India 2020 Part 3

Most of the people are proud to see an Indian is bold. In addition, the younger generation is ready to take action in such a complex environment. Many of them have to contend with difficult hierarchical structures in the Indian systems, whether in the private or public sector, in government or in academia. They are ready to rough it out.That is where our hopes lies for the realization of the Second Vision.

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Chapter 2.

What other countries Envision for Themselves Believe nothing, merely because you have been told it, or because it is traditional or because you yourselves have imagined it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for your teacher. But whatever after due consideration and a.n.a.lysis you find be conductive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings, that doctrine, believe and cling to and take it as your guide.

The Buddha As a country, we have not yet become bold enough to set a course of our own. When Gandhiji adopted ahimsa and satyagraha as methods of obtaining freedom, it was a great innovation. But today we want only to imitate what others have done , be it in economic policy , industry , trade , science, technology , media or even literature . India has never been averse to welcoming ideas and people from outside . It has a.s.similated many ideas , cultures and technologies after shaping them to suit its genius and its environment. Indians too have gone abroad and disseminated our culture . we have contributed to technology as well : the stirrup and the rocket , the numbers theory in mathematics , herbal medicine and metallurgy , to name some. Today we see a new situation, in which our high caliber scientists and technologists enrich the economics of the USA and european and other countries.

Somewhere down the line in our long history, we appear to have lost faith in ourselves . that mindset seems to persist . For a time we shut our doors to other ideas and mainly fought among ourselves. Then came a period when we blindly adopted whatever was foreign. We seem to have a blind admiration of anything done outside our borders and very little belief in our own abilities . It is a sad state to be in , after fifty years of independence . However, there are brighter spots too.

This mythical foreign superiority is vouched for , sometimes, by people who ought to know better . They simply cannot believe that we too can aspire

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for , and achieve , excellence in technology.I have in my possession a glossy, superbly produced. German calendar with maps of Europe and Africa based on remote sensing . when people are told that the satellite , that took the picture was the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite , they find it hard to believe . they have to be shown the credit line under the pictures .

When it is something relating to the past, things are even worse. I recall a dinner meeting with my partic.i.p.ants and Indian guests where the discussion drifted to the early history of rockery. The Chinese invented gunpowder a thousand years ago , and used powderpropelled fire arrows in battle during the thirteenth century.

During the course of the discussion , I spoke of the effort I made to see Tippu's rockets in the Rotunda Museum at woolwich near London which were used in the two battles of Seringapattam. I pointed out it was the first use of military powdered rockets anywhere in the world , and that the British studied these rockets and improved upon them for in the battles in Europe. A senior Indian immediately concluded that the French had imparted their technology to Tippu. I had to politely tell him that this was not the case and that I would later show him a book authenticating what I said The book by the famous British scientist Sir Bernard .

Lovell, was ent.i.tled .

The origins and International Economics of s.p.a.ce Exploration ..

William Congrave, studying Tippu's rockets , demonstrated the prototype of improved versions of rockets in September 1805 to prime Minister William pitt and Secretary of War Lord Castlereagh. Impressed , they used these rockets in a British attack against Napoleon in the occupied parts near Belonged harbor during October 1806. Subsequently, the rockets were used by the British in the attacks on Copenhagen during AugustSeptember 1807,and in April 1800 against the French fleet anch.o.r.ed near Roche fort .

The Indian guest looked at the book carefully, glanced through the parts I had pointed to , flipped a few pages and gave the book back , saying, 'interesting'. Did it make him proud of India and Indian creativity? I do not know, but it is true that in India we have forgotten our creative heroes. The British have a meticulous record of all that William Congrave did to improve Tippu's rockets. We don't even know who Tippu's engineers were, nor how the rockets were manufactured on a large scale. A crucial task

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before us is to overcome this defeatist mentality that has crept into our intelligentsia and the powersthatbe, the fatalistic belief that Indians cannot do anything new in India.

It is good to read , hear and see what others have done. However , the conclusions regarding what is good for our country are to be shaped by our own people.

With this in mind, we should look at how other countries have generated vision doc.u.ments of their own.

The USA and Europe The United States of America is a big economy that has grown over two centuries into a major industrial, commercial and military power. In addition to abundant natural resources and the hard work of an adventurous people, the two world wars also helped the USA to develop many technological strengths. There were many entrepreneurs who worked hard to realize their vision : Richard Branson, Andrew Carnegie, George Eastman, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, King Gillette, Lee lascar, William Lear, Helena Ruben stein and recently Bill Gates, to name a few.

It is interesting to note the background of some of these great achievers .

