"Empires of Future will be Empires of Mind"

Before we take a careful look at the subtle shifts in Indian Science Policy framework in last fifty years let us go five decades back and recall one of the very very significant clauses of Science Policy Resolution 1958, Para 3:
It is only through the scientific approach and method and the use of scientific knowledge that reasonable material and culturtal amenities and services can be provided for every member of the community, and it is out if a recognition of this possibility that the idea of a welfare state has grown.
It is charateristic of present world that the progress towards the practical realisation of a welfare state difefrs widely from country in diret relation to the extent of industrialisation and the effort and resources applied in the pursuit of science.


Then Technology Policy Statement, 1983 recognised that key to successfully develop indigenous capability in technology demands a conscious integrated approach covering technology assessment, development,, acquisition, absorption, utilization and diffusion and connected aspects of financing, based on overall national interests, priorities and the attainment of the most challenging technological goals.


Further, in recent years Science and Technology Policy, 2003 this shift becomes more visible... To ensure that message of science reaches every citizen of India, man and woman, young and old, so that we advance scientific temper, emerge as a progressive and enlightened society, and make it possible for all our people to participate fully in the development of science and technology and its application for human welfare. Indeed science and technology will be fully integrated with all spheres of national activity.

Going ahead adding the emphasis in another clause S& T Policy says;
There is growing need to enhance public awareness of the importance of science and technology in everyday life, and the directions where science and technology is taking us. People must be able to consider the implications of emerging science and technology options in areas which impinge directly upon their lives, including the ethical and moral, legal, social and economic aspects. In recent years, advances in biotechnology and information technology have dramatically increased public interest in technology options in wide ranging areas. Scientific work and policies arising from these have to be highly transparent and widely understood.
Support for wide dissemination of scientific knowledge, through the support of science museums, planetaria, botanical gardens and the like, will be enhanced. Every effort will be made to convey to the young the excitement in scientific and technological advances and to instill scientific temper in the population at large. Special support will be provided for programmes that seek to popularize and promote science and technology in all parts of the country. Programmes will also be developed o promote learning and dissemination of science through the various national languages, to enable effective science communication at all levels. A closer interaction of those involved in the natural sciences and technology, social sciences, humanities and other scholarly pursuits will be facilitated to bring about mutual reinforcement, added value and impact.


I consider above listed three beliefs and policy objectives have consistent flow in itslef. In 1958 we recognised power of scientific approach and believed that it is capable to make us realise the idea of welfare state. Again in 1983 we underlined the might of technology competence and self reliance in technological capabilities which can reduce vulnerability, perticularly in strategic and critical areas. The year 2003 marks the necessity of public understanding of science and value of participation in the stream of scientific and technological progress of the country. In this context I share with you about the workshop "CREATION AND DISSEMINATION OF KNOWLEDGE" sponsored by Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Ministry of Science and Technology during New Delhi 27-29 July 09.


Inugerating the workshop Dr. Jyoti Bhat who is technical adviser in DSIR tried to ignite the minds about the need of communication. She said, "People always feel need of new knowledge. This new knowledge always leads to development of new capabilties by inspring the younger generation to move towards careers in science and technology. This emotional transition which is marked by urge to have new, sophisticated, state of the art knowledge is hallmark of this emerging society. When people crave for accurate, relevant and structural knowledge it shapes Human Capital Transformation in a sense it directs the efforts of communicator in developing Intellectual assests for organisations. This knowledge creation and transfer happens in three stages:
a) From scarce capabilties to knowledge transfer
b) Knowledge adaptation and dissemination
c) Cross border knowledge creation and transfer
Here she laid emphasises on need of collaboration being the urgent strategy of the organisations, departments, industries and a nation as a whole. She stressed that for effective knowledge utilisation, strengthening economic and institutional regime, developing educated and skilled workers, creating efficient innovation system and building dynamic information infrastructure are the strict imperatives.

To move in this direction bearing strategic perspective one needs to visualise the urgent and pressing need of : enhancement of knowledge base, awareness building about science-technology issues, building of more Technology Management Resource Centres, Curriculum Development about Innovation, recognising the role of teachers in inspiring new generation towards science and technology, more imaginative and modern media for information dissemination. setting up of the academic chairs promoting research environment !!!


Prof. Ashok Chandra who is Director of Centre for Managing of Innovation and Technology, IMI shared his experiences of formulating the National Education Policy, 1986. He said, "We must treat process of policy formulation as utmost importan rather than result of policy formulation. The identification of the numerous stakeholders and timely participation of the all people will certainly give birth to mature consultation and the draft coming out of the deliberations will be of immense acceptance value and reach due to prior interaction. He advocated that we should use the process of policy formulation for effective communication and thus to educate about ingredients of the technical issues involved in the subject of debate. Any policy is reflection of agenda of diverse interest groups involved in that process. Thus differing viewpoints must be reconciled and thus harmonisation in Policy Objectives can be achieved. All social, cultural and economic spheres in that specific context must be considered for that matter. Thus likewise policy always respond to the external changes and the revised and reviewed policy must have some tangible committment in terms of deadline and quantitative targets in terms of performance-productivity index.


