Sri Ramakrishna Math : The Vedanta Kesari, Technology: A Unifying Force for the Nation

Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam represents, to many of his countrymen, the best aspects of Indian life. He had an unparalleled career as a defence scientist, culminating in being awarded the Bharata Ratna. He is at present the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India and the author of Wings of Fire, An Autobiography.

Nations are built over generations. Lives roll over history to make them prosper and preserve their sovereignty. Freedom is an expansive proposition. It is always attained by sacrifices made by young and old and preserved by sweat and toil. Independent India was the first vision for the nation, we achieved it after years of struggle for freedom.

Recently, I visited Visakhapatnam to attend the convocation of the Andhra University. While entering the convocation hall, a young man met me and introduced himself that he was receiving the Post-Graduate Degree in Science on that day in the convocation. He asked me the following question, `Dr.Kalam, please tell me; what is the power of the conventional bomb, a nuclear bomb and a thermonuclear bomb?' I had very little time to talk to him, since we were getting ready for convocation robing. However, I told him that the damage potential of a conventional bomb of a tonne of explosive can destroy upto a few hundred metres of diameter and can cause limited damages to buildings, but it is a fire generator for inflammable material. For a nuclear bomb, the destruction index is more than 15000 times a conventional bomb, whereas a thermonuclear bomb can cause damage 40000 times more than the conventional bombs. I also said that nuclear power is harnessed for the generation of electrical power in hundreds and hundreds of Mega Watts. Nuclear technology is used for providing nuclear medicine and enhanced agricultural production through irradiation of seeds.

Just after the convocation, another event took place. I had the opportunity to meet an eminent professor of economics and a social scientist. The short discussion which followed led to the most important task for the technologists, economists and social scientists: to harness, in an integrated way, the strength and knowledge of their respective areas, to combat the poverty of 400 million people who are below the poverty line. Scientists and technologists discussed how technology could be carried to the needy people at the meeting of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Cabinet during the second week of April this year (2000). Technologists are working to consolidate proven technology packages which could be put into the remotest rural areas.

Within the last fifty years, India has become strong and is the largest democratic country in the world. We have to consider those 400 million people who are struggling to come out of poverty. If not attended to at the right time, they may indeed generate a social upheaval that would prove a very powerful destabiliser. What is the real tool we have today to combat and remove poverty? Technology is the only tool we have. It is the only unifying force that will keep us together, lift the level of our prosperity and well-being and give our people a better quality of life.

Technology is a group activity. It is inherently social rather than individual. It is not based on an individual intelligence alone, but on the interacting intelligence of many. I think our progress in missile programme, atomic programme and space programme, which is comparable to international capability, has also created thousands of scientists and engineers with a technology base of hundreds of industries. An environment has emerged in the country which smells of success. One can breathe the `can do' feeling. Technology has emerged as a key to the modern world ordersuperiority through technological excellence. The economic world map today can as well be seen as a technology map. Yet colonialism has not vanished. Aggression, greed and the urge to dominate others have not given way to any superior thought or better ideology. They have acquired a new face. Having been used as a tool to prosperity, technology is now being used as a tool of domination by many countries.

Technology can unify the nation in two ways: it can counter bad forces, and it can enhance good forces. Technology can abolish poverty and excessive hours of labour. The use of technology in raising the standard of life can be seen through the contemporary history as dependent on three things: democracy, organised labour, and birth control. There is an uneasiness among our trade unions about the economic reforms and the application of advanced technology. This must be allayed, and forging a partnership with labour in attempting the change into a developed nation is the single most urgent task before our leadership.

What can change the present cast where we appear to have been trapped as a society? Technology is the only tool that can free us from our shacklesboth physical and psychological. The advent of Information Technology can be seen across the entire cross-section of our lives. Similar technological transformation must spread in the area of healthcare and value-added production. This is the only way to become a developed nation. Fortunately we have all components of technology needed for successpeople, material, skills and infrastructure. The time has come when we must come out from our mindset of a suffering civilization and strive for our destiny to be a developed nation. There is no need for the peacock to turn into an ostrich. The rhythm and harmony that signifies a song and the grace of a peacock that goes with that is something that is so innate and natural to India. It has to be preserved in our social fabric and the benefits of the technology must percolate down to the lowest strata of society. This is the idea that seems to be knocking at our door. Why don't we open it?

