already been set.
Therefore, it is a great time to ponder over the theme of this congress
'Indian S & T into the Next Millennium.'
As some one has said, wise people may develop
expectations for the future, but only foolish make the predictions.
'A technology of the 20th century symposium' held in 1900, based on the
level of knowledge that existed at the time, might not have mentioned the aero plane,
radio, antibiotics, nuclear energy, electronics, computers or space exploration!
One can imagine the hazards of doing this again after 100 years.
All that we can do is to see the foreseeable future, that is why we have
used the word 'into' and not 'in the next millennium' in
the theme.
March of science:
We
look at tomorrow from where we stand today. We notice that the only
thing that is permanent is change. We notice that rapid paradigm
shifts are taking place in the world as it moves from superpower bipolarity
to multipolarity, as industrial capitalism shifts to green capitalism and
digital capitalism, as information technology creates 'netizens' out of
'citizens', as aspirations of the poor get fuelled by the increasingly
easier access to information, as nations move from 'independence' to 'interdependence',
as national boundaries become notional, and as the concept of global citizenship
evolves.
The spectacular march of science & technology
is profoundly affecting our lives. Genetic engineering and the associated
reproductive technologies on plants, animals and human have brought forth
ethical issues calling for greater regulation by involving social scientists
and environmentalists. The process of globlization, privatization
and corporatisation of research has shifted the dynamics of knowledge production
& dissemination dramatically, just as issues of intellectual property
rights (IPR) and proprietary information and knowledge have begun to open
up new dialogues on public good versus private profit. New models
of the innovation chain and new paradigms of
the science-society contracts
have begun to emerge.
What is ahead?
What would the scientific world be like in
the new millennium? I am sure the human mind will continue to explore.
How was the universe born? Is there life in the outer space?
Can aging be postponed? What secrets do genes hold? At a deeper
level, globally networked teams of scientists will probe several questions.
Will we ever understand how the apparently useless DNA in the human genome
contributed to our evolution? As our understanding of the DNA world
improves, will we turn to the RNA world? May be build an organism
based on RNA in the laboratory? Will we be able to understand the origin of life from inorganic
chemicals? Will we ever understand how
decisions are made, imagination is set free or what consciousness consists
of? Will we be able to identify the neural correlates of our thinking?
Will the attempts to 'quantify' the gravitational field succeed? Will string
theory really fulfill its promise of being the true description of the
particles of the matter or will it be another blind ally? Would we
ever be able to provide those uniquely relevant experimental data to prove
the so-called 'theory of
everything'? Scientists around the world
will be grappling with these problems. Our hope is that Indian scientists
will be able to contribute to answering some of these and other questions
and hopefully, they will say either the first or the last word in the matter.
Bio-chips.
Spectacular developments will continue to take place in different
domains of technology. Look at, for instance, just one such domain
as an example, namely information technology. The performance of microprocessors has improved 25000 times over since their invention.
Every 18 months, technology doubles the speed of microprocessors.
The computer of 2020 is expected to be as powerful as all those computers
in Silicon Valley today put together. The buzz words in the computer
world are: smaller, faster, cheaper, pipelined, super scalar and parallel.
Several laboratories around the world are busy exploring novel technologies
that may one day herald the arrival of new generation of computers and microelectronic
devices. Some are exploring the possibility of developing quantum
computing techniques, which would capitalise on the non-classical behaviour
of the devices. Others are taking non-silicon routes by developing
data storage systems, which can potentially use photonically activated
bio-molecules. Yet others are exploring nano-mechanical logic gaps.
Who will be the winner? We do not know. I leave it to the experts
to debate these and other issues in this congress over the next five days. Indian
revolutions.
Let
us turn the focus on to Indian Science & technology. We can say
with confidence that Indian science & technology has contributed its
mite to the building of post-independent India. The strong institutional
S & T framework build over the past fifty years has provided a powerful
base. The 'Trimurti' who spearhead our space, defense, atomic energy
research are amongst us today and they will tell you with pride this afternoon
how they have taken up the challenge of development of technology in regimes
of denial and control by other nations and how they will build the secure
India of the 21st century. Just a few feet away is C-DAC, where India's
response to super computer denial by USA was delivered in the most fitting
way by developing our own super computer, PARAM. Our achievements
of green revolution have led us to self -sufficiency of food. Our
white revolution has helped us to reach the status of the highest milk
producer in the world.
