Science declines but tech advances

Brilliant scientists like CNR Rao,scientific advisor to the prime minister, can be dead wrong. They say thatIndian science and technology are in crisis. Nonsense, technology has never beenin better shape. Rao complains that scientists and engineers are leavinguniversities and government labs for private sector companies (mainly insoftware). High attrition of scientific staff is hobbling Indian space anddefence programmes.

Promising scientists are migrating.India’s share of published scientific papers is falling: Rao says it isdown to barely 3% against China’s 12%. In the first half of the 20thcentury, CV Raman won the Nobel Prize, and SN Bose along with Einstein devisedthe Bose-Einstein statistics. Nothing similar happens now.

Raoargues that Indian science needs a big step-up in government R&D budgets,higher retirement age in universities, and the slashing of red tape. I agree.But I think this problem pales in comparison with India’s phenomenalsuccess in becoming a global hub for brain-intensive services and manufacturing.Pure science may be in trouble, but Indian technology is booming as neverbefore, and that is far more important.

Tata Motors developed theIndica, beating global rivals like Fiat’s Palio. Tata Motors is now set toproduce a one-lakh rupee car, the cheapest quality car in the world. This is amajor technological feat.

Our software industry is set to becomeworld number one. Starting from low-end software, Indian companies have risen sofast and competitively up the ladder that price earning ratio of the Indian triois higher than for the American trio. Corollary: the Indian companies willprobably take over the American giants in due course.

Reliance canbuild oil refineries at 66% of the cost in the US or Europe, and so has thehighest refining margins in the world. Brain-intensive manufacturing has madeIndia world class in small cars and auto ancillaries. Hyundai, Suzuki and nowNissan have made India a centre for global export production.

Indiahas developed high skills in computer-aided design and manufacturing, and intooling. This has sparked a boom in auto ancillary exports, which could cross $2billion this year. Bharat Forge can go from concept to prototype to commercialproduction in three months, against six months or more abroad. Superior skillshave enabled it to take over rivals across the world, and it should be worldnumber one by 2008.

Multinationals are rushingto India to set up R&D centres. The list includes General Electric, IBM,Suzuki, Hyundai, General Motors, Timken, Astra Zeneca and Texas Instruments.General Electric’s Bangalore lab is its second biggest in the world, andhas helped attract back to India many scientists who had earlier migrated.

Shanta Biotech and Biocon have established India as a force inglobal biotechnology. Reliance Life Sciences has been recognised by the USNational Institutes of Health for stem-cell research. Tata Steel’s skillshave made it the second cheapest steel producer in the world, so giants likeCorus wants to be taken over by it.

Fifty years ago, theworld’s most economic two-wheelers from Piaggio gave 27 km/litre ofpetrol. Today, Bajaj Auto and Hero Honda have developed indigenous models givingover 100 km/litre. They have thrashed global giants Honda and Yamaha who areused to producing gas-guzzlers abroad. Bajaj once used technology from Kawasakibut now produces much better technology itself.

Less high-profilebut more significant may be the mushrooming of new companies to do contractR&D for global ones. Divi’s Labs and Vimta Labs are some new stars inthis firmament.

So, R&D in government labs may be in trouble,but it is booming in the private sector. In the bad old licence-permit raj,companies had no incentive to do R&D. But competition induced by economicreform means that R&D is crucial to survival. That has changed everything.

Patent applications in India have shot up from 4,000 in 1995 to17,000 in 2004. Under Dr Mashelkar, the government’s CSIR labs havedeveloped R&D partnerships with private sector companies, a promising wayforward.

Why, then, do some scientists bemoan the decline and fallof science? Some (though not all) have the old Soviet mindset, glorying aboveall in indigenous technology in nuclear energy, missiles and space. Sovietscientists got unlimited sums for strategic goals, without having to worry aboutcost-effectiveness.

This helped them make missiles and nuclearbombs. Alas, this approach was not conducive to producing the most elementaryconsumer goods of decent quality or price. The Soviet Union couldn’tproduce competitive wheat or textiles, machinery or trucks. This led ultimatelyto its economic and political collapse. That vividly illustrates the verylimited relevance of space and defence technology for a country’swell-being.

India needs, above all, technology that benefitsconsumers through improved products. So, I cheer the fact that India has becomea global power in brain-intensive services and manufacturing. Our technology waslousy in our scientific heyday when CV Raman won his Nobel Prize. We are muchbetter offtoday.

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