Deepmala 10 – Knowledge Generation and Acquisition

I was attending a meeting of the Third World Academy of Sciences in Trieste. Fredrico Mayor, the Director General of UNESCO made a interesting statement. He said ” Knowledge flows from north to south and wisdom flows from south to north”. I remember making a small correction; ‘knowledge’ may flow from north to south but ‘usable knowledge’ does not flow that easily from north to south, since usable knowledge has the potential to create wealth. No country, no corporation gives a competitive advantage to another, excepting at a price, India itself has realised this in the post liberalisation era.

When it come to technology or knowledge, in India we always considered the ‘mark’ or ‘buy’ options, which unfortunately got converted to ‘importing’ and ‘import substituting’ in the closed economy that we had. India will have to carefully consider not just the two options of ‘making’ or ‘buying’, but also ‘buying to make better’, ‘making to buy better’ and ‘making it together’. Let me explain what I mean. “Making’ has been a preferred course of action, but one cannot make everything. Also if one has to reach a high rate of economic growth, then other alternatives have to be sought. “Buying’ the knowledge embedded in a technology or a machinery is possible, when the owner is willing to part with it.

Smart countries like Japan opted for the third option of ‘buying to make better’ route. They acquired knowledge through licensing, absorbed it and developed superior products, which competed with the best in the world. We have also not followed the fourth option of ‘making to buy better’. Familiarity with a knowledge or a technology domain gives one an advantage in negotiation, strategic positioning and so on.

For a resource poor like India, ‘making it together’ is the preferred option in the long run. This means creating knowledge networks between all knowledge centres in the academic world, national laboratories, etc. and our productive sector. India need to put together a balanced strategy on these five options to become a technology leader.

Deepmala 9 – Knowledge Industries

Increasingly the traditional factors of production – land, labour and capital – have become less important when compared with technology; the economists have termed this as the ‘expansion of the production frontier’. The source of technology is in science, that is rooted in knowledge. It is easy to visualise that tomorrow’s industries will be knowledge industries. The emphasis will not be on physical or tangible assets, but on intangible knowledge assets. The value of intellectual capital of an industry will determine its rank and competitiveness. In such industries, there will be a major shift from people, who handled information and did routine and unthinking work, to those who will use knowledge at every stage. For knowledge workers, information and knowledge will be both the raw material of their labour as well as product.

World’s major growth industries – such as microelectronics, biotechnology, designer-made materials, and telecommunications – are already brainpower industries. These knowledge industries stimulate other industries, in turn, to become knowledge based.

For a cash starved but intellectual capital rich country like India, emergence of knowledge industry is a good news. But harnessing the full potential of knowledge industry requires an aggressive and visionary policy framework, creative planning, daring and risk taking. It needs to be recognised that the knowledge industries such as software development, pharmaceutical industry, biotechnology, engineering services etc. operate in a high competitive environment with great demand on the speed of response in dynamic market conditions. A high operational efficiency and functional flexibility is crucial for such industries. The Government policies, therefore, have to be conducive to provide these. For example, it is important to recognise that knowledge work in knowledge intensive industry cannot be governed by using the laws meant for physical labour. India has a great potential to emerge as a real leader in knowledge capital provided its harnesses its great intellectual capital with a public policy framework.

Deepmala 8 – Indian Knowledge Workers

In a knowledge society, the knowledge workers will perform different tasks. Some of them will generate knowledge, some will acquire knowledge, some will absorb knowledge and some will communicate knowledge. Generating knowledge will require an ab initio approach and will build on creativity. India traditionally has been good at this. Acquiring knowledge will involve both development of knowledge indigenously as well as acquiring it from elsewhere in the world, through licensing agreements, foreign investment and so on. Absorbing knowledge will involve ensuring universal basic education, creating opportunities for lifelong learning, supporting tertiary education in science and technology, etc. For building true knowledge societies, extending education to girls and other disadvantaged groups will be crucial. Education will be crucial for development, but education without openness to innovation and knowledge will not lead to economic development. Soviet Union had near hundred percent literacy but severe restriction on innovation in the market place led to an economic decline.