The inspiring saga of our achievements in S & T in post independent
India will be reverberated in this great 'Jai Vigyan Sabhamandap' for over
the next five
days by thousands of scientists, who have gathered here.
But while we celebrate, debate and ponder over the future in the portals
of this great university, let us also pause for a moment and remind
ourselves of the several formidable challenges that remain in spite of
all our achievements. They include: exploding population, widespread
poverty, illiteracy, squalor, ruptures & cleavages based on region,
religion, language and gender threatening the social fabric, urban congestion,
wounded ecosystems and critical power and energy situation. Globalisation
in terms of both economy and geopolitics has posed other problems.
Never before in the history of mankind, did a country with democratic dispensation
had to feed so many poor and teach so many illiterates and also simultaneously
compete with the most advanced nations for a place under the sun.
In
spite of these daunting challenges, I feel confident that the 21st century
will belong to India, provided we get back to some basics and set them
right, and the time to do this is Now. No matter how hard one thinks,
it is clear that only five fundamentals need to be set right. The
five point agenda for the new millennium is almost like a new Panchasheel
for the new millennium. The New Panchasheel.
It is simply:
Child
centred education ~
Woman centred family ~
Human centred development ~
Knowledge centred society ~
Innovation centred India
The
beauty about these five points is that they will be as relevant in the
year 2000 as they will be in the year 3000. All five of them flow
into each other. All of them have to be taken together. And
all five of them are ones, on which we have faltered today. Let
me elaborate this new Panchasheel for the new millennium now.
[1] - Child centred Education
India has a new Y2K problem, namely that of building
its young generation in the year 2000 and beyond. It is predicted
that by 2015, over half of the Indian population will be less than twenty
years old. That is a great news, because these Indians are either
already born or about to be born. Youth represents the national strength,
vitality and vigour. Yuvashakti is the real Shakti of the nation.
If properly moulded, the youth can become the champion of our culture,
custodian of our national pride and a trustee of the freedom of the country.
But, the process of such
moulding requires the right education at an early
age. Are our education systems geared to meet this challenge today?
I am afraid, not. Let me specifically focus on science education.
The way science is taught in our schools will determine as to
whether or not we will have a society, which is capable of developing and
absorbing technology creatively as well as giving a scientific foundation
to our cultural, political and economic fabric. There are three crises
that we face today. The first is that young minds are not turning
to science, to an extent that some science departments are getting closed
down. The second is that those who turn to science do not stay in
science. The third is in science education itself. We find
that our education has not been child centred, it is centred around text
books, rigid unimaginative curricula, ill designed class room
teaching and an outdated examination system. An Indian child is forced
to learn by rote and its individuality and imaginativeness is lost.
Recast methods.
We
have to remould the school science education to the mode of' learning by
discovery' and 'learning by doing' in the contrast to the prevailing 'learning
by rote' method. The child has to become an active participant in
the process of learning science. Rather than memorising the products
of science, the child needs to understand and appreciate the beautiful
process of science. The curricula must relate closely to science
and technology experiences of everyday life. Our students must not
only love science but they must live science. The achieve this, we
must create a lot of local content in the education, through exposure to local
flora and fauna, local water and soil, local socio-economic issues, local
heritage, etc. This simple initiative can give a whole range of new
dimension to the teaching of botany, chemistry, history, etc.
The
IT revolution will impinge on all aspects of our life, including education.
New paradigm shifts will take place in both
teaching and learning.
Teaching hitherto meant speaking and learning meant listening. We
were all confined in the four walls of a classroom, where the teacher taught
and we as students listened. Internet has already made it possible
to take education to the home of the learners, with self-learning programmes
with the creative use of multi-media. Education can be potentially
brought home, including to those, who have been un-reached so far.
The impact of creating a content in local languages will be phenomenal
in increasing the spread. Customised content creation will open up
new challenges for the content industry.
New means of learning.
We
have always had batch processing in our examinations. All of us appeared
for the examination at the same time and assessed our capacity annually
as a ritual. No more so, thanks to IT. Innovative evaluation
systems, which are continuous and individually centred, will emerge.
A child that acquires intellectual maturity several years earlier will
stand apart and we will have the challenge of putting it on a faster career
progression path.
Will
teaching and learning in cyberspace replace a classroom ? No way.
