The Hindu : National : Knowledge is the key to prosperity, says Sam Pitroda

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 14, 2005

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National

Knowledge is the key to prosperity, says Sam Pitroda

Arunkumar Bhatt

"Demography and diversity unique advantages"

Sam Pitroda

MUMBAI: India can be the Mecca of knowledge that it used to be and knowledge could be the key to prosperity, says the National Knowledge Commission Chairman, Sam Pitroda.

"People have started coming to India for healthcare, a heart surgery costs here one fifth of what it does in the United States and [the] same can happen in the field of knowledge, if we create the right infrastructure and strengthen our universities," Mr. Pitroda told The Hindu . But the real capital for the knowledge generating industry is the human resource.

"You have [a] huge amount of human capital. You can easily have a hundred girls and boys doing doctorate in mathematics in the country and [in a] few years the country can become a maths centre engaged in advanced research and teaching. Others would not have so many talented persons to spare at a time," he said. "The demography and diversity of Indian society are the two unique advantages."

The father of the telecom revolution in India is confident that the stimulation of knowledge creation, dissemination and application activities would result in meaningful, challenging and engaging work to a large number of people. Their activities would percolate down and also spread to other fields such as agriculture and industry. Mr. Pitroda is for far greater Government spending on primary education, diverting funds from higher education. This would result in a better lot of students reaching higher levels and bring about qualitative improvement there too. Higher studies would become costlier and that would make students take them more seriously.

But the challenge is to take such hard decisions. The Knowledge Commission is now engaged in discussing how to go about reservation of seats for the underprivileged and backward. It is considering, what Mr. Pitroda calls, affirmative action programme in which the emphasis would not be on the quota but on the employers taking responsibilities.

"Today, it [upward mobility of the underprivileged] is the responsibility of only the government. Let it be everybody's," he said.

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