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News of Jan
3, 2007
PM's Speech at 94th Indian Science Congress
Chidambaram (Tamil Nadu), Jan 3
Following is the text of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's speech at
the 94th Indian Science Congress at the Annamaal University in this
temple town:
"It gives me great pleasure to inaugurate the 94th Session of the
Indian Science Congress. Since the theme of this year's Science
Congress is Planet Earth, it is only appropriate that you are
meeting here in this historic town of Chidambaram.
It is home to the world famous temple of Nataraja. This temple,
dedicated to the cosmic dance of Lord Shiva, is a timely and
contextual reminder of what this year's Science Congress is about.
We in India hold the five elements - wind, water, fire, earth and
space in worshipful respect. In Chidambaram's vicinity there are
temples to wind, water, fire and earth. As one of the holy five
temples, where we worship the cosmos, Chidambaram is a fitting venue
for your gatherings this year.
India is a microcosm of Planet Earth. We have just about every
ecosystem that you can imagine. Our national anthem speaks of the
unity of these diverse places and people, and our national song, 'Vande
Mataram', pays homage to Mother India's natural bounty.
The wisdom of India's forefathers is no different from that of the
famous chief of an American Indian tribe, Chief Seattle, who said: 'We
do not own this earth, we borrow it from our children.'
Of the many challenges our planet is facing, three I consider are
vital to the survival of life on earth. These are the availability
of water, food and energy.
The management of water resources and promoting sustainable use
thereof is the most important challenge facing humankind.
Both science and social science and public policy must unitedly
address this great challenge.
The science of water use is critical to our food security. It is
also vital for our health security. The lack of sanitation creates a
public health crisis. Dirty water takes a toll on human lives.
Science must find efficient, economic and ecologically sustainable
ways of using water, conserving water and replenishing water.
Science and technology have also played an important role in feeding
the human race and in this hall I have my distinguished friend and
former colleague, Dr. M.S. Swaminathan whose researches have made an
immense contribution to making India a secure place as far as food
security is concerned.
Our farmers have greatly benefited from technologies introduced by
Dr. Swaminathan and his colleagues that led to the Green Revolution.
Last year, at your Congress, I spoke of the need for a Second Green
Revolution. Dr. Swaminathan has endorsed it.
His commission's monumental work is a guideline for working towards
that goal. We need today a special focus on dry land and rain-fed
agriculture as well as on non-food crops, horticulture and new plant
varieties.
The second Green Revolution would need to be more holistic than the
first one. It should extend application of science and technology to
forest conservation and management, sustainable environmental
protection, new models of water conservation, utilization of herbs
and plants, and productivity of our livestock.
Both water and food are a source of energy for all species. The
human race, however, has been able to discover and invent new
sources of energy that have benefited life on earth. But, these also
endanger life and the very survival of our planet.
We depend on our scientists and engineers and technologists to find
ways and means of meeting our energy requirements in ecologically
sustainable ways. This is a major developmental challenge facing us
in India and I believe in the world at large.
India must find alternative sources of energy supply. We will need
bio-fuel, solar energy, photo voltaic, nuclear and almost all other
sources, which do not burden the conventional sources of energy
supply. Our energy security depends strongly upon the abilities of
the scientific community to provide affordable sources of renewable
energy supply.
The assurance of energy security is both a managerial challenge and
a technological challenge. We have invested billions of rupees in
developing a range of energy sources. However, the return on this
investment is still far from being adequate.
Be it hydel power, thermal, or nuclear power, we have to improve the
productivity of investments already made. We must also find ways and
means
to conserve energy.
Our scientists and engineers can contribute greatly to the
development of energy conservation technologies. We have to find
resource-efficient means of ensuring our energy security.
The manner in which we manage water, food production and energy
resources will directly impact our environment. We are keenly aware
of the looming effects of climate change. But, the science of
climate change is still nascent and somewhat uncertain. This is why
Indian scientists must engage in exploring the links between
greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.
You must also examine its impacts on our monsoon patterns. There is
urgent need to upgrade our weather forecasting systems and we have
here today Dr. Gowarikar who made a very distinguished contribution
in this regard when he was head of the science and technology wing
of our country.
There is, therefore, urgent need to upgrade our weather forecasting
system, which could provide sustainable benefits for crop
prediction, instituting crop insurance systems as well as making
available rainfall data even up to the block level.
The growth in human population, the growing demand for nature's
resources, the spread of environmentally damaging technologies are
all contributing to the growing threat to Planet Earth.
There is a wide growing concern about how our economic growth,
increasing wealth and use of resources will threaten the future of
our planet. As people in developing countries improve their economic
and social prospects per capita consumption in these countries is
bound to grow.
As incomes and consumption levels of the poor rise, we must find new
pathways to meet the growing demand for goods and services in an
environmentally sustainable manner.
I think, there is today unanimity among science and technology
practitioners that the biggest challenge before humankind is to
promote sustainable use of available resources.
But lot more work needs to be done if sustainable development is to
be operationalized as a concept and does not merely remain a mere
buzz word.