Richard Branson, who established an empire of musicrelated products , was from a family of lawyers and high school dropouts. Andrew Carnegie, a name synonymous with the American steel and had no formal education. Henry Ford, who was a farmer's son with a modest background, not only established the largest company of his times but also revolutionized manufacturing techniques. One common feature of all these people is their commitment to a vision and tenacious hard work of an ethnically diverse population and great natural resources that lead to the nation becoming the world number one. It was also due to a national. Characteristic: to recognize the best and to get the best out of the best.

There were and are thousands of smallscale entrepreneurs and venture capitalists who daringly invested in their future missions. There were hundreds of researchers fuelled by a lifetime dedicated to extending the frontiers of science and technology. In addition, many companies or business organizations like Merck, Bell Labs , 3M, HewlettPackard, Martin Marietta, Du punt, Citicorp, walmart, IBM and Compaq had a vision of longterm developments and invested huge funds in research aimed at technogical excellence and core strengths. Such commitment to a longterm vision by

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American companies continued despite the fact that there were a number of failures. Thus in the American system , such vision in terms of technological leaders.h.i.+p had been internalized at various levels of society, including the consumers. Therefore, the role of the government could be centered around major areas like defence, s.p.a.ce and atomic energy.

John F. Kennedy's vision of an American on the moon, the USA's compet.i.tive challenge to the Soviet Union's first entry into s.p.a.ce, is common knowledge. Gathering government and public support behind that one vision made possible its realization and also provided several spinoff benefits. Recent US presidents also emphasize that strengths in technology are the engines of growth and a crucial element in providing jobs for Americans. President Clinton has called for energy security: to be independent of the need to import energy sources by the early part of the next century. So research and development in various new areas of energy as well as for energy conservation are being stepped up. Most American strategic military capabilities are also focused on eliminating or drastically decreasing dependence on foreign governments for defensive purpose therefore sophisticated and better technologies are being developed and deployed what was demonstrated during the 1991 Gulf war is one facet of such capabilities.

Though in some areas its lead is being eroded by others, the USA continues to set the agenda in many fields of technology Based on these strengths is also attempts to dominate the world: in politics, culture, trade and in almost every other sector.

In contrast, the UK (which ones prided itself that the sun never set on the British empire) never declared any long term vision. The UK has recently however started a Technology Foresight. Programmer supported by the government. Germany has also adopted some elements of the j.a.panese twentyfive year Technology Vision Exercise in projecting the nations future possibilities. In France the government has always played a proactive role in developing core technology strengths in many areas : military, aeros.p.a.ce, electronics, biotechnology and agrofood sectors. This role continues, and France is determined to be a major world player through the use of better technology.

Much smaller countries like Finland with a population of just five million also emphasize

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their technological strengths. Finland is a leader in the production of ecofriendly paper, and in telecommunications.

All these visions draw on individual research ports from private agencies as well as national governments. The European Union also places a strong emphasis on technological capability. Towards that end it has set up a number of technology forecasting inst.i.tutions which produce regular reports. A common feature of the conclusions drawn in all these publications is the emphasis on the acquisition of internal capabilities in areas like advanced materials, electronics and information technologies , biotechnology , advanced manufacturing techniques which include design, robotics, and CAD/CAM (computeraided design and computeraided manufacture). As one author puts it, these areas of technology are commonly agreed upon from Tokyo to Brussels to New York. However, there are several variations un detail as well as in their emphasis on other technologies. Each country has to find its own balance of various requirements .

India has also similarly found its own balance through collective and creative thinking by over five thousand people . we will see that story in the subsequent chapters.

In this chapters , we will a.n.a.lyze the approach of other countries which can offer us some lessons: Malaysia, China, j.a.pan, Korea and Israel.

Malaysia During the past decade Malaysia has made a mark in the world. Its people are much better off economically. It has successfully built upon the wealth of a mere plantation economy to be now considered one of the important industrialized economies of the modern world. This is because of the shared vision of its peoplea vision articulated by the Malaysian prime minister, Marathi Mohamed. On his visit to India in 1996, at one of the functions organized by the Confederation of Indian Industries, he saw glimpses of India's Technology Vision 2020 through a multimedia presentation. He also saw a special exhibition of India's super Computer Anuran, and the CAD/CAM software of the Aeronautics Development Agency (ADA). He asked questions about the cost effectiveness of composite material products and t.i.tanium products. He later shared his country's Technology mission 2020 with the Indian audience, remarking, 'Our 2020 also means perfect vision, 'reminding us that he was originally a physician.

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Malaysia has framed a strategic master plan to become a fully develope nation d by the year 2020. This calls for concerted development in all areaseconomic, social, political, spiritual, psychological and cultural. The balanced developed of the nation encompa.s.sing 'its natural environment requires a strong Capability in science and technology', as Marathi Mohamed Puts it. The Malaysian focus is not only on the major manufacturing sectors with heavy industries, such as steel and core manufacturing and petroleum and chemical sectorsit also concentrates on advanced microelectronics, consumer goods, computers and telecommunications. The Malaysian vision envisages a role for foreign direct investment. It also wants to achieve complete design capability and to manufacture products using indigenous expertise. This emphasis is important : the ability to design on your own and manufacture products to your design is a crucial indicator of 'developed' capability.