The traditional classroom teaching involves the most vital social and interactive
context,
that is, human interaction. The role of teachers will remain
crucial. We need to pay attention to the teachers. Who really
are the ones, who would mould the young minds. I remember going to a poor
school in Mumbai. But that poor school had rich teachers. I
remember Principal Bhave, who taught us physics. Today's children
have this 'book vs. Look' problem, since they are so overburdened
that they don't have time to look around. Principal Bhave emphasised
the 'look' part of it. I remember his taking us out in to the sun
to demonstrate as to how to find the focal length of a convex lens.
He took a piece of paper, moved the lens till the brightest spot emerged
on the paper, and told us that the distance between the paper and the lens
was the focal length. But then he held it on for some time and the
paper burnt. For some reason, he turned to me and said "Mashelkar,
if you can focus your energies like this and not diffuse them you can burn
anything in the world !" I was so impressed with the power of science
that I decided to become a scientist. But that experiment gave
me the philosophy of life too; 'focus and you will achieve'.
There are two lessons. Cyberspace as a teacher can never equal my
Bhave Sir. The other one is that in the present world of commercialised
education, what is it that we are doing today, to create, sustain
and encourage the Bhaves, who will build the new Indians of the new millennium?
Among many facets of child centred education, this is one to which we need
to pay utmost attention.
[2]- Woman
centred society.
Recently, the Hon'ble Vice-President of India said 'The best
symbol of female values that has been created by nature is in the form
of 'mother'. Mother is 'creativity' and 'innovation' personified in
solving human problems in the family. She represents excellence, morality,
equality not in material terms but as a living cultural symbol practicing
these values. Out of all the management experiences in business,
industry, public service and society, mother is the best manager nature
has created. Mother's instinct has sustained Mother India.
It is more specific than the word culture itself. The growing alienation
between man and society, which modern-day management practices have to
contend with, may find its solution in the management practices which derives
strength from the way mother manages her family in small and big way i.e.
Mother Culture!'
These pervasive thoughts remind us that we
have lost somewhere on the way the
essence of not only the 'mother culture',
but also that of 'mother nature', 'mother India' and indeed the entire
concept of woman centred family. The sharp gender inequalities with
unequal pay for equal work, discrimination in labour market and so on are
grim realities. Harsh statistics stares us in the face. 70%
of the Indian women are illiterate. 90% of family planning operations
are tubectomies. 60% of primary school dropouts are girls. UN's
verdict.
The
UN had adopted 1994 as the year of the family with an emphasis that the
family is the smallest democracy at the heart of the society. But
on the other hand the Human Development Report 1993 had said, "No country
treats its women as well as its men." Can the India of the next millennium
afford to stand on only one of its legs? A woman has to be allowed
the full expression of the potential and she has to be empowered to become
a dynamic partner in the building of the new India of our dreams.
Several
actions need to be taken, if this has to happen. For example, the
state has brought forth several pieces of legislation to curb the oppression
of women, Child Marriage Restraint Act, the Medical Termination of Pregnancy
Act, the Widow Remarriage Act, etc. However, these acts have not
become acts of faith, and they
cannot, until the mindset of our strongly
patriarchal society changes fundamentally. This is a larger issue,
but in this Science congress let me briefly focus on the issue of science
and technology, i.e., how women will enrich science and technology and
how science and technology will enrich women.
Opportunities for women.
The
emerging technological developments have the potential to impact the lives
of the women enormously. The emergence of information technology
will play a great role with education reaching the home now, with access
of women to higher education becoming easier. The same flexibilities
are available for working too. The emerging IT connectivity offers
the women the freedom to work from home and at hours that suit them.
Home and office have ceased to be contrary pulls. however, in order
that women benefit fully from the IT revolution, we will have to make fundamental
changes in the archaic employment rules with a far more liberal view of
the work place, work function and working hours.
Advances in life sciences have placed in the
hands of women opportunities that were unheard of earlier. However,
technology is a double edged weapon and if
not well used, its advance can
hurt the cause of women. For instance, today's technology enables
the determination of the sex of a child during pregnancy. I was stunned
to hear recently about some statistics on the number of pregnancy terminations,
Which in the case of female child far exceed that of a male child -and
this was not in a village but in a metropolitan city. What kind of
new millennium India will we create if such prejudices persist?
We must
promote vigorously pro-women technologies. These exist in their creative
participation in agriculture linked activities, micro-propagation,
plant tissue culture, disease surveillance, health care systems and so
on. Developing and enhancing a woman's entrepreneurial skills and
giving her economic freedom will alone restore her to the rightful place
in the family and the society.