We, in the developing countries, cannot afford to ape the West in
terms of its environmentally wasteful lifestyles. Equally, developed
industrial countries must realize that they too must alter their
consumption patterns so that so few do not draw upon so much of the
earth's resources.
The developing world cannot accept a freeze in global inequity. We
are today living in an increasingly globalized, increasingly
interdependent world.
The challenge before all of us is to make this growing
interdependence of nations a win-win game rather than a game, which
leaves two-third of humanity at the bottom rung of social and
economic ladder.
The measures that the global community takes to protect our
environment and deal with climate change therefore must be equitable
in their impact on the development prospects of the developing
world.
The new environment-friendly technologies being developed must be
shared and made available to us as international public good so that
our planet is saved.
We can and must use the inventiveness and ingenuity of our knowledge
to find new pathways to growth. But in the world increasingly
interdependent as it is today, this must be a shared effort.
It must be an effort that enables the poor to improve their quality
of life, their well-being, their consumption levels without being
forced to pay the price for the profligacy and excessive consumption
of the rich and the super rich.
We have been fortunate as a nation to have had a political
leadership that had the foresight to invest in science. We owe it to
Jawaharlal Nehru that in the early years after Independence we built
several world-class institutions in the field of science and
technology. The time has come, however, for a new thrust and for
renewed investment in basic sciences.
For a hundred years we had only one advanced institute of research
in the science. In the last one year our government has launched
three new institutions.
I hope the new Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research
will emerge as world-class institutions with an intellectually alive
atmosphere for research. We are also committed to increasing the
annual expenditure on science and technology from less than one
percent of our GDP to two percent of our GDP in the next five years.
While our government will do its utmost to invest in science, I call
upon the scientific community to also invest its time and
intellectual energy in the revitalization of our science
institutions.
I am deeply concerned about declining enrolment in schools and
colleges in basic sciences. The teaching of science and mathematics
in our schools ought to be made sufficiently interesting and
rewarding for our young people.
There is also widespread concern about the decline in the standards
of our research work in universities and even in advanced research
institutes. The university system needs upgrading in a massive way.
Universities must once again become the hub of good quality science.
We should institute a system of international peer review in our
research laboratories to help maintain standards.
We have also to make science research an attractive career option
for students. We have to attract more and better students, both men
and women, to the sciences at the school and college levels.
This will not happen unless younger scientists are groomed to take
over top positions early enough. Only when students see prospects of
early reward and recognition will they be induced to tread the often
lonely and toilsome trail of advanced research.
Overall, economic incentives and rewards have to be so oriented that
more and more of our bright students do opt for a career in science.
New career opportunities are opening up in the private sector, with
domestic and multinational firms investing in science-based
research. We must also ensure that the public sector is also able to
attract bright researchers in science and technology.
I also believe we must do more to draw on the wealth of our
traditional knowledge in dealing with the challenges faced by our
planet. The wisdom of our forefathers has much to offer in pursuing
an environment friendly and sustainable development path. Modern
science must draw upon this wisdom and find practical means of
utilizing it. We are committed to preserving and protecting this
wealth of traditional knowledge in the interests of entire humanity.
As I said at the platinum jubilee of the National Academy of
Sciences last year, the global Indian diaspora is a vast pool of
knowledge that we must tap, especially in the field of science and
technology.
We must try and attract the best and the brightest of our scientists
abroad to return home and participate in the great adventure of
building a knowledge-based economy in our own country. Many bright
young Indian scientists working abroad in advanced fields of
research wish to come home, for various periods of time. We must
fully exploit the potential of this "reverse brain drain".
Our visa system, our employment procedures and remuneration systems,
especially in our universities and in government institutions, must
change and must respond to facilitate this happen. Our mindsets must
change too so that we are more open to draw on those and other
global resources in promoting science and technology development at
home.
Investing in science is not an end in itself. Nor is it merely a
means to advance knowledge and promote development. It should also
help inculcate a rational and modern outlook, so that we can address
the complex problems we face in a rational and humane manner. This
is, I believe, what Jawaharlal Nehru hoped to achieve when he spoke
of inculcating in our people a scientific temper. We needed it then
and we need it more than ever before.
I was pleased to recently receive from the national knowledge
commission some proposals with respect to promoting both science and
scientific temper in our country.
The science advisory council to the prime minister has also made
some proposals in this regard. While suggestions pertaining to the
creation of new institutional structures are being examined by the
government, I urge intellectuals and scientists to come forward with
new ideas on how we can promote science research and a scientific
temper on a sufficiently large scale commensurate with the needs of
a fast expanding economy like India.
We are living in an age where developments in science and technology
have become a major determinant of what happens with the income and
wealth of nations. The task ahead is to evolve a development path
that accelerates the wealth creation processes on a truly
sustainable basis. The protection of the essential life support
systems of our planet has to be given high priority in our thinking
about developmental processes.
It goes without saying that India has to operate on the frontier of
scientific and technological knowledge. That's the only way we can
achieve for us the place that we rightly need in the comity of
nations. Science and technology therefore must be regarded as an
integral input in all our social and economic processes.
I sincerely hope all those taking part in the Science Congress share
this vision. I wish you all success in your deliberations.
IANS
News of Jan
3, 2007
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