Jou rnal or Scientific & Industri al Research Vol. 59, March 2000, pp. 191-200

New Panchsheel of the New Millennium*

R A Mas helkar

Director General, Council of Scientific and Industri al Research, Anusandhan Bhawan Rafi Marg, New Del hi 11000 I, India

May I extend a warm welcome to you on thi s momentous occasion at the dawn of thi s new millennium? We are meeting in thi s great city of Pune, the intellectual , cultural and educational capital of this state. The arri val 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 arri ved 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 someone has said, "wise people may develop expectations for the future, but only fooli sh make the predictions" . 'A technology of the 20th century sympos ium' held in 1900, based on the level of knowledge that existed at the time, might not have mentioned aeroplane, radio, antibioit ics, nuclear energy, electronics, computers or space exploration' One can imagine the hazards of doing thi s aga in after 100 years. All that we can do is to see the fo reseeable future, that is why we have used the word ' into' and not ' in ' the nex t millennium' in the theme.

We look at tomon'ow from where we stand today. We notice that the onl y thing that is permanent is change. We notice that rapid paradigm shifts are taki ng place in the world as it moves from superpower bipolarity to multipolarity, as industrial capi tali sm shi fts to green capitalism and digital capitalism, as information technology creates 'neti zens' out of 'c iti zens' , as aspirations of the poor get fuelled by the increas ingly

* Based on the A ddress deli vered as GcnerGI Presidcnt of the Ind ian Sciencc Congress A ssoc iation ( ISCA) al i ls . 71h Session on ~

Januarv 2000 at Universi lY of Poona. Pune. India

easier access to information, as nations move from ' indepen­dence' to ' interdepen-dence', as national boundaries become notional, and as the concept of global citi zenship evolves.

The spectacular march of science & technology is profoundl y affectin",a our li ves. Genetic enaineerin a and the

'" '" associated reproducti ve technologies on plants, animals and human have brought forth ethical isssues calling for greater regu lation by involving soc ial scientists and environmentalists. The process of globalization, pri vatization and cOlv oratization of research has shifted the dynamics of knowledge production and dissemination dramatica ll y, just as issues of intellectual property rights (IPRs) and proprietary in fo l1l1at ion and knowledge have begun to open up new di alogues on public good versus private profit. New models of the innovation chain and new paradigms of the sc ience­soceity contracts have begun to emerge.

What would the scientific world be like in the new millennium? I am sure the human mind will conti nue to ex plore. How was the uni verse born? Is there li fe in the outer space? Can aging be postponed? What secrets do genes hold? At a deeper level, globally networked teams of sc ientists 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

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to the RNA world? May be we 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, imaginat ion is set free or what consciousness consists of? Will we be able to identify the neural correlates of our thinking? Will the attempts to 'quanti ze' the gravitational fi eld succeed? Will st ring theory really ful fill 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 ex perimental data to prove the so-called ' theory of everything'? Scient ists 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 questi ons and hopefully, they will say either the first or the last word in the matter.

Spectacu lar developments wi ll 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 25,000 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, superscalar and parallel. Several laboratories around the world are busy exploring novel technologies that may one day herald the arri va l of new generation of computers and microelectronic devices. Some are exploring the possibility of developing quantum computing techniques, which would capitali ze on the non-class ical behaviour of the devices. Others are taking non-silicon routes by developing data storage systems, which can potentially use photonically acti vated bio­molecules . Yet others are ex ploring nano-mechanica l 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.

Let us tum the focu s on to Indian science & technology. We can say with confidence that Indian sc ience & technology has contributed its mite to the buiiding of post-Independent India. The strong institutional S&T framework built over the past fifty years has provided a powerful base. The 'Trimurti ' who spearhead our space, defence, 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 contro l by other nations and how they will bui ld the secure India of the 2 1 st century. Just a few feet away is C-DAC, where India's response to super computer denial by USA was deli vered in the most fi tting way by developing our own super computer. PARAM . Our achievements of green revolution haye 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 portal s of thi s great university, let us also pause for a moment and remind ourselves of the several formid able challenges that remain in sp ite of all our achievements. They include: exploding population, widespread poverty, illiteracy, squalor, ruptures and cleavages based on region, re ligion, language and gender threatening the social fabric, urban congestion, wounded ecosystems and critical power and energy situation. Globalization 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 simu ltaneously compete with the most advanced nations for a place under the sun .

