The Hindu : Patents for peace and happiness

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 13, 2003

Opinion

Opinion - Leader Page Articles

Patents for peace and happiness

By M.S. Swaminathan

Indian scientists should be encouraged to assign their patents to a bank to be used for the common good.

FROM THE beginning of time, science and technology have been key elements in the growth and development of societies. Entire eras have been named for the levels of their technological sophistication: the stone age, the bronze age, the iron age, the age of the sail, the age of steam, the jet age, the computer age, and the age of genomics and proteomics. We are now on the threshold of the nano-age. Unfortunately, the scientific revolution is taking place at a faster pace than social evolution. As a result, there are growing divides — demographic, digital, gender, genetic, technological and economic. The rich-poor divide is widening and jobless economic growth, best described as joyless growth, is spreading. Although skin colour-based apartheid has ended, technological and economic apartheid is growing.

The transformation in the agricultural scenario is the product of a blend of professional skill, political will and farmers' labour. Unfortunately we are tending to forget that balanced diets and safe drinking water constitute the first among the needs of a human being. We conveniently find scapegoats such as the World Trade Organisation for problems arising from lethargy and inaction at home. In the period from Marrakesh to Cancun, 1994 to 2003, there has been very little effort and investment in enhancing agricultural efficiency and competitiveness. Indian agriculture is becoming a gamble in the market, in addition to being a gamble with the monsoon. The failure of the Cancun negotiations has provided a breather to set our house in order. There is no time to relax on the front of enhancing agricultural competitiveness, since agriculture is not only the backbone of our food, livelihood and ecological security systems but is also the very soul of our national sovereignty.

We need urgently in rural areas revolutions in productivity, quality, value-addition and diversification. Quality literacy in terms of developing the know-how and infrastructure needed for the adoption of appropriate sanitary and phytosanitary measures and codex alimentarius standards is an urgent need. Poverty will persist unless major progress is achieved in making unskilled workers skilled, and a third of the rural population is shifted from on-farm to non-farm enterprises. The ongoing micro-credit supported micro-enterprises revolution can be sustained only if supported by linkages with both markets and with universities and research institutions.

The world is facing a predicament that is three dimensional. Over three billion women and men the world over, struggling to survive with an income of less than $2 per capita a day, are crying for peace and equitable economic development. Countries in southern Africa, and Ethiopia, Afghanistan and North Korea are in the midst of serious famines. In India, the severe debt burden of small farmers in some areas takes the form of suicides. The Roman philosopher Seneca said 2,000 years ago, "A hungry person listens neither to reason nor religion, nor is bent by any prayer."

Thus one aspect is the craving for peace, and development which is equitable in social and gender terms. On another side, there is a growing violence in the human heart. Terms such as ethnic cleansing and biological and biochemical terrorism are being widely used in the media. The revival of smallpox is becoming a possibility. The nuclear peril has again raised its head. There are over 30,000 nuclear weapons in the arsenals of major and minor nuclear <243>powers. The availability of large quantities of highly enriched uranium increases opportunities for nuclear adventurism.

The third side is the spectacular progress of science and technology, resulting in the increasing technological divide between industrialised and developing countries. If access to technology has been a major cause of economic inequity in the past, the challenge now lies in enlisting technology as an ally in the movement for social and gender equity. This is where our universities can play a catalytic role.

In the report of the International Commission on Peace and Food, which I chaired, released in 1994, we had anticipated a substantial peace dividend, following the end of the Cold War and collapse of the Berlin Wall. This has not only not materialised, but also expenditure on military hardware and internal security is increasing day by day, particularly after the tragic events of September 11, 2001 in the United States and similar events in our country, including the recent deplorable attempt on the life of the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu.

Contemporary developmental challenges, particularly those relating to poverty, gender injustice and environmental degradation are indeed formidable. However, the remarkable advances now taking place in information and communication technology, space and nuclear technologies, biotechnology, agricultural and medical sciences, and renewable energy and clean energy technologies provide hope. Genomics, proteomics, the Internet, space and solar technologies and nanotechnology are opening up uncommon opportunities for converting the goals of food, health, literacy and work for all into reality. It is, however, clear that such uncommon opportunities can be realised only if the technology push is matched by an ethical pull. This is essential for working towards a world where both unsustainable lifestyles and unacceptable poverty become features of the past.

Also, there is a growing mismatch between the rate of progress in science, particularly in the area of molecular biology and genetic engineering, and the public understanding of the short and long-term implications. There is an urgent need for institutional structures, which can inspire public confidence that the risks and benefits are being measured in an objective and transparent manner. Scientists and technologists have a particularly vital role to play in launching an ethical revolution. The Pugwash movement, which I now have the privilege to head, is an expression of the social and moral duty of scientists to promote the beneficial applications of their work and prevent their misuse, to anticipate and evaluate the possible unintended consequences of scientific and technological development, and to promote debate and reflection on the ethical obligations of scientists. Rabelais once said, "science is but the conscience of the soul". It is the enduring task of our universities, which are the breeding grounds of leaders who will shape our future, to ensure that science and technology are employed for the benefit of humankind and not its destruction.

We now have a Global Convention on Biological Diversity to help in the conservation and sustainable and equitable use of biodiversity. We need urgently a similar Convention on Human Diversity. While a Convention alone will not be able to halt the growing intolerance of diversity, particularly with reference to religion and political belief, it will help foster a mindset that regards diversity as a blessing and not a curse. Both biodiversity and human diversity are essential for a sustainable future. The human genome map shows that over 99.9 per cent of the genomic constitution is the same in all members of the human family. Our universities should help to spread genetic literacy.

It is also necessary to reflect on methods of giving meaning and content to the ethical obligations of scientists in relation to society. The World Conference on Science held at Budapest in 1999 called for a new social contract between scientists and society. With a rapidly expanding Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) atmosphere in scientific laboratories, the products of scientific inventions may become increasingly exclusive in relation to their availability, with access being limited to those who can afford to pay. The rich-poor divide will then increase.

How can we develop a knowledge management system, which will ensure that inventions and innovations of importance to human health, food, livelihood and ecological security benefit every child, woman and man, and not just the rich? Probably all our universities, under the umbrella of the University Grants Commission, could set up a patents bank for peace and happiness. Scientists and technologists from all our universities and public research institutions should be encouraged to assign their patents to such a bank, so that the fruits of scientific discoveries are available for the public good. Such a Patents for Peace and Happiness Bank would stimulate scientists to consider themselves trustees of their intellectual property, sharing their inventions with the poor in whose lives they may make a significant difference for the better. The French Mathematician, Marquis de Condorcet, who was a contemporary of Thomas Malthus, said over two centuries ago that the human population will stabilise itself if children are born for happiness and not just for existence. The Government of Bhutan has taken the lead in developing a Gross National Happiness Index, based on the economics of human dignity, love of art and culture and commitment to spiritual values. Making all well-to-do members of the human family regard themselves as trustees of their financial and intellectual property, will be essential for fostering a human happiness movement. The 21st century holds great promise for advancing the human condition provided there is an appropriate blend of technology and public action.

(Based on the convocation address delivered by the writer at the University of Madras recently.)

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