The Hindu : `Use S&T to attain freedom from hunger'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 28, 2003

National

National

`Use S&T to attain freedom from hunger'

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD NOV. 27. The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hyderabad, Kota Harinarayana, has stressed the need to equip young men and women with the capacity for creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship and leadership, particularly in science and technology, for India to take its rightful place in the comity of nations.

Delivering a special address at the 125th Anniversary Celebrations of The Hindu here today, he said that science and technology impacted all spheres of society and was the backbone of national security and economic vitality. The rich and industrial nations which formed only one-third of humanity consumed 83 per cent of all material resources of the earth, leaving only 17 per cent to the two-thirds of humanity constituting the poor nations of the world.

Dr. Harinarayana said that while developing and utilising science and technology for growth and improvement in the quality of life, there was an absolute need to guard against the excessive consumerism, commercialism and selfishness of the so-called developed world. While India got freedom in 1947, the real freedom from hunger could be achieved by using science and technology.

Dr. Harinarayana, who was the Project Director of the Light Combat Aircraft, also underscored the importance of designing in making world class products and cited how the LCA as the world's smallest and lightest multi-role combat aircraft was indigenously developed in the face of sanctions.

K. Anji Reddy, Chairman of Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, said the values of science — rationality, accuracy and objectivity — permeated the pages of The Hindu and all its reporting and as in science, its opinion and conclusions were fact-based, rather than the espousal of prejudice and dogma.

He said The Hindu's weekly Science Supplement was an outstanding contribution. The scientific temperament of The Hindu partly explained why it was such a great institution. It always had the wisdom and courage to set an agenda for itself and the nation whenever occasions demanded.

Dr. Reddy urged the newspaper to give special consideration to two values, that of "tolerance" and the "art of giving". "We are painfully aware of the price the nation is paying for intolerance. By practising intolerance, we are robbing our children of their rightful inheritance of justice, opportunity and dignity in civil society."

"The Hindu has a glorious tradition of the hospitality of its columns to a plurality of views and celebrating the diversity that is the wealth of the nation," he said adding that "I would urge it to continue on this sometimes difficult path".

Giving was not charity. It was repayment of a debt to a society. His own experiment with this blossomed into a gratifying experience called LABS (Livelihood Advancement Business School) where a number of business and corporate leaders were contributing to the effort of providing access to sustainable livelihood opportunities. They expected the effort to lead to the creation of one million livelihoods by 2010, he said.

Recalling his own experiences as a reader of The Hindu, he said he had once shot off a letter to the newspaper commenting on the futility of research by a CSIR laboratory on the development of a particular technology for isolation of the Nux Vomica alkaloid, when three Indian companies were already manufacturing it. The Hindu not only published the letter, but also editorially commented on it, he said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National