[3] - Human
Centred Development
More
than half a century ago, Albert Einstein suggested 'we shall require a new
manner of thinking, if mankind is to survive'. This new thinking
is particularly important if we have to resolve the tension between two
irreconcilable trends, namely, demographic
projections that the world
population will reach 10 to 12 billion by the year 2050; and scientific
estimates that the earth's long-term sustainable carrying capacity at an
adequate standard of living may not be much greater that 2 to 3 billion.
A minor fraction of world's people consume a disproportionate amount of
natural resources. Such unsustainable consumption on the part of
a few and unacceptable poverty on the part of many is going to create a
crisis of unbelievable dimensions and we can resolve it only by taking
recourse to 'human centred development'.
Job-led growth.
We cannot have plans of economic development, where the human
is a bystander. In the new human centred development, the balance
of five Es, namely ecology, environment, economics, equity and ethics will
have to be achieved. Mere economic development without regard to equity
and ethics will take us nowhere; just as economic development disregarding
ecology and environment will be fatal. May be we should look at the
issue of equity again. We often talk about equity-which is based
on subsidy. But this is not sustainable. The word 'equity'
must be substituted by 'dignity'. This can come only through the
process of self-employment, which alone can bring self-empowerment.
The new engineers and technologists can contribute to making this happen.
It is time that in India we look at our approach of top-down
planning, which has met with mixed success. Participation of
local institutions through new technology will need emphasis. Promoting
a job-led economic growth strategy based on pro-nature, pro-poor, and
pro-woman orientation to development of technology and its dissemination
will need a new impetus. Mass production and production by masses
will have to co-exist in India. The first will lead to global competitiveness
& the
second to jobs, where they are wanted. Indeed new models
to create new micro-enterprises, which are able to add value and generate
employment and income will be needed. If the processes of production,
trade and consumption have to be localized, then developing innovative scale-
insensitive, economically viable technologies will pose new intellectual
challenges, which our scientists and engineers will have to take up.
Then alone can we create a new economy of scale, which will integrate local
raw materials and innovative blend of human experience, skills and modern
developments in technologies.
[4]-Knowledge centred society
Only
those nations will survive in the new millennium, who build knowledge -
centred societies; the others will vanish into oblivion. The Indian
society was indeed a leading knowledge centred society in the distant past,
but we lost our way in the intervening period. In the emerging knowledge
millennium, it is important that every Indian becomes a knowledge worker,
be it a farmer, a rural workman, a media man, an artisan and so on.
Here a knowledge worker is simply one who knows why he is doing what he
is doing.
A
farmer can be a knowledge worker, provided he understands the soil that
he is sowing his seeds in, the why of the micro nutrient and pesticide
addition that the makes, he lives in an information village, where he has
the benefits of short and medium range weather forecasting to plan his
farming activity and so on. Innovative experiments for creating such
knowledge workers are already on the anvil. For instance, the Swami Nathan
Research Foundation is creating new knowledge workers. For instance, the Swaminathan Research Foundation is creating
new knowledge systems in the villages around Pondicherry with its global idea
of the empowerment of rural women, men and children with information relating
to ecologically sound agriculture, economic access and utilisation.
The farmers are
trained to build soil health cards. We need to multiply
these to cover the entire Indian populace.
Assets of knowledge.
We
need Indian customers to be knowledge workers. They will change the
market dynamics dramatically. Knowledge will have to get encoded
both explicitly and implicitly in the products. For instance, insistence
on eco-labeling is nothing other than insistence on the customer being empowered
with knowledge about the environmental and ecological impact of the products
he is buying and using. Enlightened citizens, who are knowledge workers,
will not stop projects that lead to economic development, but they will
stop those, which lead to destruction.
Knowledge will not be a mere tool in development, knowledge
itself will be development. True knowledge societies of tomorrow
will make a creative use of modern information and communications technology.
The cost of transmitting information and knowledge has plummeted by several
hundred folds in the last twenty years and will continue to do so.
This will mean that the poor will have an access to information as much
as the rich have it. This is a good news for India. However,
it is not information alone that matters, it is the insight that matters.
It is only through a process of inquiry, that we can convert information
into insight. Therefore, we need to create 'inquiring societies',
and not just 'information societies', If such inquiring societies emerge
then the new knowledge revolution will lead to social, gender and economic
equity.
Knowledge distribution.
We
have made many promises to ourselves. These include 'education for
all', 'food for all', 'health for all', etc. Can we, in the coming
knowledge millennium, also say 'knowledge for all'? On reflection,
it seems to be difficult unless we turn to IT again Not only that knowledge
is doubling up in 10 years but it is growing in complexity too. Continuous
knowledge renewal, therefore, become more important than ever before.