In spite of these daunting challenges, I feel confident that the 2 1 st century wi ll 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 fu ndamentals need to be set right. The fi ve point agenda for the new millennium is al most like a new 'Panchsheel' fo r the new millennium. 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 wi ll be in the year 3000. All fi ve of them flow into each other. All of them

M ASHELKAR: ADDRESS AT INDIAN SCIENCE CONGRESS 2000 193

have to be taken together. And all fi ve of them are ones, on which we have faultered today. Let me e laborate thi s new Panchsheel for the new millennium now.

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 20 15, over half of the Indian population w ill be less than twenty years o ld . That is a great news, because Yli vashakti is the rea l Shakti of the nation. If propcrl y 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 earl y age. Are our education systems geared to meet this challenge today? 1 am afraid, not. Let me specificall y focus on science educati on.

The way sc ience is taught in our schools will determine as to whether or not we will have a soc iety, which is capable of developing and absorbing technology creati ve ly as well as giving a sc ienti fic foundation to our cultura l, politica l and economic fabric. There are three cri ses that we face today. T he first is that young minds are not turning to science, to an ex tent that some sc ience departments are getting closed down. The second is that those who turn to sc ience do not stay in sc ience. The third is in sc ience education itse lf. We find that our education has not been child centred, it is centred around text books, ri gid unimaginati ve curricula, ill des igned c lass room teaching and an outdated examination system. An Indian child is forced to learn by rote and its individuality and imaginati veness is lost.

We have to remould the school sc ience education to the mode of ' learning by discovery' and ' learning by doing' in contrast to the prevailing ' learning by rote' method . The child has to become an acti ve parti cipant in the process of learning sc ience. Rather than memori zing the products of science, the child needs to understand and appreciate the beauti ful process of sc ience. The curricula must re late c losely to sc ience and technology experiences of everyday life. Our students must not only love sc ience but they must li ve sc ience. To achieve this, we must create a local content in the education, th rough exposure to local fl ora and fauna, local water and so il , local socio-economic issues, local heritage, etc. Thi s simple initiati ve can give a whole range of new

dimension to the teaching of botany, chemistry, history, etc.

The IT revolution will impinge on a ll aspects of our li fe, including education. New paradigm shifts will take place in both teaching and learning. Teaching hithel10 meant speaking and learning meant li stening. We were all confined in the fo ur walls of a c lassroom, where the teacher taught and we as students li stened. Internet has already made it poss ible to take educat ion to the home of the learners, with se lf- learning programmes with the creati ve use of multi -media. Education can be potentia ll y brought to home, including to those, who have been unreached so fa r. The impact of creating a content in local languages will be phenomenal in increas ing the spread. Customized content creation will open up new challenges fo r the content industry.

We have always had batch process ing in our examinations. All of us appeared for the examination at the same time and assessed our capac ity annually as a ritua l. No more so, thanks to IT. Innovative evaluat ion systems, which are continuous and indi viduall y centred, will emerge. A child that acquires inte llectual maturity several years earlier will stand apart and we will have the cha llenge of putting it on a fas ter career progress ion path .