Communicating knowledge will involve, among other things, creative use of modern information and communications technology through competitive environment, but at the same time ensuring that the poor have an access. Revolution in information technology will galvanize the process of knowledge communication. The cost of transmitting a million bits of information over a kilometer has plummeted in the last twenty years from over twenty dollars to a few cents; and the curve is logarithmic. In 2020, half of the world’s population will be connected by Internet; we will be then talking about ‘netizens’ and not citizens’! Access to information and knowledge will therefore assume a different dimension altogether. India should siere these opportunities.

Deepmala 7 – Creating Indian Knowledge Workers

If the Indian society has to become a knowledge society, then it is important that every Indian becomes a knowledge worker. We need to recognise the concept of a knowledge worker in the broadest possible sense. It is not scientists and technologists alone, who will be knowledge workers. Even a farmer can be a knowledge worker, provided he understands the soil that he is sowing his seeds in, he understands why and how of the micro nutrient and pesticide addition that he makes, he lives in an information village, where he has the benefit of short and medium range weather forecasting to plan his farming activity and so on. If he does so, then he will be a continuous user of knowledge and he will be knowledge worker.

I had the privilege of witnessing some truly novel models being tested by M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation on creating new knowledge systems in the villages around Pondicherry last week. The knowledge system for sustainable food security in the Pondicherry villages has its goal the empowerment of rural women, men and children with information relating to ecological agriculture, economic access and utilisation. Such a knowledge system is being managed by local youth at the Village Knowledge Centre, from where the computer-aided information system is operated. Farmers, who are becoming the knowledge workers, are also being trained to maintain a “Soil Health Card” to monitor the impact of farming systems on the physical, chemical and microbiological components of soil fertility.

If a customer becomes a knowledge worker, he will change the market dynamics. We take great pride in the white revolution that took place in India, with India emerging as the largest milk producer in the world last year. But let us remember those early days when some producers began diluting the milk and customers could not determine its quality before buying it. It was empowering the customers with knowledge with simple kits to determine the buttermilk content, that put emphasis on quality, and led to the qualitative and quantitative growth of milk production.

Enlightened citizens empowered with knowledge will be able to see the crucial link between, namely environment, ecology, economics, equity and ethics. They will not be then guided by misinformation fed by vested interest groups. But they will use their knowledge to decide on their own as to what is wrong and what is right. They will not stop projects that lead to economic development, but they will stop those that lead to destruction.

Deepmala 6 – India as a Knowledge Society

Tomorrow’s societies will be knowledge societies. Tomorrow’s markets will be knowledge markets. Tomorrow’s wars will be fought not by the conventional weapons, guns, missiles and so on, but they will be fought in the knowledge markets with the new thermonuclear weapons called information and knowledge. The war on a patent right, which took place between Eastman Kodak and Polaroid, was settled for about one billion dollars. This is half of India’s R&D budget! So these wars in the knowledge market will be quite expensive.

The power of knowledge in the knowledge society is there for all of us to see. The paradigm shifts are truly dramatic. For more than a century, the world’s wealthiest human being has been associated with oil, starting with John Rockefeller in the last nineteenth century and ending with the Sultan of Brunei in the late twentieth century. But today, for the first time in history, the world’s wealthiest person is a knowledge worker, his name happens to be Bill Gates!

I want to emphasise that to meet the twin objective of growth with equity, knowledge cannot be the prerogative of a few; everyone in the society must have access to knowledge and become a knowledge worker. Nations which do not create knowledge societies will vanish onto the oblivion. But those that do create these knowledge societies will have the potential to lead the world. India has a chance to become a leader provided it sets this process of creating the knowledge society in place with speed and determination.

Deepmala 5 – Intellectual Property Management for Wealth Creation

The potential of knowledge as a creator of wealth is gaining currency all around the world, but only usable knowledge that is protected or protectable can have the potential of wealth creation. The inclusion of IPR in the GATT agreement is an indication of this realisation. We will have to pay urgent attention to enhancing our levels of innovation and creativity substantially. A major change in the offing is due to India’s accession to World Trade Organisation (WTO). Generation of intellectual property, its capture, documentation, protection, evaluation and its exploitation assumes a crucial importance in the new context. Indeed, there will have to be a sea-change in our ability to manage our intellectual property – be it patents, copy rights, designs, and so on. The greatest challenge will be posed by patents.

