Dr. Vishiesh Verma
India has a long tradition in science. The role that science could play in the development of India was realized by the leadership of the country long before independence. Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru, in 1938, sent a message to the Silver Jubilee session of the Indian Science Congress at Calcutta, that:
“It is science alone that can solve the problems of hunger and poverty, of insanitation and illiteracy, of superstition and deadening customs and traditions, of vast resources running off waste, of a rich country inhabited by starving people. Even more than the present, the future belongs to science and those who make friends with science.”
What Pt. Nehru said about 65 yrs ago, we are practically realising at present. A report of the World Bank States that the highest per capita income of over US$ 27,000 occurs in Switzerland. We are listed among the ten poorest countries in the world, with a per capita income of a little over US $300 i.e., 90 times lower than that of the highest income country. A small country like the Netherlands earns more foreign exchange from agricultural exports alone than the value of all exports from our country. Technology-driven affluence is increasing day by day in the industrialised countries. In contrast, in a predominantly bio-mass based economy like ours the livelihood security of the rural and urban poor is further threatened by environmental degradation. The sustainable life styles of the past are disappearing and in their place highly inequitable systems of living are spreading. Our agriculture is becoming a sick industry as is clear from the need to write off farm loans from time to time but we are avoiding, analysing and solving basic causes of sickness. What we lack in rural areas is not employment opportunities but employable skills. We need skills which can help to convert our biological wealth into economic wealth. In fact we are poor in converting scientific results into technological products and processes.
The progress or advancement of any society is in fact a measure of the presence of science in that particular society. What is the difference between USA and India in terms of the progress or development. Is it not merely the application of technology prevalent in day-to-day life in these two countries? The advancement of a country or of particular society depends on the modernity of the technology used by it.
Science is the single powerful forces which can build or destroy society. It affects the members of a society both physically and mentally; It affects their life style; their opinions. By assuring better health and increased normal life expectancy, science promises man a substantial extension of his individual power and senses. Science influences every aspect of society. It modifies social institutions, ideas, values, literature and other tools of human interaction.
Science is a particular activity and the result of that activity- science brings forth engineering via technology and in turn engineering and technology support and sustain it, both its educational and research aspects. Gone is the distinction between science and technology. Science is the grammar of the language of technology. Today, more than ever, we feel the need of technology in every aspect of our human existence. We have come to realise that many of India’s material problems, our health, our wealth, our welfare must flow from the extensive and judicious use of technology. Diseases have been wiped out, it has fed us, has made us neighbours. Kashmir has come closer to Kanya Kumari, people don’t die any more of Cholera, Small pox etc. Again the user of technology need not know the basic science behind it. All he needs is how to use it efficiently. This is when one uses a radio, a television or telephone one is not required to know the basic physics behind it. It is this ease that technology offers in its operation, that makes it applicable on a large scale, regardless of whether all its citizens are literate or not. Today technology is generated constantly from the principles of science and from the practice of science. Technology was brought into this country by the Western interests as a part of their industrial vision to take advantage of untapped resources.
Science has dominated the thinking of man in the Western World for over three hundred years. It came, into the lives of Western World in a large way only with the onset of industrial revolution. The urge of the people to live in affluence or in a reasonable comfort helped in the development and application of science and technology. Science came to India about one and half century ago as a part of English education. Sir J.C Bose and Dr. C.V Raman were introduced to the glories of science by father Lafonte, Professor of physics at St. Xavier’s College, Calcutta ; he played the leading role in popularising science in this country.
The impact of technological progress in urban India is clearly different from that of rural India. If in urban India science has made its mark(to some extent) both in term of improved life style and adoption of scientific stand-point, in rural India which counts for 70 percent of population, science and technology has yet to fulfil its promise. Rural India has its own problems like migration of youth from villages to the cities. What we need urgently is more opportunities for intellectually satisfying and economically rewarding work for youth in the villages. This can be achieved only by blending in socially appropriate ways traditional and new technologies. New technologies such as biotechnology, information technology and microelectronics lend themselves for decentralised adoption with the help of a few key centralised services. This process is more relevant for a fast growing pool of rural men and women without land or adequately remunerative work to address separately their technological and training needs.
India has vast resource of livestock and poultry, which play a vital role in improving the economic conditions of the rural masses. It ranks first in the world with respect to buffalo, 2nd in cattle and goats, 3rd in sheep, 4th in ducks, 5th in chickens and 6th in camel population in the world. Apart from being the largest milk producer we are also the third largest producer of eggs in the world. India is also the third largest producer of fish and second largest producer fresh-water fish in entire world. Animal husbandry and fisheries generate self employment opportunities for as many as 23.7 million citizens of our country, which is around 5.8 % of the total work force in India. Our experts in veterinary and animal sciences manage a sector which creates an output worth Rs 2.5 lakh crores per annum, contributing 5.26 % to the national GDP. For the vast multitude in rural India, livestock are the best insurance against vagaries of nature like draught, famine and other national calamities.
Besides supplementing family income and generating gainful employment in the rural sector, animal husbandry also helps to provide affordable nutritional food to millions of people. With the help of research and more investment the resource of poultry and live stock wealth of the nation can be harnessed to eradicate poverty and create socio-economic revolution in rural India.
Amul enabled India to become the largest milk producing nation in the world. If Amul has been able to give India, a position of eminence on the global dairy map, it is largely due to the efforts of the thousands of veterinary professionals, who have toiled day and night to improve animal health and productivity. Decades before the mobile phones appeared in India, Amul had unleashed telecom revolution in rural Gujrat by connecting 13,000 villages through wireless network. Thus network was used to connect 2.5 million farmers, to hundreds of veterinary doctors working for ‘Team Amul’.
Today technology is generated constantly from the principles of science and from the practice of science. It is important to do science and to nurture science in order that technology develops. Singapore rebuilt itself within a generation, using technology, war ravished Japan achieved miracles thanks to its adoption of the scientific methods and technological advances in its reconstruction efforts. We face many a problem in India today. The solutions are readily available we need to implement existing proven technologies and methods. The biggest killer of Indian lives is communicable diseases today. Many of them can be averted by doing nothing other than implementing low technology public health measures. The plague that hit Surat after a fifty year lapse did not have to. All that was needed was effective public health measures- clean the garbage, flush sewers and sprinkle disinfectants. Can India hope for a science based society? Yes; there is no alternative, But, efforts require blend of political will and professional skills to bring benefits of the latest developments to the common man. Science should be diffused in common man’s language so that it can become a part of the social reality. We need to bring science out of laboratories to the market place.
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