Will teaching and learning in cyberspace replace a classroom? No way. The traditional classroom teaching invo lves the most vita l socia l and interacti ve context, that is, human interac tion. The role of teachers will remain crucial. We need to pay attention to the teachers, who rea ll y are the ones, who mould the young minds . I remember going to a poor school in Mumbai. But that poor school had ri ch teachers. I remember Pri nc ipal Bhave, who taught us phys ics. Today's children have this 'Book vs Look' problem, since they are so overburdened that they don't have time to look around . Princ ipal Bhave emphas ized the' look' pat1 of it. I remember his tak ing us out in the sun to demonstrate as to how to find the foca l 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 he ld it on for some time and the paper burnt. For some reason, he turned to me and sa id "Mashelkar, if you can focus your energies li ke this and not diffuse them, you can burn anything in the world!" I was, so impressed, with the power of sc ience that I decided to become a sc ientist. But that experiment

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gave me the philosophy of life 100: '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 commerciali zed education , what is it that we are doing loday, to create, sustain and encourage the Bhaves, who will build the new Indians of the new millennium? Among many facets of chi ld centred education , this is one to which we need to pay utmost attention.

Woman Centred Society

Recently, the Hon'b le Vice President of India said 'The best symbol of female va lues that has been created by nature is in the form of 'mother'. Mother is 'creat ivity' and ' innovation' personified in solving human problems III the famil y. She represents excellence, morality, equality not in materi al terms but as a li ving cu ltural symbol practicing these val ucs. Out of all the management experiences in business, indust ry, public service and society , mother is the best manager nature has created. Mother's instinct has sustai ned Mother India. It is more spec ific than the word culture itself. The growing alienation between man and ~oc i e ty,

which modern-day management practices have to contend with, may find its solution in the I1lLlIlagelllent practices which deri ve strength from the way mother manages her famil y in small and big ways, i.e. Mother Culture!

These pervasi ve 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 Ind ia' and indeed the entire concept of woman centred family. The sharp gender inequaliti es 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 Indi an women are illi terate. 90% of fam ily planning operations are tubectomies . 60% of primary school dropouts are girls.

The UN had adopted 1994 as the year of the fami ly with an emphasis that the fami Iy 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 we ll as its men". Can the India of the next millennium afford to stand on on ly one of its legs? A woman has to be allowed the fu ll

expression of her potential and she has to be e mpowered to become a dynamic patiner in the bui lding of the new India of our dreams.

Several acti ons need to be taken, if thi s has to happen. For example, the state has brought forth several pieces of legislation to curb the oppression of women, Ch ild MclITiage Restraint Act, the Medical Tennination of Pregnancy Act, the Widow RemalTiage Act, etc. However, these acts have not become acts of fa ith, and they cannot, until the mindset of our strongly patriarchal society changes fundamentall y. This is a larger issue, but in this Science Congress let me briefl y fOCllS on the issue of science and technology, i.e. how women will enrich science and technology and how science and technology will enrich women.

The emerging technological developments have the potential to impact the li ves of the women enormously. The emergence of infonnation technology will play a great role with education reaching the home now, with access of women . to higher educati on becoming easier. The same flexibi lities 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 pull s. However, in order that women benefit full y from the IT revolution, we will have to make fu ndamental changes in the archaic employment rules wi th a far more liberal view of the work place, work fu nction and working hOllrs.

Advances in life sciences have placed in the hands of women opportunities that were unheard of earl ier. However, technology is a double edged weapon and if 1I0t well used, its advance can hurt the cause of women. For instance, today's technology enables the detell11ination of the sex of a child during pregnancy. [ was stunned to hear recentl y about some statistics on the number of pregnancy tenninations, which in the case of female child far exceeded that of a male ch ild - and this was not in a vi llage but in a metropolitan city. What kind of new millennium India wi ll we create if such prej udices persist?

We must promote vigorously pro-women technologies. These exist in their creative part icipation in agriculture linked act ivities, micro-propagation, plant tissue cu lture, disease surveill ance, health care systems

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and so on. Developing and enhancing a woman's entrepreneurial skills and giving her economic freedom wi ll alone restore her to the rightful place in the family and the society.

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 I 0 to 12 billion by the year 2050; and scientific estimates that the earth's long-tenn sustainable carrying capac ity at an adequate standard of living may not be much greater than 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 povery 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'.

