02-21-2005, 08:43 AM
The below is provided by shri Ram Narayan, an Indian-American activist.
Britainâs premier scientific journal, /New Scientist/, has done a special issue for which the journal sent a team of investigative journalists to India. Its conclusion: India is not yet a knowledge superpower. But it stands on the threshold. What is encouraging about the /NewScientist.Com/ issue is that there is no hype that would be intolerable to scientists with clinical minds. âFor the /NewScientist /reporters who have been in India for this special report, many features of the country stand out,â says the magazine.
âWith a population of more than a billion, the country presents some curious contrasts. It has the worldâs 11th largest economy, yet it is home to more than a quarter of the worldâs poorest people. It is the sixth largest emitter of carbon dioxide, yet hundreds of millions of its people have no steady electricity supply. It has more than 250 universities which catered last year for more than 3.2 million science students, yet 39 per cent of adult Indians cannot read or write.â It is against this sober background it informs its discriminating readers, who include the best-informed scientists in the West: âThe first sign that something was up came about eight years back. Stories began to appear in the international media suggesting that India was âstealingâ jobs from wealthy nations â not industrial jobs, like those that had migrated to south-east Asia, but the white-collar jobs of well-educated people. Today, we know that the trickle of jobs turned into a flood. India is now the back office of many banks, a magnet for labour-intensive, often tedious programming, and the customer services voice of everything from British Airways to Microsoft.â
It points out: âIn reality, the changes in India have been more profound than this suggests. Over the past five years alone, more than 100 IT and science-based firms have located R&D labs in India.
These are not drudge jobs: high-tech companies are coming to India to find innovators whose ideas will take the world by storm. Their recruits are young graduates, straight from Indiaâs universities and elite technology institutes, or expats who are streaming back because they see India as the place to be â better than Europe and the US. The knowledge revolution has begun.â
According to /NewScientist/: âThere's a revolution afoot {http://www.newscientist.com/special/india/mg18524876.800} in India.
Unlike any other developing nation, India is using brainpower rather than cheap physical labour or natural resources to leapfrog into the league of technologically advanced nations. Every high tech company, from Intel to Google, is coming to India {http://www.newscientist.com/special/india/mg18524871.100} to find innovators. Leading the charge is Infosys, the country's first billion-dollar IT company {http://www.newscientist.com/special/india/mg18524871.900}.â
âBut the revolution is not confined to IT. Crop scientists are passionately pursuing GM crops {http://www.newscientist.com/special/india/mg18524876.900} to help feed India's poor. Some intrepid molecular biologists are pioneering stem-cell cures for blindness {http://www.newscientist.com/special/india/mg18524877.100}, while others have beaten the odds to produce vaccines for pennies {http://www.newscientist.com/special/india/mg18524871.500}.â
"And the country is getting wired up as never before. Mobile phone networks {http://www.newscientist.com/special/india/mg18524871.300}
have nearly blanketed the country and the internet {http://www.newscientist.com/special/india/mg18524872.000} is even reaching remote villages".
âLooking skyward, India's unique space programme {http://www.newscientist.com/special/india/mg18524871.000} has fought international sanctions to emerge as key player in India's development. Meanwhile, India's nuclear industry is boldly building cutting-edge fast-breeder reactors {http://www.newscientist.com/special/india/mg18524877.000}.â
There are those who ask: âBut why is India, a country that still has so many development problems on the ground, aiming for the heavens? To Indian scientists, the question is not only patronising of their scientific aspirations, it betrays an ignorance of the Indian space programmeâs greater purpose and successes against the odds.â
/NewScientist/ provides the answer: âIndiaâs political leaders say the country cannot afford not to have a space programme. Indira Gandhi, who was Indiaâs longest-serving Prime Minister, believed it was not only important for science, but also vital to Indiaâs development.â
The special issue dated February 19, 2005 (http://www.newscientist.com/special/india
{http://www.newscientist.com/special/india}) has a dozen well researched articles covering developments in Indian science and technology, all worth reading.
The cover page article is reproduced below.