Manpower planning for IPR protection will need emergency measures. A number of steps will have to be taken by our institutes. IPR must be made a compulsory subject matter in the law courses in the Universities in India. Our graduates coming out of engineering and technology streams have no idea about IPR, and yet it is these young people, who will have to introduce key elements of IPR in their courses. A number of patent training institutes will have to be set up. China has set up 5000 patent training institutes, whereas we have non in India at the moment! It is a matter of deep concern that with a 100-year old system on patents, in India 4000 patents were filed last year, whereas with just a 10 year old system, China had 90,000 patents last year.

Skills in filing, reading and exploiting patents will be most crucial in the years to come. Our ability to read or write patents is very poor. In that sense, patent literacy in India is lacking to a great extent. Neither can we properly protect our inventions nor can we understand the implications of the patents granted to our competitors. A patent literacy mission will have to be launched with a sense of urgency.

Deepmala 4 – Science-Business Links : Need for Change

Science can make economic sense only when we wake up the scientist in an entrepreneur and also the entrepreneur in a scientist. Nations that occupy leading positions have successfully done this but in India we have not done it so successfully. Further our science-business links have been traditionally very poor.

The fundamental problem that we have today is that the research institutions and the business units in industry have different cultures. The fact that science has to make an economic sense has not dawned on our institutions. On the other hand, the fact that competitive advantage in business can only be reached by using cutting edge science alone has not been realised by our industry. There is a difference in the basic orientation between the institutions and the industry. The institutions work on the basis of scientific novelties and perceived needs, whereas the business units work on the basis of attractiveness in the market and potential for profit. There is a need for both the R&D institutions as well as industry to change their mind sets.

What changes of mind sets will be required if the science-business link in India has to be strengthened? Firstly, our Indian industry will have to champion R&D with a vigour. Apart from its willingness to invest in R&D, the industry should be willing to take risks and should; have patience to wait for returns. Publicly funded institutions should be used idea generators and providers of new concepts by our industry. Industry should not simply look at the institutions as super markets, where off the shelf technologies are sold. Indian indsutry should be prepared to assume the role of partners, who have the technical, financial and karketing strengths to take ideas to the market place. In the true spirit of partnership, the industry should willingly integrate national R&D resources into their business strategy. All this would be possible only when we can change the climate for an interaction between our institutions and the industry with an improved communication and understanding, faith in mutual growth and development of healthy working relationships.

Deepmala 3 – Making Economic Sense of Science

There is a new definition of wealth today. Wealth is no more measured in terms of fixed assets such as buildings, land, bank account, etc. It is measured in terms of those knowledge based systems, which add value. In today’s world, goods, services, data, people etc. cross the physical borders of different nations freely. However, adding value through knowledge gives nations a competitive advantage. Many countries realise the value of the intellectual prowess of its people. For instance, witness the interesting recent developments in Japan, where, by legislation, intellectual property has been considered as a security against loan.

Where does India stand in this context? Jack Welch, the Chief Executive Office of General Electric Company from USA was here some time ago. He said that India is a developing country but it was one of the most developed countries as far as its intellectual infrastructure was concerned. In that sense then, we should be a rich country, but we are not. Why is this so? It is because, among other things, the wealth creation potential of knowledge is something that we have not fully understood. We have still not learnt to build the bridge between discovery and market place. Ability to build this bridge is a pre-requisite for Indian scinece to make economic sense. If we do that, then we can set ourselves a heady dream of not only making India the intellectual capital of the world but also an economic power to reckon with.

People describe India in many different ways. Many say, India is a rich country where poor people live. That richness is due to our intellectual prowess, our biodiversity, our traditional knowledge base and, of course, our rich traditions.

The Indian challenge is simply that rather than being described as a rich country where poor people live, someday someone will have to describe us as a rich country where rich people live. This can happen, only when we realise the walth creation potential of knowledge.

Deepmala 2 – Focus, and You Will Achieve

I remember going to a poor school in Mumbai. But that poor school had rich teachers. I remember Principal Bhave, who taught us physics. Today’s children have this ‘Book vs. Look’ problem, since they are so overburdened that they don’t have time to look around. Principal Bhave emphasised the ‘look’ part of it. I remember his taking us out in to the sun to demonstrate as to how to find the focal length of a convex lens. He took a piece of paper, moved the lens till the brightest spot emerged on the paper, and told us that the distance between the paper and the lens was the focal length. But then he held it on for some time and the paper burnt. For some reason, he turned to me and said “Mashelkar, if you can focus your energies like this and not diffuse them, you can burn anything in the world !” I was so impressed with the power of science that I decided to become a scientist. But that experiment gave me the philosophy of life too; ‘focus and you will achieve’.