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 equity­which 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-empowemlent. 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-lead economic growth strategy based on pro-nature, pro-poor, and pro-woman orientl3tlon 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

competiti veness and the second to jobs, where they are wanted . Indeed new models to create new micro­enterpri ses, 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 innovati ve scale-insensiti ve 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 modem developments in technologies.

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 fanner, a IUral woman, 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 fanner can be a knowledge worker, provided he understands the so il that he is sowing his seeds in, the why of the micro-nutrient and pesticide addition that he makes, he lives in an infonnation village, where he has the benefits of shOl1 and medium range weather forecasting to plan his fanning activity and so on. Innovati ve experiments for creating such knowledge workers are already on the anvil. For instance, the Swami nathan Research Foundation is creating new knowledge systems in the villages around Pondicherry with its goal of the empowennent of IUral women, men and children with infonnation relating to ecologically sound agriculture, economic access and utilization. The fanners are trained to build soil health cards. We need to multiply these to cover the entire Indian populace.

We need Indian customers to be knowledge workers. They will change the market dynamics dramaticall y. Knowledge will have to get encoded both explicitly and implicitly in the products. For instance, insistence on ecolabeling is nothing other than insistence on the customer being empowered with knowledge about the environmental and ecological impact of the

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products he is buying and using. Enlightened cItIzens, who are knowledge workers, will not stop projects that lead to economic development, but they wi II stop those, which lead to destruction .

Knowledge will not be a mere tool in development, knowledge itself will be development. True knowledge societ ies of tomon'ow will make a creati ve 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 informati on as much as the rich have it. Thi s is a good news for India. However, it is not informati on 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.

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 retlection, 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 complex ity too. Continuous knowledge renewa l, therefore, has become more important than ever before. The process of continuous learning, espec ially 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 10 knowledge centred trade and industry. We can see dramatic changes in international trade today. It was formerl y 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 II % in 1976 to 22% in 1996. Meanwhile, the share of prime products dropped to less than 25% from about 45% init ially. More than. half of the GDP in major OECD countries is due to production and distri bution of knowledge.

The interesting point is that in India itself, we are seeing Ihe sunrise of knowledge industries and sunset of

other industries . The li st of 100 top billionaires of Indian industry based on net worth was published recentl y. 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 assets 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 and 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 al ' 0 IT or BT enabl cI leather industry, food industry and so on that can also become knowledge industry.

Harnessing the full potential of knowledge industry will require an aggressive and vIsIonary policy framework, creative planning, daring and risk taking. Ente'lxises will also have to make a fundamental change in the management structures . The shift wi ll I' ave to be from the rigid strategy-structure-systems model to the purpose-process-people model. Heavy emphasis on a stronger Intellectual Property Protection wi iI 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 phys ical as well as intellectual infrastructu re for IPR­related matters, especially patents, must undergo a sea change, if our heady dreams on knowledge industry have to come to fruition. Real ri sk taking through innovative venture capital financing wi II be essent ial. In this connection, the tremendous initi ati ves 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 detei-mination to become a major force in knowledge industry.

Emergence of knowledge industries implies that scientists and economists must meet more often now. Economists have evaluated the aggregate impact of

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knowledge on economic growth indirectl y by postulating 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 res idual role. Indeed, this residual is sometimes called the 'Solow res idual' afte r the great economi st 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-98, then 95% of it is knowledge and 5% of it is materi al; paradoxically, the residual as perceived in conventional economics no more remains a res idual in a knowledge industry. The new economics of the twenty-first century, the 'economics of knowledge ' will have to be written by sc ientists and economists jointly. The issues of 'economics of traditional knowledge' are particularl y complex and emoti ve and we hope Indians will be at the forefront in writing these chapters.

In the new knowledge millennium, the centre of focLl s of knowledge production will shift to India. Why ~ , thi s so? First and fo remost pertains to our cost advantJge. 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 inte llectual capital available pe r dollar in India is the highest in the world. Secondly, the high quality sc ience base prevalent ill India in certain select areas is a big attraction, especia ll y when one recogni zes that industria l R& D is becoming increas ingly 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, V ietnam, South Korea, Malays ia, Singapore, Thail and, Hongkong and Indones ia, in that order.

