Goverdhan Mehta

1
Science and Technology Capacity and the Knowledge
Society

• Goverdhan Mehta
• Director, Indian Institute of Science
• Co-Chair, InterAcademy Council
• Past PresidentIndian National Science Academy
  (INSA)

2
The Dawn of Knowledge Era
3
Industrial Society
Agricultural Society
Information Society
Knowledge Society
Innovation
Knowledge products
Networks
Economic Growth
Technology
Societal Transformation
4
What is a Knowledge Society ?

• That uses knowledge holistically to empower and
  enrich people and is an integral driver of
  sustainable development (societal transformation)
  
• A life-long learning society committed to
  innovation
• Has the capacity to generate, diffuse, utilize
  and protect knowledge - creates economic wealth
  and social equity
• Enlightens people towards an integrated view of
  life as a fusion of mind, body and spirit
• Planning Commission Report, India 2001

5
The Age of Science
The 20th centurys unprecedented gains in
advancing human development and eradicating
poverty came largely from technological
breakthroughs
6
S T as an engine for development ?
Consensus is emerging among policy makers and
economists that at least half, if not more, of
the economic growth in countries is directly
attributable to science and technology.
In a globalizing, knowledge driven world with
increasing importance of service industries and
technological competitiveness, this contribution
can only become higher.
7
There is hardly any social problem on which
science cannot make some contribution -D. K.
Price, Scientific Estate
Science is never sufficient to solve a problem
completely it is, however, always necessary.
8
Policy, not charity, will determine
whether new technologies become a tool for human
development everywhere UNDP-HDR 2001
There is enough in this world for everyone's
needs but not greed
-Mahatma Gandhi
9
The Dignity of Work
Development is about expanding the choices
people have to lead lives that they value
..But, two thirds of the world population lives
in conditions of relative to complete
deprivation..What choices do they have?
.1 billion without safe drinking water, 2.4
billion without access to basic sanitation, 1
billion illiterates
10
The Paradox of Our Time
11
Growing inequalities

• Knowledge Divide

12
(No Transcript)
13
Rising Inequities

• Inequities are rising within and between
  countries
• Assets of worlds 3 richest people exceed
  combined GDP of poorest 48 countries
• 1.2 billion people living on less than 1 a day
  and 2.8 billion on less than 2 a day (1998)

14
Industrialized nations vsLess Developed
Countries (LDCs)
Widening gaps in human resource capacity S
T infrastructure which are critical in the new
knowledge based world
15
India 1.49
16
Knowledge have nots
Population With Internet Developed
World 15 88 Developing World 85
12
Source UNDP, Human Development Report, 1999,
USPTO
17
Asymmetry in scientific spending vs incomes

• Income 60 times (OECDLIE)
• Research 250 times (OECDLIE)

OECD countries contribute 94 of scientific
literature
OECD Countries account for 85 of total R D
expenditure
18
Explosive Growth of Knowledge
00 AD 1750 doubled
1750 1900 doubled 1900
1950 doubled 1950
3-4 yrs doubles

More new information has been generated in the
last 30 years than in the previous 5000
19
Galloping pace of technology
Shrinking time domains
Electricity
Faraday 1830 1881
Genetic Engg.
Watson-Crick 1953 1973
Computing Power doubles...18
months Networking (Band width) doubles12
months Storage (Hard disk) doubles9 months
20
Investment Driven RD Regime
When R D investments begins to exceed capital
investment, the corporation can be said to be
shifting from a place for production to a place
for knowledge creation
Genomics
But, 80 countries are classified as
scientifically lagging and have no capital
Nanotechnology
RAND S T Report 2001
21
Bend the Curves
Current trends greater gaps scientific
apartheid!
The Gap
2003
Time
22
Among the many challenges of the global knowledge
divide, the growing ST gap between North and
South is the most important
Distribution of S T capacities is even more
lopsided than that of economic power
23
A long way to go
24
But there is promise
The HOLE-IN-THE WALL EXPERIMENT, NIIT,
INDIA Experiments in Minimally Invasive Education
25
..and there is great potential of rich human
capital in the south
Population can be a renewable knowledge
resource as important as capital
26
Inventing the Future

• Urgent Need for
• S T Capacity Building for transition to the
  knowledge society
• Recognize it as a worldwide challenge

27
S T Capacity Building-The Road Ahead

• Need for a global perspective and commitment-
  harmonize with local contexts
• Rethink by global institutions that deal with
  scientific knowledge
• New understanding of south--talent is all
  pervasive, access opportunity are not
• Practical, pragmatic strategies