Ram Narayanan
US-India Friendship
http://www.usindiafriendship.net/
{http://www.usindiafriendship.net/}
Britainâs premier scientific journal, /New Scientist/, has done a special issue for which the journal sent a team of investigative journalists to India. Its conclusion: India is not yet a knowledge superpower. But it stands on the threshold. What is encouraging about the /NewScientist.Com/ issue is that there is no hype that would be intolerable to scientists with clinical minds. âFor the /NewScientist /reporters who have been in India for this special report, many features of the country stand out,â says the magazine.
âWith a population of more than a billion, the country presents some curious contrasts. It has the worldâs 11th largest economy, yet it is home to more than a quarter of the worldâs poorest people. It is the sixth largest emitter of carbon dioxide, yet hundreds of millions of its people have no steady electricity supply. It has more than 250 universities which catered last year for more than 3.2 million science students, yet 39 per cent of adult Indians cannot read or write.â It is against this sober background it informs its discriminating readers, who include the best-informed scientists in the West: âThe first sign that something was up came about eight years back. Stories began to appear in the international media suggesting that India was âstealingâ jobs from wealthy nations â not industrial jobs, like those that had migrated to south-east Asia, but the white-collar jobs of well-educated people. Today, we know that the trickle of jobs turned into a flood. India is now the back office of many banks, a magnet for labour-intensive, often tedious programming, and the customer services voice of everything from British Airways to Microsoft.â
It points out: âIn reality, the changes in India have been more profound than this suggests. Over the past five years alone, more than 100 IT and science-based firms have located R&D labs in India.
These are not drudge jobs: high-tech companies are coming to India to find innovators whose ideas will take the world by storm. Their recruits are young graduates, straight from Indiaâs universities and elite technology institutes, or expats who are streaming back because they see India as the place to be â better than Europe and the US. The knowledge revolution has begun.â
According to /NewScientist/: âThere's a revolution afoot {http://www.newscientist.com/special/india/mg18524876.800} in India.
Unlike any other developing nation, India is using brainpower rather than cheap physical labour or natural resources to leapfrog into the league of technologically advanced nations. Every high tech company, from Intel to Google, is coming to India {http://www.newscientist.com/special/india/mg18524871.100} to find innovators. Leading the charge is Infosys, the country's first billion-dollar IT company {http://www.newscientist.com/special/india/mg18524871.900}.â
âBut the revolution is not confined to IT. Crop scientists are passionately pursuing GM crops {http://www.newscientist.com/special/india/mg18524876.900} to help feed India's poor. Some intrepid molecular biologists are pioneering stem-cell cures for blindness {http://www.newscientist.com/special/india/mg18524877.100}, while others have beaten the odds to produce vaccines for pennies {http://www.newscientist.com/special/india/mg18524871.500}.â
"And the country is getting wired up as never before. Mobile phone networks {http://www.newscientist.com/special/india/mg18524871.300}
have nearly blanketed the country and the internet {http://www.newscientist.com/special/india/mg18524872.000} is even reaching remote villages".
âLooking skyward, India's unique space programme {http://www.newscientist.com/special/india/mg18524871.000} has fought international sanctions to emerge as key player in India's development. Meanwhile, India's nuclear industry is boldly building cutting-edge fast-breeder reactors {http://www.newscientist.com/special/india/mg18524877.000}.â
There are those who ask: âBut why is India, a country that still has so many development problems on the ground, aiming for the heavens? To Indian scientists, the question is not only patronising of their scientific aspirations, it betrays an ignorance of the Indian space programmeâs greater purpose and successes against the odds.â
/NewScientist/ provides the answer: âIndiaâs political leaders say the country cannot afford not to have a space programme. Indira Gandhi, who was Indiaâs longest-serving Prime Minister, believed it was not only important for science, but also vital to Indiaâs development.â
The special issue dated February 19, 2005 (http://www.newscientist.com/special/india
{http://www.newscientist.com/special/india}) has a dozen well researched articles covering developments in Indian science and technology, all worth reading.
The cover page article is reproduced below.
Ram Narayanan
US-India Friendship
http://www.usindiafriendship.net/
{http://www.usindiafriendship.net/}