The world leaders in business recogni ze thi s. Jack Welch, CEO of General E lectri c, was speaking to hi s managers about GE's stratetic pos itioning vis-a-vi s India and Mex ico. He said, for GE, I in India means inte llect and M in Mex ico, manufacturing. GE's second largest R&D centre in the world is coming up in Bangalore. Ma ny others will fo llow suit. There is no doubt that India will become a major global knowledge production centre. Thi s shift may have a pos iti ve impact on retaining the Indian ta lent in Indi a, but at the same time, a competition will be set in between the Indi an institutions and industry on one hand and these fo reign

knowledge production enterpri ses on the Indian land on the other hand. Only time will te ll us the net impact of this phenomenon, but I do hope that this will finall y

induce the Indi an industry to put more demand on science, which it has not done so far.

While building the Indi an knowledge society, we will have to worry about three different domains of knowledge. As sc ientists, we focus rather narrowly only on S&T based knowledge, which is establi shed 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 'paralle l' , indigenous', ' traditional' or 'civililzational' knowledge system. These systems belong to societi es in the developing world, that have nurtured and refined systems of knowledge of the ir own, re lating to such di verse domains as geology, ecology, agriculture and health . Our Ayurvedic medicinal systems be ing one such domain. They were, as yet, neglecte ld by modern science but not any more so. New bridges between the moderen and the traditional are be ing 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 must be susta ined through acti ve support to the societies that are keepers of

this knowledge, be they villagers or tribes, their ways of life, the ir languages , the ir soc ial organization and the environments in which they li ve. We need innovati ve ways of preventing the eros ion of such knowledge, which usuall y vani shes with people. Equall y importcmtl y, we need an indepth ana lysis of the para lle li sm of insights between the indigenous knowledge systems, on the one hand, and certain areas of modern science concerned with fundamental aspects, on the other hand. Our university education and researc h needs to shift the search light on this important issue, which iit has neglected so far.

The third knowledge system is the one that our Hon'ble Prime M iniste r pointed out in the last Science Congress and the one that our Hon'ble Mini ster of Science and Technology has been emphas izi ng repeatedly, namely the knowledge systems of the spiritual world . Here aga in , the tools of modern sc ience are giving us deep insights. For example, quantum phys ics is leading to inquiry into human inte ll igence,

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advances in neuro-sciences are leading to inquiry into the working of a human mind .

The new millennium Universal Knowledge System will have to be a beautiful confluence of these three knowledge systems. I feel confident that India wi ll lead in interpreting, creating, synergizing and enhancing these knowledge systems and that the foundation of the new millennium Indian knowledge society will be based on this Universal Knowledge System.

Innovation Centred India

Knowledge without innovation is of no value. ft is through the process of innovation alone that knowledge is converted into wealth and social good, and thi s process takes place from firm to falm. When one looks at India today, one feels that centuries of sUbjugation has perhaps undelmined our capacity for innovation and creativity. We cannot anymore allow the '1' in India to stand for imit ation 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 else sees, but think of what no one else thinks. Innovators refu se statlls q llO, they convert inspirations into solutions and ideas into products. Building such in novators will require an all-pervas ive attitudinal change towards life and work - a shift from a culture of drift to a cu lture of dynamism, from a culture of idle prattle to a cultu re of thought and work , from diffidence to confidence, from despair to hope. Revival of Indian creati vity and th~ innovati ve spirit needs to be made into a national movement today, in the same spi rit and on the same scale as m :irked our freedom struggle.

We recogni ze that the innovation process has both forwa rd linkages and backward linkages . The forward linkages wi ll :involve technology innovation and production chain , wi th the comequent process of diffusion representing a further forward linkage. For India, equally important is the backward linkage which pertai ns to litera~y, science education, publ ic awareness, the mass med ia and the use of innovation in science I hel r to further these.

