Address in the Book Release Function Integrated Development : Challenges and Opportunities

Address

I am indeed delighted to release the Second Atlas of Food Insecurity In Urban India evolved by the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation is in continuation of the book on Food Insecurity in Rural India released during 2001 by Prime Minister. I can see the continuity of purpose and dedication to the objective of these atlases focusing the integrated approach on how to succeed Food Security for the nation of billion people. I would like to congratulate the teams which has worked in this project for their excellent work. I was discussing with Prof. MS Swaminathan last night, and when I was going through the Atlas, I found that the North Eastern states which have tremendous potential of Bio-Diversity and Water resources need to be taken into account while working for Food Security. Similarly Rajasthan, which is going through drought condition for last four years, has to be studied for index of disaster management. The topic I have selected for today's address is Integrated Development: Challenges and opportunities.

Vision for Developed India : Integrated Actions.

The vision for developed India aims at increasing the GDP growth rate to more than 10% from the present 5% and reduction of poverty line to almost nil level from the present 26%. We have identified five areas where India has a core competence for an integrated action: (1) Agriculture and food processing - we have to put a target of 400 million tons of food. Agro food processing would bring prosperity to rural people and speed up the economic growth. (2) Reliable and quality electric power for all parts of the country. (3) Education and Healthcare - we have seen, based on the experience, education and healthcare are inter related and assist population control leads to social security and also national security. (4) Information Technology - This is one of our core competence. We believe, this area can be used to promote education in remote areas and also to create national wealth. (5) Strategic sectors - This area, fortunately, witnessed the growth in nuclear technology, space technology and defence technology.

These five areas are closely inter-related and lead to national, food, economic and security. A strong partnership among the R&D, academy, industry, business and the community as a whole with the Government departments and agencies will be essential to accomplish the vision.

Economic Growth in different societies

During the last century the world has undergone a change from agriculture society, where manual labour was the critical factor, to industrial society where the management of technology, capital and labour provided the competitive advantage. Then the information era was born, last decade, where connectivity and software products are driving the economy of a few nations. In the 21st century, a new society is emerging where knowledge is the primary production resource instead of capital and labour. Efficient utilisation of this existing knowledge can create comprehensive wealth of the nation and also improve the quality of life - in the form of better health, education, infrastructure and other social indicators. Ability to create and maintain the knowledge infrastructure, develop knowledge workers and enhance their productivity through creation, growth and exploitation of new knowledge will be the key factors in deciding the prosperity of this Knowledge Society. Whether a nation has arrived at a stage of knowledge society is judged by the way the country effectively deals with knowledge creation and knowledge deployment in all sectors like IT, Industries, Agriculture, Health Care etc.,

Vision, Mission & Goals

We have so far considered the profile of knowledge society, multiple components and system integration. It emerged from the deliberations of the task force that the core strengths of the nation have to be coupled to the desired goals. The nation's strengths predominantly reside in its natural and human resources. In natural resources, India is endowed with a vast coast-line with marine resources and also oil wealth. In minerals, apart from conventional material resources, it is well-known that India has the largest deposits of titanium, beryllium and tungsten. India ranks among the top few nations having a rich bio-diversity. Particularly, in the herbal area there are potential applications for developing multiple products for nutrition, prevention and cure of diseases. Of the global herbal product market of US$ 61 billion, China has a share of around US $ 3 billion, whereas India's share is not even US $ 100 million. Hence, there is tremendous opportunity for growth in this area. India has similar potential for promoting floriculture and aquaculture in a big way. Knowledge-based value addition for these natural resources would mean exporting value-added products rather than merely the raw materials. Use of IT for commercialisation and marketing can increase our outreach and speed enormously. Ancient knowledge is a unique resource of India for it has the treasure of a minimum of 5000 years of civilisation. It is essential to leverage this wealth for national well being as well as to seek global presence for the nation.

Human resources, particularly with large young population, are unique core strength of the nation. This resource can be transformed through various educational and training programmes. Skilled, unskilled and creative manpower can be transformed into wealth generators particularly in the service sectors, agro industries etc. Knowledge-intensive industries can be generated out of our existing industries by injecting demand for high-level software/hardware, which would bring tremendous value addition. It is said, "the precious asset for a company or a country is the skill, ingenuity and imagination of its people. With globalisation, this will become more important because everybody will have access to world class technology and the key distinguishing feature will be the ability of people in different countries to use their imagination to make the best use of the technology". Indeed development and innovative use of multiple technologies with transparent management structure and coupled with IT, will lead India into a knowledge power.

Changes in employment, agriculture, Industry and Service - Knowledge Industries

In 1980, agriculture areas employed in parts or in full 76% of people of the country and it reduced to 65% in 1994 and expected to further fall to 60% of people in agriculture by 2012. Whereas, the demand of agricultural products will double in quantity, productivity using technology and post harvest management will have to compensate the manpower reduction in farming and agricultural products sector. In the case of industry, in 1980, 13% of the population was employed in small scale and large scale industries. The trend continued during 1994. However, it has to increase in 2010, as the GDP growth with high technology in the situation of opening up of the economy abroad. The pattern of employment will take a new shape. Service with knowledge industry component from 11% employability in 1980 has increased to 20% in 1994. And further it will increase to 54% in 2012 in view of infrastructure, maintenance areas, financial sector, IT sector and entertainment demands.

This big change will demand in all areas more trained skilled human power and technology personnel. Our industrialists, commercial chiefs and technologists may have to get ready for such transformation in agriculture, industries and service - knowledge industries for which human manpower with knowledge and skills has to be evolved in a mission mode. Ensuing lecture will discuss the strategy for employment and nation wealth generation. And also evolution of knowledgment management has been presented linking vision for the nation.