I had narrated this story, when I laid out my ‘New Panchsheel for the New Millennium’ in the 87th Indian Science Congress, Pune on 3rd January 2000. Shortly after my speech, which was presided over by the Prime Minister of India, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, we had a lunch together. Around the table were two nobel laureates also. This story had touched everyone’s heart. A discussion started on the role of teachers in nation building. I was sitting next to the Prime Minister. He asked me, ‘Do you know, why are there no more Bhaves?’. I said, ‘No Sir’. He said ‘Because they are not respected’ by our society. It should set all of us thinking. We say ‘ ‘. But in practice, we do not give the teachers, who build the nation, a respect. How can we build then the resurgent India of our dreams?

Incidentally, the deep rooted message in ‘focus and you will achieve’ is worth repeating in our national context too. Focussing means coming together, working for a common goal. It means becoming a ‘Team India’. Are we doing it? No.

The differences of castes, creed and culture are dividing us today like at no other time in our history. We must shed all these differences and ‘focus’ on doing only one thing. Building a great nation, which will be recapture its leadership role again in the twenty first century, just as it had done millennia ago.

Deepmala 1 – Each Little Action Matters

Very few people know that the famous ‘Second Haldighati Ladhai’ as it is known now, when India fought the battle over the patent on turmeric with United States Patent Office, and won, has its roots in a small incident that happened about ten years ago in Pune.

I, along with my wife, mother and son were sitting on the terrace of our house in Pune in the evening of a hot summer. Suddenly a bird came from nowhere and fell in front of us. Its wing was broken. My mother ran downstairs and brought some turmeric powder, made a paste out of it, and applied it to the bird. She never even thought for a moment as to whether the treatment of wound healing by application of turmeric, which works so well with human beings, will work with a bird. I suppose this tendency to treat the entire human and animal kingdom as one is deep rooted in our Indian faith. Anyhow, the poor bird died within two hours or so. All of us had fallen in love with the bird in the meantime. We all cried. We gave the bird a grand burial in our garden with tearful eyes. That incident remained etched in my memory for ever.

These memories came back to me in 1997, when I saw that America had granted a patent on the wound healing properties of turmeric. I was surprised. A patent is granted only when the conditions of novelty, non-obviousness and usefulness are fulfilled. Whatever is governed by prior knowledge cannot be given a patent. I decided to challenge the patent on the grounds that its use was well known in India.

We submitted all the evidence, including from our ancient Sanskrit literature, and finally US did revoke the patent. This was the first time that the third world had fought for its rights on its traditional knowledge with the mighty US, and had actually won.

This victory was later inspired the victory on patents on Neem and Basmati. There was a great deal of churning and thinking in the World Intellectual Property Organisation. The US and other developed countries realised the mistakes they were making. It has been now decided that the traditional knowledge of the developing world would be respected on par with the industrial property based knowledge. It will also find a place in the standard international patent classification system so that no wrong patents will ever be claimed on the rich heritage of the third world. This second ‘Haldighati Ladhai’ thus has served a historic purpose.

What was particularly touching for me was that this news of our winning the battle on turmeric reached some 400 tribes in Amazon, thousands of miles away. A wrong patent was given by US on some of their knowledge also. They also got confidence from India’s win and fought with the US in 1999. They also won.

Prof. Gangadhar Gadgil, in one of the felicitations that I had in Bombay, had asked me as to whether it was my department’s job to fight this case. I said ‘NO’ ‘Why did you fight then?’. I ‘said because I am an Indian. Someone had to fight against the injustice done to India. I decided to do it rather than waiting for others to do it’.

I believe there is a lesson here. Each individual action, no matter how small it is, helps. It is like dropping a little stone in the pond. Little ripples get created. They can sometimes take the form of waves. They reach far and beyond, just as this little Indian act inspired the tribes from far away Amazon. You never know what the impact of that little action of youth may be. I suggest that each one of us should do our own bit to bring justice and equity to this world, rather than for others to do it. It will make a world of difference. For sure, it will make a far better and a far greater India.