Dear Editor,

I am a research scientist with Intel Corp. I was born and brought up in India. I would like to share with the public my thoughts on and concerns about the importance of scientific research and regional equity in ensuring regional economic growth, national prosperity and unity. Please free to edit the material to fit the editorial needs.

 

Best Regards,

Priyadarsan Patra

Intel Labs, Portland, OR, USA 97229

 

 

 

“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”

US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Second Inaugural Address, 1937.

 

Much has been said recently about the fairness, culpability and the broken promises about establishing a National Institute of Science (also called IISER) in Orissa. From a different perspective, I argue that such an institute is critical to the development and international competitiveness of the region, nay, the nation as a whole.  A World Bank report affirms that higher education is more than the capstone of the traditional education pyramid; it is a critical pillar of human development worldwide. In today’s lifelong-learning framework, tertiary education provides not only the high-level skills necessary for every labor market but also the training essential for teachers, doctors, nurses, civil servants, engineers, humanists, entrepreneurs, scientists, social scientists, and myriad personnel, and supports the production of the higher-order capacity necessary for development.

 

The state of Orissa is one of the most economically disadvantaged states in India. Research carried out by a joint team from PRAXIS – Institute for Participatory Practices and Action Aid, Bhubaneshwar and supported by DFID, profiles some of the complex inter-linkages between subsistence agriculture, drought, land alienation, indebtedness and migration in Orissa. In another study, speaking of the first Human Development Report of India, T.K. Rajalakshmi says, “One very important indicator that reflects the state of economic well-being is per capita consumption expenditure. It is well accepted that the distribution of consumption expenditure between food and non-food items reflects the economic well-being of the population. Poor households are expected to spend substantially on food items as against non-food items… in Assam, Bihar and Orissa, the share of food items out of the total expenditure remained rather high.” Orissa is no doubt a major state in terms of population and size, and the abundance of natural resources, and yet the table below shows a glaring disparity and neglect in her economic state of development. Yet, the regional disparity in higher-education spending by the union Human Resources Ministry is as high as 40:1. As a more common example, the central spending per head in Karnataka is Rs. 25 versus Rs. 4 in Orissa and Bihar.  The market economy of today transforms a large nation such as India into a true microcosm of the globe, where each region must compete and fend for itself – a country within a larger country -- except that a lot of fiduciary, regulatory control and power is concentrated with the Central Government. Thus, equity and thoughtful strategy are ever so important.

 

HDI/HPI

Orissa

India

Human Development Index Value 2001 (calculated only for fifteen major states)

0.404

0.472

Human Development Index Rank 2001 (out of 15)

11

 

Human Development Index Value 1991

 0.345

0.381

Human Development Index Rank (out of 32)

28

 

Human Poverty Index 1991

49.85

39.36

Human Poverty Index Rank (out of 32)

31

 

Gender Disparity Index Value 1991

0.639

0.676

Gender Disparity Index Rank (out of 32)

27

 

 

 

Institutes of higher education have a few primary and inter-related purposes: (1) Meet the learning needs and aspirations of individuals through the development of their intellectual abilities and aptitudes, and equip individuals to make the best use of their. (2) Provide the labor market, in a knowledge-driven and knowledge-dependent society, with the high-level of competencies and expertise necessary for the growth and prosperity of a modern economy, starting at the regional on to the national level; to teach and train people to be successful in entering the learned professions, or to pursue vocations in administration, trade, industry and the arts, etc.

Because of the growing realization of importance of institutions of higher education, the economic development policy-makers are increasingly attempting to draw universities and colleges into their strategies. Research lays the long-term foundations for innovation, which is central to improved growth, productivity and quality of life, and arrests the “brain-drain” to the far-away places (Orissa seriously suffers from this malady). This applies not just to the scientific and technical knowledge. Research in the social sciences and the arts and humanities can also benefit the economy – for example, in tourism, social and economic trends, design, law, and the performing arts. There are certain native, natural products, the flora and the fauna, regional skills and expertise that need be leveraged, and the regional development that need be addressed by a geographically close and locally identifiable institute of scientific research excellence.

 

There are many different ways an institute of higher education and research can contribute: involvement in local and regional partnerships; student placements in local businesses and the tying of student projects to the needs of businesses and local community groups, links with local business and industry through targeted training and research consultancies; the establishment of research incubators, of science parks, of quasi autonomous R&D companies and the commercialization of research via spin-off companies, and through its wider role as part of a network of knowledge industries to attract investment from overseas and out-of-state.

There is already strong evidence of socio-economic benefits of linkages though integration of a new institution of higher learning into a regional development strategy. Take for example the young University of Oulu in Finland which has become one of the best universities in all of the Nordic countries despite being located in a remote area close to the Arctic Circle. The rural region of Oulu has been transformed into a high-tech zone where symbiotically coexist the several winning companies such as Nokia, the science parks dedicated to applied research in electronics, medicine and biotechnology, and the 13,000-student university.

 

In the post-industrial, knowledge economy of today, higher-education holds the greatest promise for economic progress and promotes unity. Unrest, imbalance, and insecurity from disparity in the higher-education investment debilitates progress and unity.

The importance of an “equitable India” was also emphasized in a recent speech by the Hon. Prime Minister. Establishment of a national institute of science or equivalent in Orissa region will go a long way in creating that equitability and in feeding the engine of longterm progress.

 

 

References:

Constructing Knowledge Societies: New Challenges for Tertiary Education. A World Bank Report. 2002.

GREEN PAPER ON HIGHER EDUCATION TRANSFORMATION, South Africa Dept. of Education

http://www.undp.org.in/Programme/undpini/factsheet/Orissa.pdf

http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/ncihe/r9_167.htm

http://www.equitableindia.org