Dr. Vinay Kumar, former Adviser to MoST stressed upon "Freedom of Expression" in the organisation leading to innovation. He emphasised on Management support to new ideas, motivation-award policy, toleration of failure, positive outlook and exposing employees to new experiences and directions.


Dr. Naresh Kumar, Head, R&D Planning Division, CSIR described in detail about the emerging platform of Open Source Drug Discovery(OSDD- OSDD is a CSIR-led Team India consortium with a global partnership. It's vision is to provide affordable healthcare to the developing world by providing a global platform where the best minds can collaborate & collectively endeavor to solve the complex problems associated with discovering novel therapies for neglected tropical diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, leishmaniasis, etc. It is a concept to collaboratively aggregate the biological and genetic information available to scientists in order to use it to hasten the discovery of drugs. This will provide a unique opportunity for scientists, doctors, technocrats, students and others with diverse expertise to work for a common cause.) His focus was "Information in Open Source Domain: A Tool for Knowledge Creation and Dissemination for new drug of TB". He emhaised again and again that the wisdom does not lie only in the four walls of the organisation, it is always scattered outside. Our challenge is to get , organise and disseminate that information for betterment of the initiative for which organisation is striving.

He said that present IT infrastructure, connectivity and high throughput analysis capability makes OSDD possible. Going ahead he threw light on the shifting paradigms of Computational Biology. In traditional biology where things were shaped by classical, basic experimentation in low throughput where animal studies were having prominence in this new OSDD knowledge sharing model, research in Combinaitonal Chemistry, Genomics, Proteonomics, Metabolomics, Biotechnology is enhanced by high throughput analysis and molecular imaging. To support this massive initiative to discover new drud for T.B. due to which one person per minute is being killed in India and there has been no credible drug discovered uptill now after 1966 marks the strategic significance. While explaining this "Open Model of Knowledge Access", he laid immense stress on OPEN SYNTHESIS while organising knowledge addressing TARGET MOLECULE which in turn will pass through SCREENING to finally move towards DRUG DEVELOPMENT before we allow PRE-CLINICAL AND CLINICAL TRIALS by Contract Research Organisations.


P. Banerjee, Director, NISTADS spoke about Organising Scholarly Community while realisng the responsibilities of proffessional occupation like to create knowledge, to develope the skills and to nurture the attitudes of proffessionals. He said that dynamism of organisation depends not on devising new produciton function but to devise new channels by which continous learning and regeneration of ideas is possible. In a hierarchic organisaion it is always possible that bundling and unbundling of the information may be done by the seniors or established people while if given chance juniors may come out with wondeful ideas. While it should be remembered that traditional approaches of creativity based on the diktat and authority are collapsing the proffessional standards and disciplinary boundaries are new masters of the innovation.


He further said that proffessional spirit is weakest in India compared to best practises in the world. He cited his study about mindset of Indian Research Laboratories in forging active collaboration for research inside city, outside city and across the national borders. He consistently pointed out with proven facts that Indian Researchers are not even willing to share information (let alone knowledge ?) across the walls in the same research organisaitons as Science Citation Index and other Indexes indicate toward reluctance of Indian researchers in citing fellow scientists compared to enthusiasm of Chinese in doing so about their fellow Chinese scholars. This in comparison with China, he said, is also sadly true about degree of investment per scientific Human Resource, number of conferences being held, ability to spend the allocated money, number of scientific instruments being purchased, number of guest faculties being invited to Indian Universities and Research Institutes, growth of proffessional bodies in the country and most importantly REALISING THE COLLABORATION POSSIBILTIES.
Eventually to highlight the features of robust research system which India needs to develop, he stressed upon a) Improvement of research performance, b) Improvement of research quality and c) Improvement of Innovation Performance.


To leave all of you lingering in spiral of thoughts:
It was 50 years ago this May that Snow, an English physicist, civil servant and novelist, delivered a lecture at Cambridge called “The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution,” which was later published in book form. Snow’s famous lament was that “the intellectual life of the whole of Western society is increasingly being split into two polar groups,” consisting of scientists on the one hand and literary scholars on the other. So why did Snow think the supposed gulf between the two cultures was such a problem? Because, he argues in the latter half of his essay, it leads many capable minds to ignore science as a vocation, which prevents us from solving the world’s “main issue,” the wealth gap caused by industrialization, which threatens global stability. "

Ultimately one can`t help but recall the verbatim of Winston Churchil that "Empires of the future will be certainly empires of the mind...!!!"