The process of continuous learning, especially through the tools of modern information technology will, therefore, be absolutely essential.
And a great 'digital divide' will take place between those who can do it,
and those who cannot.
Knowledge
revolution is leading to knowledge centred trade and industry. We
can see dramatic changes in international trade today. It was formerly
dominated by primary products such as iron ore, coffee, unprocessed cotton
etc. It is now moving to knowledge intensive goods. The high
technology goods alone doubled their share of world merchandise exports
from 11% in 1976 to 22% in 1996. Meanwhile, the share of prime products
dropped to less that 25% from about 45% initially. More than half
of the GDP in major OECD countries is due to production and distribution
of knowledge. Knowledge industries.
The
interesting point is that in India itself, we are seeing the sunrise of
knowledge industries and sunset of other industries. The list of
100 top billionaires of Indian industry based on net worth was published
recently. Among the top five were four, who owned knowledge industries.
The same industries were low down with ranks below forty, just five years
ago.
For a country like India, emergence of knowledge
industries is a great news, since the emphasis in these industries will
not be on physical or tangible assets, but on intangible knowledge assists
in which India is rather rich. World's major growth industries -such
as information technology, microelectronics, pharma, biotechnology, designer-made
materials, and telecommunications-are already brainpower industries.
Knowledge is like a candle, it can light other candles and spread light.
In the same way, these knowledge industries will light & stimulate
other industries, in turn, to become knowledge based. The Indian
view of knowledge industries must thus be very pervasive. It is not
only information technology or biotechnology, but also IT or BT enabled
leather industry, food industry and so on that can also become knowledge
industry.
Solow Residual
Harnessing the full potential of knowledge
industry will require an aggressive and visionary policy framework, creative
planning, daring and risk taking. Enterprises will also have to make
a fundamental change in the management structures. The shift will
have to be from the rigid strategy-structure-systems model to the purpose-process-people
model. Heavy emphasis on a stronger Intellectual property protection
will have to be given for the growth of these industries, since they are
entirely built on knowledge capital, and cannot afford to lose it through
weak laws or weak protection. The physical as well as intellectual
infrastructure for IPR related matters especially patents, must undergo
a sea change, if our heady dreams on knowledge industry have to come to
fruition. Real risk taking through innovative venture capital financing
will be essential. In this connection, the tremendous initiatives
taken by our Hon'ble Prime Minister to set up task forces on knowledge
industries with a thrust on speedy implementation are strong pointers to
India's determination to become a major force in knowledge.
Emergence
of
knowledge industries implies that scientists and economists must meet more
often now. Economists have to evaluate the aggregate impact of knowledge on
economic growth indirectly by postulating that, that part of the growth that
cannot be explained by accumulation of tangible and identifiable factors
of production can be explained through knowledge. In other words,
knowledge has been given a residual role. Indeed, this residual is sometimes
called the 'Solow residual' after the great economist Solow. What
is the reality today? When we bought one kilogram of steel, 90% of it was
material and 10% of it was knowledge. If we buy a copy of Microsoft Windows - 98,
then 95% of it is knowledge and 5% of it is material; paradoxically, the
residual as perceived in conventional economics of the twenty first century,
the 'economics of knowledge' will have to be written by scientists &
economists jointly. The issues of 'economics of traditional knowledge'
are particularly complex and emotive and we hope Indians will be at the
forefront in
writing these chapters.
In the
new knowledge millennium, the centre of focus of knowledge production will
shift to India. Why is this so? First and foremost, it pertains to our
cost advantage. It is remarkable that the entire S&T budget of
India last year did not exceed 2.5 billion US dollars, whereas the budget
of Siemens alone was 5 billion US dollars! The intellectual capital
available per dollar in India is the highest in the world. Secondly,
the high quality science base prevalent in India in certain select areas
is a big attraction especially when one recognises that industrial R&D
is becoming increasingly science based. Besides this, the good news
is that the Far Eastern Economic Review of September 2, 1999 reported that
India ranked first as the source of knowledge workers, ahead of Philippines, China, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, South Korea,
Malaysia,
Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong and Indonesia, in that order.
'I' for intellect.
The
world leaders in business recognize this. Jack Welch, CEO of General
Electric, was speaking to his managers about GE's strategic positioning vis-a- vis India and Mexico. He said, for GE, I in
India means intellect
& M in Mexico means manufacturing. GE's second largest R&D centre
in the world is coming up in Bangalore. Many others will follow suit.
