Convocation Address at the Indian Institue of Technology

Core competence and National Development

I am delighted to be at this prestigious Institution having a glorious history of more than 150 years. I was here to deliver the Convocation Address of University of Roorkee in 1998. Since then, three significant events occurred. This institution has been transformed into Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee has become part of the newly formed state of Uttaranchal. And the country witnessed two major earthquakes. Roorkee symbolizes the birth and traditional excellence of engineering education in the country. As IIT, it will make a formidable force in technical education and contributing towards transforming India into a developed nation. I consider it to be an honour to be with you again to deliver the Convocation Address of IIT Roorkee. I take this opportunity to congratulate the young graduates for their achievement. I greet the Vice Chancellor, Professors, teachers and staff for the excellent contribution in shaping young minds to contribute to the nation in multiple fields.

I was thinking, what topic I should discuss on this occasion. Since its inception, civil engineering has been the core subject in the formation of the engineering college at Roorkee. Over a period of time this institution has developed competence in almost all branches of engineering including Earth Sciences Applied Geology and Earthquake Soil Dynamics. Any core lead to development of multiple branches. Hence, I have selected the topic "Core competence and National Development"

Law of development

Last two years, I was studying the development patterns and the dynamics of connectivity between nations, especially in trade and business. As you all know the world has a few developed countries and many developing countries. What is the dynamics between them and what connects them? Developed country has to market their products in a competitive way to different countries to remain as developed country. A developing country to get transformed into developed country; also has to market their products to other countries. Competitiveness is the deciding factor for the successful business and trade. Competitiveness has three dimensions: quality of the product, cost effectiveness and supply in time. Indeed this dynamics of competitiveness in marketing of products by developing and developed countries is called the law of development. Technology is the key to competitiveness. Academia and research institutions must provide this input to the industry for making our products competitive, to enable India to become a developed nation in less than two decades.

Core competence

I consider that each one of our IITs should develop a unique core competence needed for the nation and related to the region in which that IIT is established, apart from their multidisciplinary roles and research. IIT Roorkee is uniquely placed with technological strength in the areas of Civil and Structural Engineering, Building Science, Soil Science, Hydrology, Irrigation and Water Management, Geo-technical Engineering, Rock Mechanics, Remote Sensing, Information Technology, Computer Science and Mathematics. The strength in these areas should enable IIT Roorkee to build its core competence on Earth Quake Prediction and Disaster Management through validated model and proven technologies.

International experience

The loss and damage due to natural disasters like earthquakes can be reduced if timely warning becomes available to the people as well as the administrative authorities. It is a general opinion of the scientific community that accurate prediction of time and location of an earthquake is still a distant possibility. However certain countries, particularly Iceland are carrying out earthquake prediction with reasonable accuracy in local areas. Their experience and mathematical modeling can facilitate reasonable prediction of earthquake with more accuracy in our country.

IIT Roorkee must study all the natural disasters which have taken place in the country in the last 50 years along with prediction research inputs, which could probably enable us to evolve prediction model, to accurately predict the natural disaster in a timely manner. Concurrently, codes for building construction for earth quake prone zones can be evolved which can form part of the standard building codes.

Stress forecasting

Earthquakes are complex and extraordinarily varied involving a number of factors and phenomena. Perhaps one common feature is the release of large amount of accumulated stress. I understand that monitoring the build-up of stress by analysis of shear-wave splitting leads the increasing likelihood of a future large earthquake to be recognized. This is known as stress forecasting. Such stress-forecasting would allow appropriate preparations to mitigate hazard that specific short-term predictions would not. It is said that stress-forecasting was possible in South West Iceland only because of the unique seismic activities of the onshore transform-zone. It is also said that Stress-forecasting gives reasonable estimates of time and magnitude but gives little or no information about location. But we should also keep in mind that earthquake prediction is always local. Hence with the help of stress-forecasting if it is known that a large earthquake is going to occur and the rate of increase and the time when fracture criticality could reach is estimated, local information may be able to indicate the fault that would break.

Disaster Management

Though it is not possible to avert the natural disasters, the suffering and misery due to loss of life and adverse socio-economic impact can be minimized. It is not the earthquake itself, but rather the collapse of structures, which does most damage. Our building researchers should focus the attention of their research on design, fabrication and layout of light-weight, strong, durable and yet cost-effective structures. This would prove useful in earthquake-prone areas having human habitation.

The prime purpose of disaster management is to minimize the effects of disaster. It is a time critical dynamic process which covers systematic planning, organizing, staffing, communicating, controlling and coordinating. Application of Information Technology in the form of GIS, Remote Sensing, Satellite communication and Internet play a vital role in disaster mitigation programmes. With the use of these technologies we need to prioritize the area of relief particularly in the Seismic zones IV and V and deploy the resources needed to mitigate the disaster in a time bound manner. Our disaster management teams must be alert and well equipped to timely handle the situation. Particularly, the ever ready disaster management system of Switzerland is noteworthy. During Kutch earthquake, Swiss assistance was very helpful.

