| Delivered Extempore
ADDRESS BY SHRI K.R.NARAYANAN, VICE PRESIDENT OF INDIA, AT THE CONVOCATION OF BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, MESRA
RANCHI, APRIL 8, 1995
His Excellency the Governor of Bihar and the Chancellor of this Institute, Shri G.D. Birla, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Institute, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Hon'ble Vice‑Chancellor, distinguished members of the faculty, students, ladies and gentlemen,
I feel it a great privilege to have been asked to deliver the Convocation Address of this Institute. Birla Institute of Technology has grown into an advanced institute for science and technology and an institution of excellence. It has greatly contributed to the development of science and technology in our country, in general scientific, technological education as well as in such sophisticated fields as electronics, robotics, rocketery and other fields. I was told by the Chairman of the Board of Governors just a little while ago that the rockets developed by this Institute played an important role in the Bangla Desh War. I am sure that not only in war but also for peaceful and purposive development, this Institute, this Deemed University has made immense contribution and will make further contribution for the development of our country and the welfare of our people. We know that it was the gap in the knowledge of science and technology that brought us national subjugation. It was due to the superiority of technology that the colonial power dominated the whole world. Today also it is because of the superiority of their science and technology that the developed world are lording it over the rest of and the majority of humanity.
I need not, therefore, emphasise the importance of what is taught here and what you are studying. We had a very clear perception for the of science and technology even during our national struggle. You know that how Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru emphasised that the future of the world and the future of India will depend on those who are lovers of science, those who are dedicated to science. Therefore, when he became Prime Minister, he established a series of scientific laboratories and technological institutes in order to prepare India and the Indian people for the modern world.This is one of the institutes which was established in line with the thought of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. You are also aware how he had the famous Scientific Policy Resolution of 1958 presented to the Parliament and accepted by the whole nation. This Resolution said very clearly that technology is a critical factor in economic and in national development. It said that apart from the spirit of the people including the labour of the people. It is effective combination of three effective factors, technology, raw‑material and capital that is critical for development. Among these three factors he identified technology as the first and most important since the creation and adoption of new techniques can in fact make up for deficiency in natural resources and reduce the demands of capital. He gave us the secret of economic success that it is by resort to technology that we can overcome many of the like capital and raw‑material.If you look at the development of the world after the second world war, you will find that it is technology that made the decisive difference to the development of nations.
There was a study by the Brooklyns' institution about ten years ago which said that almost 45 % increase of productivity in the United States after the second world war was accounted for by the application of technology. This happened in Europe. This happened in Japan also. A great economist Robert Solo got his nobel prize for economics in 1987 for a theory that technology, not capital or increase in the work force is the key factor in economic growth. This was something we were aware of. You know how we introduced the concept of critical technology even earlier in 1958 in the Scientific Policy Resolution that we adopted. It is in the application of this technology that we have to concentrate ourselves. We are today in a world of technology, in a world where reality is almost a fantasy, computers, biotechnology, robotics, artificial intelligence, all these have startled the world with the originality of technology. But at the same time I should like to emphasise that the human factor and the human intelligence remain supreme in all human development. Even we are aware of the miracles of modern electronics and computers technology.
One of the great electronic pandits of MIT once said the computers will not only make bigger calculations but will also make medical and legal judgements, perform psychotherapy, compose beautiful music and poetry and indeed it has been revealed that many of the noble sentiments to which we had attached spiritiual importance, like the motherly love, altruism, spirit of sacrifice, cooperation among people are seen as adaptations of genetically engineered programmes and of strategies for survival. We share many characteristics with the rest of the living kind. You know that Artistotle once described human being, man, as a rational animal. Now that difference between the animal and the human being is being wiped off by the development of the artificial intelligence. But there are certain things which the computer cannot do. I am told it can play chess games, it can make music, it can write poetry. But it cannot do certain things. It cannot enjoy a chess game, it cannot enjoy victory, it cannot enjoy music nor it can convey any sense of morality to life. Therefore, there are certain things which are beyond the capacity of computers. Another pandit from MIT described the human being as feeling computers, emotional machine and not just rational animal.