There is no doubt that India will become a major global knowledge
production center. This shift may have a positive impact on retaining the
Indian talent in India, but at the same time, a competition will be set in between
the Indian institutions and industry on one hand and these foreign
knowledge production enterprises on the Indian land on the other hand. Only
time will tell us the net impact of this phenomenon, but I do hope that
this will finally induce the Indian industry to put more demand on science,
which it has not done son far.
While
building the Indian knowledge society, we will have to worry about three
different domains of knowledge. As scientists, we focus rather narrowly
only on S& T based knowledge, which is established through the rigorous
methodology of science. But there are two other domains of knowledge, which
we have kept away from. One is the so called 'parallel', indigenous',
' traditional' or 'civilizational' knowledge system. These systems
belong to societies in the developing world, that have nurtured
and refined systems of knowledge of their own, relating to such diverse
domains as geology, ecology, agriculture, and health etc., our Ayurvedic medicinal systems being one such domain. They were, as yet, neglected by
modern science but not any more so. New bridges between the modern and
the traditional area being built. CSIR's pioneering partnership with Arya
Vaidyashala of Kottakal is an example of the benefits of blending the modern
science and the traditional knowledge. But this is only a small step,
we have miles to go.
Indigenous knowledge systems.
Indigenous
knowledge systems must be sustained through active support to the societies
that are keepers of this knowledge, be they villages or tribes, their way
of life, their languages, their social organization and the environments
in which they live. We need innovative ways of preventing the erosion
of such knowledge, which usually vanishes with people. Equally importantly,
we need an in-depth analysis of the parallelism of insights between the
indigenous knowledge systems, on the one hand, and certain areas of modern
science concerned with fundamental aspects, on the other. Our university
education and research needs to shift the search light on this important
issue, which it has neglected so far.
The
third knowledge system in the one that our Hon'ble Prime Minister pointed
out in the last Science Congress and the one that our Hon'ble Minister
of Science and Technology has been emphasising repeatedly , namely the
knowledge systems of the spiritual world. Here again, the tools of modern
science are giving us deep insights. For example, quantum physics is leading
to inquiry into human intelligence, advances in neuro-sciences are leading
to inquiry into the working of human mind.
The
new millennium's Universal knowledge system will have to be a beautiful confluence
of these three knowledge systems. I feel confident that India will lead
in interpreting, creating, synergising and enhancing these knowledge systems
and that the foundation of the new millennium Indian knowledge society will
be based on this Universal knowledge system.
[5] - Innovation Centred India
Knowledge
without innovation is of no value. It is through the process of innovation
alone that knowledge is converted into wealth and social good, and this
process takes place from firm to farm. When one looks at India today, one
feels that centuries of subjugation has perhaps undermined our capacity
for innovation and creativity. We cannot anymore allow the 'I' in India
to stand for imitation and inhibition, it must stand for innovation. Innovators
are those who do not know that it cannot be done. Innovators are those who
see what everyone sees, but think of what no one else thinks. Innovators
refuse status quo, they convert inspirations into solutions and ideas into
products. Building such innovators will require an all-pervasive attitudinal
change towards life and work -a shift from a culture of drift to a culture
of dynamism, form a culture of prattle to a culture of thought and work,
from diffidence to confidence, from despair to hope. Revival of Indian
creativity and the innovative spirit needs to be made into a national movement
today, in the same spirit and on the same scale as marked our freedom
struggle.
We
recognise that the innovation process has both forward linkages and backward
linkages. The forward linkages will involve technology, innovation and production
chain, with the consequent process of diffusion representing a further
forward linkage. For India, equally important is the backward linkage which
pertains to literacy, science education, public awareness, the mass media
and the use of innovation in science itself to further these. 3
types of innovation.
When
it comes to technology innovation, there are three types of technology
innovations that stand out. Firstly, there is a large system innovation (such
as a man on the moon mission or the green revolution), incremental innovation (such
as development of an improved fax machine) and finally radical breakthroughs
(such
as an accidental breakthrough leading to the antibiotic industry). These
invariably take place in formal systems of innovation, namely universities,
industrial R&D laboratories, etc. We have done well in large system
innovation; our programs in strategic areas, green revolution, white revolution
are indicative of our successes. Incremental innovations take place in
industries which continuously innovate to create products, which displace
their own products with the fear that otherwise their competitors will
do it for them. In the absence of competition in the market place, our
industry has not put demand on innovation, but no more can they afford this. I do hope
in the new millennium innovative spirit will propel our
industry to change course, since that alone will determine their survival
or success. As regards radical breakthroughs, which gave rise accidentally
to antibiotic industry and modern chemical & plastic industry, India
cannot, unfortunately, claim any major industry in this century that owes
its origin to an accidental discovery in India. We need an innovative
mind to spot accidents, when they happen. After all eyes do not see what
the mind does not know. With the new innovation movement, we hope we will
increasingly see such radical breakthroughs come from India.