Capacity building is a continuum
28
Broad Banding-S T Capacities
it is more appropriate to view innovations as
the fusion of different types of technology
rather than as a series of technical
breakthroughs. Fusion means more than a
combination of different technologiesit invokes
an arithmetic in which one plus one makes
three F. Kodama

• That developing countries need only relevant
  technologies is a myth
• Every country needs the capacity to understand
  and adapt global technologies for local needs
• Integration of immediate needs and long term
  vision

29
10,000 years ago.. Let Knowledge come
from all sides
-Rig Veda
Segmentation of knowledge leads to divisiveness
Let knowledge be harnessed to uplift the blossoms
in the dust too
30
Clusters of Action points

• Human Resources-New paradigms in science
  education
• Universal scientific and technical literacy
• Science, its values and Societal engagement
• Institutions, infrastructure and networks
• Information access-particularly to scientific
  journals
• Public/Private partnerships
• Policy issues - national and international

31
New Paradigms in Science Education

• Need for a major rethink at pedagogic and
  curricular level
• Imaginative synergy with other knowledge streams
• Rekindle interest in experiments and sensory
  observations
• Restore the inspirational role of
  teacher-motivator mentor
• Integration with concepts of sustainable
  development
• Learning science as an enlivening
  experience-neither esoteric
• nor prosaic

Strengthening science education at all levels
is an enabling requirement, especially
for developing nations, for a self-standing
national science base.
32
New initiatives in different countries are being
attempted
Need to share experiences and evolve local
strategies
IAP Science Education Program UNESCO,TWAS, ICSU

33
Information Access-Books and Journals
Some silver lining

• Digital libraries-
• Million books on the web initiative CMU
  IISc
• MIT-OCW initiative
• Dig Lib in Alexandria
• Electronic Journals
• Public library of Science PLOS)
  www.plos.org
• PLOS Biology, PLOS Journal of Medicine
• PNAS-National Academy of Sciences (USA)

34
The interactive complexity of the triumvirate of
science, innovation and commercialization
indicates that the linear conception of S T for
progress in the emerging knowledge society may be
inadequate.
Scientific revolution has outpaced social
revolution for over a century now
35
Towards New Understandings and Partnerships

• Recognize indigenous knowledge-as a common
  heritage of humankind- many of its features could
  be key elements of sustainable development
  strategies
• Innovative approaches to international S T
  cooperation-primacy of south-south cooperation
• Alliances to build capacities for the generation,
  infusion and absorption of technologies in real
  time
• Establish BANK to which patents can be assigned
  for public good, peace and happiness

36
The Role of the Science Academies
37

Inter Academy Council

• Origin of IAC
• Established in 2001 and supported by the worlds
  leading academies of sciences
• Inter Academy Panel, IAP, 90 academies
• Purpose of IAC
• Mobilizing the worlds best science for a better
  tomorrow.

38

Inter Academy Council

• Executive Board
• Academies of Science from Brazil, China, France,
  Germany, India, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico,
  Russia, South Africa, Sweden, United Kingdom,
  United States and the Third World Academy of
  Sciences
• Co-Chairs
• Bruce Alberts, President, National Academy of
  Sciences
• Goverdhan Mehta, Past President, Indian National
  Science Academy
• Observers
• International Council for Science, ICSU
• InterAcademy Panel (IAP) and
• The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences

39

Inter Academy Council

• Modus operandi
• Project-by-project studies, sponsor-initiated
• Transparent Process
• Independence
• Study panels established through broad
  consultations (IAP Academies)
• Composition of panels approved by IAC Board
• Merit-based
• Draft reports subject to intensive peer review
• Released after approval by the IAC Board

40
Inter Academy Council

• First study
• Strategy for Building Worldwide Capacities in
  Science and Technology.
• (Expected release Dec 2003, Mexico City)
• Second study
• Science and Technology for Improving Agricultural
  Productivity in Africa
• (Expected completion Jan 2004)
• Third study initiated
• Towards Transitions to Sustainable Energy Systems
• (under implementation)

41

Inter Academy Council

• Activities Planned
• Gender Issues in Science Technology
• Use of Internet for Distance Education in S T
• Science and Technology in Preserving World
  Heritage Sites (UNESCO)

42
Today, the Third World is only slowly waking up
to the realization that in the final analysis,
creation, mastery and utilization of modern
science and technology is basically what
distinguishes the South from the North. On S T
depend the standards of living of a nation
- Prof. Abdus Salam Founder TWAS
43

• Thank You