January 3, 2007
Tamil Nadu

“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 peoples, 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 operationalised 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 globalised, 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 1% of our GDP to 2% 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."