Informal innovators.
Innovators do not exist just in formal laboratories, millions
of them exist in villages, in homes and in streets. To encourage community
innovation, it is necessary to scout, support, spawn and scale up the green
grass root innovation. This will generate employment on one hand and it
will use natural resources sustainably through linking of innovation, enterprise
and investment. The recent initiative by the government on setting up the
National Innovation Foundation is bound to play a crucial role in making
this happen.
I have emphasised so far on S&T based innovations but the
concept of innovation is a much wider one. It is particularly important
to recognise the need of social innovation. Innovation in India's social,
legal and economic institutions, in the system of their governance is as
crucial as innovation in the products and production process of its economy.
If paper becomes more important than people, if bureaucracy overrides innovative
spirits, if risk taking innovators are short, if decision making times are
larger then new product life cycle times, then innovation cannot survive.
We must also recognise that innovation cannot arise by itself; it is generated
and sustained through the efforts of its people. We need to create an environment,
in which innovation flourishes. Otherwise the innovators will either play
safe and not innovate, or they will leave to become a part of other innovative
societies. We must vow to reverse this process as we enter the new millennium.
We are so concerned about this issue that we
are holding a full day session entitled 'Genesis' in this congress.
The question that we are asking is ' why do Indian genes express
themselves in Silicon Valley? Why can they not express in India? How can
we create Silicon Valleys in our own Indus Valley?' We hope to bring the
conclusions of this session to the government, which is looking for inputs
to build the innovative India?.
We must bring back the spirit of that glorious
innovative India of the bygone millennia . Indeed we have an
opportunity to start the resurgence of an innovative India today. Our beloved
Prime Minister had referred to IT as India's tomorrow. We fully agree.
May I add, Sir, with your permission, 'TI' to that 'IT'. That
TI represents 'total innovation', not only in science and technology,
but also in our social, legal and economic structures. Let us then take
'IT' & 'TI' together, since one without the other will not work. May
I finally add that the new millennium innovative India will be built only
when we pledge to make the national symbol of ' I ' in
' India' to stand for 'Innovation'.
And this morning is a good time to take that pledge.
In Summary
Let me sum up by recalling the new Panchsheel of the new
millennium, that we should launch in the year 2000. It is simply-
Child
centred education;
Woman centred family;
Human centred development;
Knowledge
centred society;
Innovation
centred India.
This Panchsheel links the child, the woman,
the human, the society and the nation. It focuses on equity, or dignity
if you like, with growth. It emphasises bringing back the values and the
culture for which this country was so famous. If we get these five fundamentals
right, we can achieve everything. For example, the burning
problem of population growth will be addressed meaningfully only
when we build woman centred family, with education to the female child
being its essential fulcrum. Our environmental agenda is subsumed in the
human centred development. Similarly, building globally competitive Indian
industry will automatically follow when we get the fundamentals of knowledge
and innovation centric approaches right. I hope these five fundamentals,
which have an eternal value, will reverberate through our minds in
the next millennium & even beyond.
And finally
A dream.
All of us here certainly have the right to dream. What
would be my dream for Indian Science and India in the early part of the
new millennium, say for the twenty first century ? Obviously, it
is of an India, where the basic needs of the teeming millions will be fulfilled
and we will move on to the top ladder of the World Human Development Index.
Drinking water for all, is something that we owed to our people a
long time ago, and we must achieve this goal as soon as possible. But let
us go beyond that.
What would
be the possible headlines that Indian Science & India will get
in the next century ? In my dream, I surfed the net and landed
at the India.com portal.
I clicked on ' Nobel Awards' , and I saw
' Indians won three Nobel prizes this year. The first one in physics is
for the grand unified theory of matter and their interactions. The second
one is in Physiology and medicine, for providing the first definitive neuro-biological
basis of the human cognitive phenomena. The third Nobel Prize in
economics was shared by an Indian Scientist and Indian economist working
in India, a country, which has already assumed the position of a knowledge
super power by capturing 30% share of the global output of the global knowledge industry. They won the Nobel prize for their work in Economics of Traditional
knowledge, which beautifully blended economics, science, philosophy and
ethics.
