IF the 93rd session of the Indian Science Congress, under way in Hyderabad, was to have been any different from previous meets, it should have thrown up some concrete suggestions for improving rural India. Despite the suggestive theme of the five-day event — ‘Integrated Rural Development: Science & Technology’, there are no indications of any path-breaking concept being floated. The annual mega-science event has always attracted thousands of delegates from India and abroad, providing them with a forum to brainstorm and share insights on everything from satellite technology to stem cell research.
Unfortunately, previous editions of the meet, more often than not, turned out to be just hi-tech huddles where policy-makers and scientists discussed problems without any strategies emerging to meet the basic needs of people through science. So while there were expectations that participants would have come up with a roadmap for tackling the myriad problems facing rural India, the meet has seen no real step ahead. India, which boasts of an active space and nuclear program, is not known for S&T endeavours that could push some 270 million of its poorest people above the poverty line, or provide employment to the 37 million unemployed. In fact, around 60 per cent of the country’s rural population have no electricity, no clean drinking water and use some 200 million tonnes of biomass a year for cooking on primitive wood stoves.
Scientists and policy-makers obviously have their jobs cut out for them. They could respond, for instance, by exploiting the potential of bio-fuel derived from the Jatropha curcas plant, whose farming, harvesting, and extraction will provide large employment opportunities. Biotechnology, space and infotech have the potential to resolve the country’s crop productivity and food security concerns. But we are yet to see any of this take off from the ideas platform. The least expected is a roadmap on science for the people to be concretised at the Science Congress. After all, that is its purpose.
{{/usCountry}}Scientists and policy-makers obviously have their jobs cut out for them. They could respond, for instance, by exploiting the potential of bio-fuel derived from the Jatropha curcas plant, whose farming, harvesting, and extraction will provide large employment opportunities. Biotechnology, space and infotech have the potential to resolve the country’s crop productivity and food security concerns. But we are yet to see any of this take off from the ideas platform. The least expected is a roadmap on science for the people to be concretised at the Science Congress. After all, that is its purpose.
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