Agriculture and food processing

Let us now study the progress in certain selected areas. In cereals, milk, rice, fruits & vegetables production India now occupies the first three positions in the world, while in productivity we are at the 40 to 60 position. TIFAC (Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council), under Department of Science and Technology, had formed a national team to evolve a vision for the nation which is to make the country developed from the status of developing country by the year 2020. One of the thrust area is agriculture and food processing. A technology vision panel of TIFAC on agriculture and food production has given a very important recommendation which I would like to share with you.

Food demand of our country from the agricultural and agro food sectors with existing level of production in agro food : cereal, agro food : milk, agro food : vegetables and fruits have been studied and also technologies needed and possible higher production in next 20 years time are discussed

Agro Food : Cereals

With a base of 200 million tones food production, Expert analysis indicate : The business created by this production has a value of Rs 90,000 Cr per year and related industries contribute to another Rs 9,000 Cr per year particularly in packaging and value addition. The losses due to poor preservation, storage and rodent problems contribute to Rs 9,000 Cr per year. The panel has also recommended certain core technologies such as pest/rodent control, silo based storage, packaging, handling equipment, automatic weighing and electronic sensors (for moisture etc) that will result in high productivity. These measures and addition of core technologies would by the year 2020, lead to a production volume of 400 million tonnes. The business then would nearly be doubled to Rs 150,000 Cr per year while other related business like packaging, value addition would touch about Rs 90,000 Cr and losses would be substantially reduced to about Rs 3000 cr per year. Indeed this is a real mission for the technologists working with farmers and consumers.

Technology for Second Green Revolution

Mr C Subramaniam, spearheaded the green revolution in 1960s. At the age of 90+ he put forth the concept of second green revolution and established a National Agro Foundation based on the experience of success of first green revolution. Developing hybrid seed backed by scientific research for increased agriculture production and value addition was the mission of National Agro Foundation. Foundation aims at bringing a million farmers under the scheme. For this he has enlisted a top agriculture consultancies and managers and technologists for promoting this foundation. Concepts of his Second Green Revolution are soil characterization, right type of seed selection, suitable fertilizers, water management, farmers training, crop management, food processing and marketing . The features of second green revolution relating to first green revolution are represented in the figure.

PURA ( Providing Urban amenities in Rural Areas)

Providing Urban amenities in Rural Areas (PURA) is another example for creating rural wealth and prosperity. The model envisages a habitat designed to improve the quality of life in rural places and makes special suggestions to remove urban congestion also. Naturally our most demanding urban problem is that of congestion removal and efficient supply of water and effective waste disposal in every locality are the paramount civic needs. There is a minimum size below which a habitat is not viable and not competitive with the existing congested city. At the same time, the existing congested city is not economical compared to a new town once a minimum size of expansion is crossed. As against a conventional city say, rectangular in shape and measuring 10 km by 6 km, the model considers an annular ring-shaped town integrating minimum 8 to 10 villages of the same 60 km2 area, and the same access distance of 1 km to transport arteries. It needs one and only one transportation route of distance half that needed for the rectangular shaped city; so frequency of transportation will be doubled halving waiting times. It has zero number of junctions and will need only a single level layout. Also it needs only one route as against 8 needed for the rectangular plan, so people will no longer need to change from one line to another to move from any one point to any other. That saves transport time. Further, as all traffic is concentrated into one single route, high efficiency mass transportation systems become economical even for a comparatively small population. This cuts costs substantially and is more convenient for general public. Knowledge powered rural development is an essential need for transforming India into a knowledge power and high bandwidth rural connectivity is the minimum requirement to take education, health care and economic dynamism to the rural areas. Knowledge society leading to knowledge super power can prosper and survive only in the environment of economic security and internal security. Nation has to work for transformation into 'developed India'. Road maps on certain areas have been generated where we have to work for. Can we do it?

Conclusion

When I think of the second vision for the nation, I can see challenges in every field of science, technology, healthcare, infrastructure etc. This makes me recall my experience after one of my talks at Hyderabad. A ten-year-old girl came up to me for my autograph. I asked her, "Young lady, What is your ambition?" "Dr. Kalam , I want to live in a developed India", she replied without hesitation. For transforming India into a developed country, growth of agriculture science and technology and other fields lead to major transformation. Tasks are high and challenges are unique. Also, I would like to quote Sir CV Raman, at the age of 82, while addressing young graduates: " I would like to tell the young men and women before me not to lose hope and courage. Success can only come to you by courageous devotion to the task lying in front of you. I can assert without fear of contradiction that the quality of the Indian mind is equal to the quality of any Teutonic, Nordic or Anglo-Saxon mind. What we lack is perhaps courage, what we lack is perhaps driving force which takes one anywhere. We have, I think, developed an inferiority complex. I think what is needed in India today is the destruction of that defeatist spirit. We need a spirit of victory, a spirit that will carry us to our rightful place under the sun, a spirit which will recognise that we, as inheritors of a proud civilization, are entitled to a rightful place on this planet. If that indomitable spirit were to arise, nothing can hold us from achieving our rightful destiny." That was a saintly saying to all of us. Let the young dream to overcome the challenges and make them into opportunities. Dream transforms into thoughts and thoughts result into actions. Whenever there was a challenge, we seem to perform well. We fought against the sanctions and technology denials and proved to the world that we can do high technology in this country. That means, the inherent strength of Indians, come out on such occasions, like the independence movement. That is why we need a second vision. "Developed India" will be a reality by mounting a "National Movement". Everyone of us has a role to play in this noble cause.