The school of management studies in IIT Roorkee can take up research projects on designing an integrated disaster management solution for various type of disasters occurring in the country in collaboration with various agencies working in this area.

Building code for Structures

There is a need to generate building code for structures which are constructed in earth quake prone areas. The code may include methods by which the building can be made ductile, designed for providing lateral stiffness/resistance. IIT Roorkee, in collaboration with Central Building Research Institute and other R&D Organizations in the country should work on these areas and evolve codes for building cost effective, reliable and earth quake prone structures in Uttaranchal and other parts of the country.

Interlinking of rivers

The core competence available at IIT, Roorkee and the experience in multi disciplinary projects will empower you for contributing in national missions, such as Interlinking of rivers and Providing Urban amenities in Rural Areas (PURA) to transform India into a developed nation.

Interlinking of rivers is essential for flood and drought control, for availability of drinking water to all regions, for goods navigation and transportation and for increased power generation and cultivation land. This mission will also provide employment opportunities to the rural population. Remote sensing to survey and evolve optimum water routes, environmental mapping and afforestation requirements and GIS for continuous monitoring of the networked water flow through all seasons and at all times may require a dedicated satellite constellation for our interlinked river systems. Above all, the interlinking will lead to enhancement of environment and national connectivity.

It is possible to evolve a scheme by which 14 Himalayan tributaries of Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers in northern India can be linked and the same transferred to south via a series of canals and pumping stations across the Vindhyas to replenish the 17 southern rivers. Interlinking of the rivers is the challenge for the young. It is an interdisciplinary task involving civil engineers, space scientists, hydrologists, power systems specialists, mining engineering, Information technology and environmental engineers etc. I suggest IIT Roorkee should actively involve in the interlinking of rivers task force and be partners of this mega mission.

PURA model

As you are aware, our Prime Minister in his Independence Day announcements has declared a Rural Development Programme called PURA i.e. Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas. It involves identification of rural clusters with growth potential and creating four types of connectivities for them -

(i) Road, transportation and power connectivity

(ii) Electronic connectivity in the form of reliable telecom, Internet and IT services

(iii) Knowledge connectivity in the form of good educational and training institutions, and

(iv) Market connectivity that would enable kisans and others to get the best prices for their produce.

The four types of connectivities in PURA will collectively bring forth the economic prosperity of rural community. The physical connectivity through good roads encompassing the villages and marketing place, enables fast movement of input to the village as well as off take of the output to the processing centres and market. Electronic connectivity will provide the IT services such as e-commerce, for the benefit of the rural population through a central agency. Knowledge connectivity will ensure good education for the children and training for the farmers and agro-processing industries. Market connectivity will ensure the kisans to get the best price for their produce.

Majority of our population lives in villages. The development of the nation requires the enhancement of economic connectivity of the villages. Agriculture has a major share in village development and PURA is an effective instrument for ensuring that development. The IIT Roorkee in coordination with the government agencies can significantly contribute in PURA mission by adopting a cluster of villages and providing physical, electronic, knowledge and market connectivity to villages, thereby converting the cluster into a self-reliant and flourishing enterprise. In addition, IIT can make a simulation model of PURA with various connectivities and conduct sensitivity analysis of various inputs in collaboration with the Ministry of Rural development.

Entrepreneurial leadership

When the student goes out of this campus after graduation, they should have the confidence to start and enterprise individually or jointly. Entrepreneurship development should become a part of IIT education. The entrepreneurial leadership has three parts. First, problem finding and problem solving in the context of development. In second part, the entrepreneurs should have the willingness to take risk and be bold to do things differently. We must teach our graduates to take calculated risks for the sake of larger gain. The third part is the disposition to do things right. This capacity will enable them to take up tasks on interlinking of rivers and establishing and running PURA in their regions.

Conclusion

When a child is empowered by the parents at various phases of growth, the child gets transformed into a responsible citizen. When a teacher is empowered with knowledge and experience, good young human beings with value systems emerge. When a leader of any institution empowers his or her people, leaders are born who can change the nation in multiple areas. When women are empowered, society with stability gets assured. When the political leaders of the nation empower the people through visionary policies, the prosperity of the nation is certain. There is a need to empower the students to explore new avenues for making faster progress in the development mission. When an individual or a team is empowered with technology, transformation to higher potential for achievement is assured. Since, IIT Roorkee has developed core competence in Infrastructural development and its technologies; you have a major role to play in the execution of national missions such as networking of Rivers, Energy, Rural development with connectivity and disaster prevention and management.

I wish you all success in your endeavours.