I clicked on 'Community Health', and I saw
India became the first country
in the world to completely eradicate Tuberculosis.
One more click on 'Indian Pharma Industry' showed
'The anti-ulcer
drug, which was based on a molecule derived from the clues
from India's traditional knowledge, maintained its leading global position
and posted global sales exceeding five billion dollars.'
I clicked on 'Water', and I saw
'
Through a sustained effort of Indian scientists, engineers and technocrats,
India
has succeeded in creating a unique 'Indian Water Network', which
connects all the Indian rivers and through innovative methods of water
capture, recharge of aquifers etc., India became the first country
in the world to reach perpetual 'Water Security'.
A further click on 'Disaster Management' showed
' The
recent earthquake on eight Richter scale in Assam had zero loss of
life, thanks to the advanced warning systems developed by Indian
scientists and immaculate disaster management systems set up by the Indian
government.'
One more click on 'Energy' showed
' The Prime Minister of India, during the inaugural session of
the 100th ' Indian Knowledge Congress', formerly known as ' Indian Science
Congress' formally released the Indian technology to harness the massive
gas hydrates in the Indian oceans, which will cater to the Indian energy
needs for the next two hundred years'.
And the final click on 'Research Opportunities' showed
'Indian brain drain has been completely reversed this year. In fact
India is in an enviable position of having a queue of
American and
European scholars to join its unique global knowledge production centres
in India'.
You might say these are crazy dreams. Can a country,
which has so many deprived, so many people below the poverty line, so many
illiterates, really do it? What gives me the confidence that
it can happen ? This confidence comes to me because of the
images of a little boy, who in the late fifties studied under the streetlights
and went barefoot to the school until he was twelve years old. A little
boy, who struggled to have two meals a day; a little boy who was to leave
studies in 1960 after his matriculation, in spite of securing a position
in the top thirty in Maharashtra State SSC Board, because his poor widowed
mother could not support his education. This boy was helped by this gracious
Indian society and later on in his life, loved and encouraged by this great
city of Pune. He is giving today this address as the president of
Indian Science Congress at the dawn of the new millennium in the august
presence of our Hon'ble Prime Minister. If this miracle can happen to
an Indian, given an opportunity, it can happen to every Indian, and most
certainly it can happen to my India in the coming millennium. Next century
will be the century of mind and India will have the legitimate right
to lead. Next century will belong to India, which will become a unique
intellectual and economic power to reckon with, recapturing all its glory,
which it had in the millennia gone by. And I believe this will happen
as this dawn of the new millennium turns into a morning,
and what a glorious morning would it be for my India.
November,2000
|
Dr.R A Mashelkar, by a
wide concurrence, is believed to be a different and the welcome kind of
scientist to be heading the Council of Scientific And Industrial Research
[CSIR] at a time when Indians are beginning to believe they can 'make it'.
Dr Mashelkar, in
stewarding CSIR , has focused on bringing the products of the labs
to the markets, protecting India's intellectual property rights and making
scientists aware of the need to be self-supporting, instead of relying on
government handouts.
His vision statement laid
out here formed his address to the Indian Science Congress,2000 and was
entitled, "New Panchsheel of the new millennium".
"
Never before in the history of mankind, did a country with democratic dispensation
had to feed so many poor and teach so many illiterates and also simultaneously
compete with the most advanced nations for a place under the sun."
" Mass production and production by masses
will have to co-exist in India. The first will lead to global competitiveness
& the second to jobs, where they are wanted. "
"... a knowledge worker is simply one who knows why he is doing what he
is doing."
"
Knowledge will not be a mere tool in development, knowledge
itself will be development. "
" However,
it is not information alone that matters; it is the insight that matters.
It is only through a process of inquiry, that we can convert information
into insight. Therefore, we need to create 'inquiring societies',
and not just 'information societies', If such inquiring societies emerge
then the new knowledge revolution will lead to social, gender and economic
equity."
.
"... the Far Eastern Economic Review of September 2, 1999 reported that
India ranked first as the source of knowledge workers, ahead of Philippines, China, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, South Korea,
Malaysia,
Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong and Indonesia, in that order."
" Next century
will be the century of mind and India will have the legitimate right
to lead. Next century will belong to India..." |