In the goods and services sectors, the aim is to enhance Value addition in the production and delivery of goods. The Areas targeted by Malaysia are : advanced materials (which is Why the Malaysian prime minister asked questions about Advanced composites and t.i.tanium products), advanced manufacturing technologies, microelectronics, information technologies and energy technologies. In its plans for science and technology, the Malaysian government envisages a doubling of the percentage of GDP devoted to research. The vision articulates the strategies through which Malaysia aspires to be in the forefront of certain areas of technology, not merely as a leading exporter of technologyintensive products, but also a generator of a few major technologies in microelectronics and in several other areas. The vision also provides a glimpse of the roles of various regions of Malaysia and some of its bigger dreams of becoming a multimedia super corridor.

In addition, the vision addresses relevant environmental Aspects. It points out that despite rapid progress, Malaysia's forest resources have not been sacrificed and 60 per cent of the land is still forest. The vision envisages a strong commitment to 'green' policies and it states that

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environmental problems cannot be dealt with unilaterally or even bilaterally they must be approached holistically and multilaterally. The many facets of infrastructure development are also a part of Malaysia's vision. This nation is taking constant measures to drum up the enthusiasm of various interested parties in realizing this vision. Its present emphasis is on action.

China It is difficult to compare countries because various factors such as size , culture, history, geography, natural endowments, geopolitics and internal polity come into play. There are some goals which can be achieved by smaller countries but sometimes smaller countries find it difficult to embark upon certain big technological plans even if they have the funds because the size of the domestic market is too small. If we consider the bigger countries, the closest comparison to India is china, though there are many crucial differences.

The Chinese vision is to prepare the country for entry into the ranks of midlevel developed nation by the middle of the twentyfirst century.

Acceleration of the nation's economic growth and technology is pivotal in this.

Doc.u.ments describing the Chinese vision state that science and technology const.i.tute premier productive forces and represent a great revolutionary power that can propel economics and social development. It is interesting to note that the main lessons the Chinese have drawn from their past performance is their failure to promote science and technology as strategic tools for empowerment. They also point to the absence of mechanisms and motivation in their economic activity to promote dependence on science and technology. Similarly, they hold that their scientific and technological efforts were not oriented towards economic growth. As a consequences, they conclude, a large number of scientific and technological achievements were not converted into productive forces as they were too far removed from China's immediate economic and social needs. The Chinese vision is therefore aimed

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at exploiting stateof theart science and technology to enhances the nation's overall power and strength, to improve the people's living standard, to focus on resolving problem encountered in largescale industrial and agricultural production, and to effectively control and alleviate pressures brought on by population, resources, and the environment. By the year 2000, china aims at bringing the main industrial sectors up to the technological level achieved by the developed countries in the 1970s or 80s, and by 2020 to the level they would have attained by the early twentyfirst century. The aim is to bridge the overall gap with the advanced world. There is a special emphasis on research and development of high technologies that would find defence applications. Some of these technologies are critical for improving the features of key conventional weapons. Some technologies are meant for enhancing future military capabilities. Other efforts are aimed at maintaining the momentum to developed capabilities for cuttingedge defence technologies. They call for unremitting efforts in this regard with the aim of maintaining effective self defence and nuclear deterrent capabilities, and to enable parity in defence, science and technology with the advanced world.

The underlying principle is that economic growth must be driven by science and technology and scientific and technological principles must be geared to economics growth, so as to foster the harmonious development of both.

Some glimpses of the Chinese vision doc.u.ments are in order here, as they relates to various sectors of the Chinese economy. These are : .

Open all avenues for new sources of food and develop new protein resources and mixed animal feeds. Develop diversified food production and plants resources for the purpose of improving the diet of urban and rural residents.

Take full advantage of hybrid and genetic engineering techniques to screen and breed new highyield, fine quality, adversityfree animal and plant varieties.

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Strengthen research and development of various elements to drastically increase the quality and yield of agricultural products.

Equip agriculture and towns.h.i.+p enterprises with Modern industrial technologies, develop technologies For storage, sport, processing, packaging, and Comprehensive utilization of agricultural products.

Guide the diversion of surplus rural labor to the development of a rural commodity economy.

Accelerates research and development of core technologies for heavyduty rail transport and rapid pa.s.senger transit lines over 200km / hour.

Strengthen the technological and industrial capabilities for electronics equipment and machine tools.

Increase rate of innovation in the field of macaronis.

Increase science and technology inputs to the consumer goods industry. Improve the technical level of village and towns.h.i.+p housing construction, design and management.

Upgrade the technical level of social and public facilities and service industry.