Non-strategic R & D

Last week, the distinguished scientist Dr T Ramasami, a Padma Bhushan awardee and former Secretary of the Department of Science and Technology of the Central government, rightly stressed the need for non-strategic research and development (R&D) while delivering a lecture as chief guest at a function organized to celebrate National Technology Day at CSIR-NEIST in Jorhat. Speaking on the topic “Role of Non-strategic Research and Development: In Shaping the Future of India”, he reiterated the significance of National Technology Day and dwelt on many important aspects of how the non-strategic R&D sector can play a vital role for bringing sustainable development goals. The key word when it comes to development in a developing economy like India is sustainable – whether the development roadmap is only short-term and myopic even as it appears outstanding, or whether it is viable in the long run for future generations to benefit. The latter holds the key to a developing economy’s aspiration to be a developed one, and India is exactly one such economy competing with China to emerge as the best one within the next decade or so.

Harping on the imperatives of non-strategic R&D, Dr Ramasami said the Fourth Industrial Revolution is about non-strategic R&D. He emphasized that the technologies of such revolution must ensure that they are equitable for the society, bearable for the planet, and viable for the economy. He also dwelt on the challenges and opportunities for the non-strategic R&D sector in the northeastern setting. But what is non-strategic R&D in the first place, and how is it going to help the development-starved Northeast chart out a sustainable peace-and-progress trajectory? It is easy to infer that any research-and-development initiative that caters to the needs of the society beyond the imperatives of defence, or military hardware, or anything typically strategic, including, of course, internal security, is non-strategic in nature. Here comes the role of business models that are region-specific and that have the inherent potential to augment growth in the Northeast. As Dr Ramasami rightly said, a non-strategic R&D initiative must take into account whether it is bearable for the planet, implying that the environmental costs of development cannot be overlooked. This is extremely crucial to any development paradigm in the Northeast whose ecosystem is that much fragile and susceptible to reckless exploitation. Which is to say that a cooperative approach to Nature – its many bounties – holds the key to sustainable development in the Northeast. The region, so very rich in biodiversity, cannot lag behind other regions of the country in the matter of reaping the benefits of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which, unlike other such previous revolutions, depends heavily on issues such as climate change, especially global warming, for it to be just and equitable for all sections of the society. The million-dollar question, nonetheless, is whether the State governments of the region are aware of the imperatives – including the dos and don’ts – of non-strategic R&D so that the region follows a path of capacity, or capability, building and of sustainable development without inflicting wounds on Nature. Does not the issue of mega dams in the region – especially in the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh zone – too come in the reckoning then, given especially the frequency of tectonic activities underneath that pose a huge earthquake challenge to the region? Clearly, when it comes to non-strategic R&D, the issues in hand are far more challenging than what is apparent in the strategic R&D sector. Experts need to be roped in – beyond the generalist bureaucracy of the day – to advise the governments of the Northeast along the right and tangible direction.