But even among the computer scientists there is a clear recognition of the supremacy of the human mind and heart. One authority has said and I would like to quote it, "Computers will be perhaps like Gods of ancient Greece, incredibly powerful and even capable of many human emotions. But because of their immortality they are ineligible for admission into the warm circle of human sympathy, reserved exclusively for the humans. I read sometime ago that Swami Vivekananda had said that even God has to be born as human being in order to understand life, in order to experience the joy and sorrow of life. Lord Krishna, I wonder if he would have been worshipped as much as he is, if he was not born as a human being and if he was not identified in the Rasa Krida, if he had not played his great role in the Mahabharata war. Even Gods had to be human in order to fulfil themselves, in order to help mankind that science and technology should have a human mission in order to help mankind.
How can science and technology help mankind? It is not only by hitech achievements that this can be achieved. It is important that the highest science and technology is made applicable for improving the lot for the ordinary people, for giving them better health, better education, better houses and imparting to them a new quality of living. We know that even the sophisticated aspects of science, like space, like atomic energy, are directly useful for meeting the basic needs of the people and exploring, and exploiting all the resources of the earth for the benefits of mankind. I can think of how, by carefully planned application of technology, our immense variety of small scale and cottage industries can be upgraded, how they can be made more productive and how that could substantially improve the living standards of our people. Therefore an Institute of Science and Technology like this has purposefully to direct its attention as to how science and technology taught here can be specifically applied to the innumerable fields of human activity which are significant and are crying for improvement in our country. So I do hope and I am sure you are very much aware of it and while it is unavoidable and it is indispensable that we should climb the peaks of achievement in science and technology, we should direct our attention to the grassroot where ultimately they are tested as to their efficacy in service to mankind.
I have said a little while ago that the gap for the developed and developing nations of the world is mainly in the technology level. We have always been a country open to the new ideas from everywhere. Indeed we are one of those civilisations which contributed to the work of science, to the development of science in the early days. I am told reading of history will show that until about 14th Century that Asia and the Arab world were the leaders in science and technology. But they fell behind later. Now we have to recapture that leadership that we have lost. For this purpose we have to imbibe technology from the developed nations of the world who had in fact used the science and technology which we and other developing countries developed for their own benefit. We should not feel hesitant in accepting, adapting, these originally developed new modern technologies. But it is one of the contradictions of our time that when the world is opening up, when we talk about globalisation, when we talk about free trade, there are big barriers for the transfer of knowledge in the realm of science and technology. You are aware of the various institutions, treaties, organisations which have been set up in order to hinder the flow of technology from the developed to the developing world on the ground that these technologies are for dual use purposes. They can be misused, they can be used for warlike purposes also. But the fact of the matter is that every significant technology today is a dual use technology. There is no technology that is really worthwhile, which has not got a dual purpose.
Therefore are we to abjure the acceptance of knowledge of this high dual purpose technology? I know that it is in the technology itself but this is in human intention, it is in the polities of the nations that the virtue or wickedness or technology. There is no law that we should use the nuclear power or space knowledge for destructive purposes. Their primary use are for developmental and human serving. We as a nation who have demonstrated more than in one field that we are capable of mastering the highest and the newest of technology but for years have not used these technologies for any militaristic development, we have the right that the rest of world which has used these technology for the destructive purposes should respect us and have confidence in us and not place impediments in the way of imbibing technology. We are in a critical stage. Our country and the world in regard to this particular aspect of technology. Dr. Abdul Kalam is here. He is one of those who has made signal contributions in the development of high technology in our country. Our scientists have over years worked hard often without any assistance from abroad, from the so‑called great developed countries.
We have developed technology for atomic energy, for space, for building satellites, for missiles by our effort, our intelligence, our capacity to think and act originally. Are we going to stop these efforts of our brilliant scientists and let their fruits go waste and not be available for the welfare and progress of the millions of our people? Are we to cap all these efforts, stop these? I believe as Mr. Chancellor and friends, what we need is not the capping of these scientific efforts of ours but the crowning of these efforts with success. In that way only we can be true to our intellectual heritage, our cultural heritage and our glorious record for the service for advancement of humanity. On this occasion may I congratulate this Institute, congratulate all the students, who have received their degrees, or are immediately going to receive their degrees and who are getting high honours for the distinctions, have achieved during the time you have spent in this Institute. I should also congratulate in advance, Dr. Abdul Kalam, for the honorary degree that he is going to receive here. May I end by wishing the brilliant products of this Birla Institute of Technology, the young scientisits, the young technologists, who are coming out of it, every scope, every success in the application of the knowledge, they have gained and gaining for themselves and for our country glory and success.
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