When it comes to technology innovation, there are t! ree types of technology innovations that stand out. Firstly, there is a large system illl ovation (such as a Illan on the moon mission or the green revolu tion), incremental innovat ion (such as development of an

improved fax machine) and finally radical breakthroughs (such as an accidental breakthrough leading to the antibiotic industry). These in variably take place in fonnal systems of innovation , namely uni versities, industrial R&D laboratories, etc. We have done well in large system iilllovation; our programmes in strategic areas, green revolution, white revolution are indicati ve 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 thei r competitors will do it for them In the absence of competition in the market place, our industry has not" put demand on innovati on, but no more can they afford to do this. I do hope the new millennium innovation spirit will propel our industry to change course since' that alone will determine their survival or success. As regards radical breakthroughs, which gave ri se accidenta lly to antibiotic industry and modern chemical and plast ics industry, India cannot, unfortunately, claim any major industry in this century that owes its origin to an accidental discovery in Indi a. We need an iimovati ve Illind 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 wi ll increasingly see such rad ical breakthroughs come from India.

In novators do not ex ist j ust in formal laboratories. milli ons of them exist in villages, in homes and in streets. To encourage comlllunity innovation. it is necessary to scout, support, spawn and scale lip the green grass root innovation. This will generate employment on one hand and it will use natural resources sustainably through linking of inllovati oll , enterpri se and in vestment. The recent ini tiati ve by the Government 0 11 setting lip the National Innovation Foundati on is bound to playa cnlcial role in making thi s happen.

I have emphasized so fa r on S&T based innovati ons but the concept of innovation is a much wider one. It is pal1iculary important to recogni ze the need of social innovation. Innovation in Indi a's social, legal and economic instituti ons, in the system of their governance is as cnlcial as innovation in the products and production processes of its economy. If paper becomes more impol1Clnt than people, if bureaucrac oven'ides in novative spirits, '1' risk taking 'nnov,l tors are shot, if decision making times are larger han lew product life cycle times, then innovation cannot ~lIrvi ve .

MASHELKAR: ADDRESS AT INDIAN SCIENCE CONGRESS 2000 199

We must al so recognize that innovation cannot arise by itself; it is generated and sustained th rough the efforts of its people. We need to create an environment, in which innovation fl ourishes. Otherwise the innovators will either play safe and not innovate, or they will leave to become a part of other innovati ve societies, which encourage innovati on, as Ind ia has seen to its di smay; since a lot of its young sons and daughters have left , not due to the lure of the physical income alone, but because of the psychic income that they gain in those innovati ve 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 '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 thi s session to the government, which is looking for imputs to build the innovative India.

We must bring back the spirit of that glorious innovative India of the bygone millennia back? Indeed we have an opportunity to start the resurgence of an innovative India today. Our beloved Prime Mini ster had referred to IT as India's Tomorrow. We full y agree. May I add, Sir, with your permission, 'TI ' to that 'IT' . That T I represents ' total innovati on', not only in science & technology, but also in our social, legal and economic structures. Let us then take ' IT' and 'TI' together, since one without the other will not work . May I finall y add that the new millennium innovative Indi a will be built only when we pledge to make the national symbol of T in 'India' to stand for ' Innovation'. And thi s morning is a good time to take that pledge.

In Summary

Let me sum up by reca lling the new P{/Ilchsheel of the new millennium, that we shou ld launch in the year 2000. It is simply:

• Ch ild centred educati on

• Woman centred family

• Human centred deve lopment

• Knowledge centred soc iety

• Innovation centred Indi a.

This Pallchsheel links the child, the woman, the human, rhe society and the nation. It focuses on equity , or dignity if you like, with growth. It emphasises bringing back the va lues and culture, for which thi s country was so famous . If we get these fi ve fundamentals right , we can achieve· everything. For example, the burning problem of population growth wi ll be addressed meaningfully only when we build a woman centred famil y, with education to the female child being its essential fulcrum. Our environmental agenda is subsumed in the human centred development. Similarly, building globally competiti ve Indian industry wi ll automatically follow when we get the: fundamental. · of knowledge and innovation centric approaches right. I hope these fi ve fundamentals, which have an eternal va lue, will reverberate through our minds in the next millennium and even beyond.