After fifty years of progress, aspirations are mounting that India should become a developed country. This is the second vision for the nation. How can we meet this challenge? To become a developed India, the essential needs are:

(a) India has to be economically and commercially powerful, at least to be one of the six top nations in terms of the size of the economy. Our target should be a GDP growth of 9-11% annually and that the people below poverty line to be reduced to 10%.

(b) Near self-reliance in defence needsweapon, equipment, etc.with no umbilical attached to any outside nation.

Technology Vision 2020 is a pathway to realise this cherished goal. Technology Vision 2020 consisted of seventeen technology packages in the core sectors such as agriculture and food, healthcare, infrastructure and strategic industries. The task teams formed by TIFAC with nearly 500 experts of our country worked for two years, deliberated upon the status of various fields of national development and produced thirtyfive documents detailing the steps to be taken for creating wealth for the nation and the well-being of our people. Technology is the most vital key for achieving the goals. The vision deals with agro food processing, food and agriculture, healthcare, electric power, civil aviation, waterways, engineering industries, life sciences and biotechnology, strategic industries and materials and processing. There is a tremendous link between each technology package and the other.

We have identified five areas where India has core competence for integrated action: (1) Agriculture and food-processing: We have to put a target of 360 million tons of food and agricultural production by 2020. Other areas of agriculture and food processing would bring prosperity to rural people and speed up the economic growth. (2) Reliable and quality electric power for all parts of the country. (3) Education and Healthcare: It is our experience that education and healthcare are interrelated. For example, Kerala, with education and better healthcare, could bring down the population growth and provide improvement in the quality of life of the people. Similarly, in Tamil Nadu also, we have seen the downward growth of population resulting from a unique system of `mid-day meal' coupled with education. Studies about Andhra Pradesh also have different facets. These experiments, we feel, should spread in big states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Beginning of agricultural prosperity through better yields in these states will help this process. (4) Information Technology: This is one of our core competence. We believe, this area can be used to promote education in remote areas and also to create national wealth. (5) Strategic sectors: This area, fortunately, witnessed the growth in nuclear technology, space technology and defence technology.

These five areas are closely inter- related and will lead to national food, economy and security. A strong partnership among the R&D, academy, industry and the community as a whole with the Government departments will be essential to accomplish the vision.

This question is often asked by old and young with our turbulent background. Let me narrate a positive experience.

The thought is on the Second Green Revolution from the enlightened ninety plus. Recently, there was a function in Chennai organised by the Manipal Academy of Higher Education to felicitate three personalities. They were Shri C.Subramaniam for his vision for agriculture; Shri N.A.Palkhiwala for his work on social justice and myself for the advances in science and technology. Shri C.Subramaniam, who is more than ninety years old and who spearheaded the green revolution in the 1960s, put forth a comprehensive plan for the Second Green Revolution and said he would establish a National Agro Foundation based on the experience of success of the First Green Revolution. His mind is full of concrete ideas to make science work for India, to remove poverty and to make the country strong. The Second Green Revolution envisages developing and providing hybrid seeds to the farmers, backed by a complete set of agricultural systems and packages comprising fertilisers, water management and information systems. He has unfurled the Second Green Revolution with a strategy for the adoption of small and marginal farmers to enable them to produce high value products. The scientific inputs range from soil testing to providing access to information on weather, markets and best practices. The Foundation aims at bringing a million farmers under the scheme. For this purpose, he has enlisted the support of top agriculture consultants, managers and technologists. I was really inspired to be with him and his unfurling concept of the Second Agricultural Revolution in India. I had also a few separate meetings with him on other important developmental issues.