And Finally

All of us here certainl y have the right to dream. What would be my dream for Indi an sc ience and India in the early part of the new millellliium, say for the twenty-first century? Obviously, it is of an India, where the basic needs of the teeming millions will be fulfill ed and we will move on to the top ladder of the Worl d Human Development Index. Drinking water for all , education for all , hea lth for all , peace and prosperity for all , is something that we owned· to our people a long time ago, and we must achieve thi s goal as soon as possible. But let us go beyond that.

What would be the possible headlines that Indian sc ience and India will get in the next century? In my dream, I surfed the net and landed ilt the Indi a.com portal.

I clicked on 'Nobel Awards', and I saw

IndiallS W OIl three Nobel Priz.es this year. The .first (me ill physics is for the grand unified themy of lIIa fl er and their interactions. The second one is in physiologv and medicill e, for providillg the firstdefinirive neuro­biological basis of the hUl1Ian cognitive phenollleno. Th e third Nobel Pri::.e ill economics lVas shared hy (III

Indian. scientist an.d an Illdian ecoll r)mist working in India , a countr},. which has already assumed Ih e positioll ofa kno wledge super power by capturing 30% share of the global output of the global knml"ledge indusll y. Th ey WO Il the Nobel Prize for their \vork ill

200 J SCI IND RES VOL 59 MARCH 2000

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 .Iim11 the clues from India 's traditional knowledge, maintained its leadil!g glohal positiol! and posted global sales exceeding five hil/ion 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 conllects aiL the Indial! rivers and through innovative me/hods (~f water capture, recharge of {{cqll(fers etc. , India becallle the .first country in the \\ ·orld to reach pe/petual 'Water Security '.

A fUlther click on 'Disaster Management ' showed

The recent eClrthquake on eight Richter scale in Assail/ had zero loss of life, thanks to the {{dvan ced \Iwning systems developed hy Indian scientists and ill/maculate disaster managemel/.t systems set lip hy the Indian government.

One more click on 'Energy' showed

Tlt e Pril1le Minister of India, durin g the inau!jllral session of the IOOth 'Indian KnOlr/edge Congress', fo rll/erly knO\'vn as 'Indian Science Congress'formal/y released the Indian technology to IlOm ess tIle lI1assive gas hydrat es in the Indian oceans, \vhich will c{{ter 10

the Indian el/.ergy needs fo r the ne.rt tI m hundred

years.

And the final click on 'Research Opportunities' showed

Indial! brail! dra in has been completely reversed this year. In fact, Il!dia is in {Il l en viable position of ha vil/.g a queue of Americal/. al/.d European schol{{rs to join its unique global knowledge productiol/. centres in India.

You might say these are crazy dreams. Can a country, which has so many deprived, so many people below the povelty line, so many illiterates, rea lly do it '! What gives me the confidence that it can happen? This confifence comes to me because of the images of a little boy, who in the late fifties studied under the streetl ights 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 stud ies in 1960 after his matriculation, in spite of securing a position in the top thilty in Maharashtra State SSC Board, because hi s poor widowed mother could not SUppOlt hi s education. This boy was helped by thi s grac ious Indian society and later on in hi s life, loved and encouraged by thi s great city of Pune. He is givi ng today this Address as the President of Indian Science Congress at the dawn of the new millennium in the august presence of our Hon'b le Prime Mini ster. If thi s miracle can happen to an Indi an, given an oPPoltunity, 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 10 India, which will become a unique intellec tual and economic power to reckon with, recapturing all its glory , which it had in the mi lleni a gone by. And I believe this will happen as thi s dawn of the new millennium turns into a morning, and what a glorious morning wou ld it be for my India !