====================================================================



# Questioning old beliefs and realising that nothing is absolute and certain in life compells us to communicate perspectives we have reposited on the mind being nourished everyday by infinite data, innumerous information, questionable knowledge and doubtful wisdom.

# Ability to cope up with the uncertainty and lateral thinking is another powerful tool which is symbol of efficient thinking ability of the persons to take first decisive steps to convey their point of view about the state of affiars he/she is interested in.

============================================================================

A Report on International Workshop on Nanotechnology and Advanced Functional Materials

Held in National Chemical Laboratory, Pune during July 9-11, 2009:


Nanotechnology cannot be viewed in terms of dimensions alone. In fact, it represents a convergence of the traditional disciplines of physics, chemistry biology at continuously evolving research frontier. This is an area which is having highly promising prospects for turning fundamental research into successful innovation. Miniaturization of the experimentation and precision in intervention at the atomic level is the hallmark of progress in research of Nanotechnology. During the past decade the field of Nanotechnology has emerged as a frontier research area due to it's enormous promise for novel applications to diverse fields of human endeavor such as Bio-medical sciences (drug delivery, therapy, hypermedia, advanced imaging), defense (smart and light systems). Aerospace (engineered surfaces and composites) agriculture, energy and advanced device systems, special paints and coating etc.


Intense research which is now in progress worldwide is directed at realizing this promise via controlled nano-synthesis, appropriate functionalisation of nano-materials, self assembly or templated assembly of nanostructures, integration of nanomaterials with other materials to generate functional nano-composites, development and implementation of novel devise concepts highlighting the special quantum features of nano-materials and so on.


The chief attraction of the workshop was highlighted by the galaxy of the Speakers who delivered talks. In his plenary talk Prof. C.N.R. Rao from Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, discussed the need to work on the interface between water and an organic liquid which according to him has not been investigated adequately for preparing nano-crystals and thin films of materials. His research consisting of liquid-liquid interface provides an excellent medium for preparing ultrathin nanocrystalline films of metals, metal chalcogenides and oxides.


Paul S. Weiss from the Pennsylvania State University Park talked about the use of molecular design, tailored synthesis, intermolecular interactions and selective chemistry to direct molecules into desired positions to create nanostructures apart from connecting functional molecules to the outside world. Anupam Medhukar from University of Southern California tried to communicate the ability to synthesize nanostructures of a wide variety of inorganic, organic and bio-organic materials. According to him, this ability enabled the designed fabrication of functional nano-systems with increasing sophistication in their architecture and expanding arenas of applications. These applications will help to reveal new approaches to addressing important issues of human environment and health. This will be possible from new paradigm for solar energy conversion to nanoscale real-time imaging of bio-makers of intracellular processes in live cells to manipulating or endowing cell function.


Nano science and nano-technology is not simply a continuation of miniaturization from the micro to the nano scale, respectively. Nano is different. The transition from micro to nano is a disruptive step, a discontinuous continuation, in many ways: in component size, in technologies, in analytics, in material properties, and in concepts. Nano-science and nano-technology stand at the confluence of classical and quantum mechanical properties and behavior and of a multiplicity of fields such as condensed matter physics and technology, macromolecular chemistry, and biology. Nano-mechanics and nano-chemistry are forging new pathways between the 'virtual' world of data processing of all kinds, including mechanical, chemical and thermal processing, and the 'real' world of sensing and actuation, bringing about a pervasive wave of new, integrated processing, sensing, and actuation technologies.


Work done by Gwangmin Kwon from Hanyang University in Korea et al reflects on ongoing minuiaturization in size and integrity of electronic and mechanical devices which lead to an interest in the fabrication of nanometer-sized uniform structured on surfaces. This technique will be an easier method for metal deposition onto the specific area under atmospheric condition. India has to visualize the potential of these types of "nanomanufacturing technologies" that will be essential in the time of full-scale application of future nanotechnology through a series of possible research efforts listed below:
a) To construct the basic technologies for efficiently manufacturing nanodevices and nanomaterials --- the design, fabrication and pattern transfer of nanostructures, the highly-reproducible and large-scale production of nanomaterials, nanomanufacturing using self-organization, and the evaluation and inspection of nanostructures.

b) To develop machines to realize above-mentioned nanomanufacturing processes and thus implement the developed nanomanufacturing technologies for various applications.

c) To investigate phenomena related to nanomanufacturing based on nanoscale science, and feed back the knowledge to the nanomanufacturing technology.

d) To innovate the manufacturing technology of various devices, systems and materials based on nanoscale science. For example, improvement of reproducibility and uniformity by understanding the interactions between tools in a broad sense and workpieces at nanoscale, develop sophisticated and environmentally-friendly manufacturing process based on nanoscale chemistry.


Some of the Frontier Areas of Nanotechnology Research are:
1) To fabricate devices by combining top-down processing and self-organization.
2) Establishment of ultra-high resolution printing technology and advance its practical applications.
3) Establishment of nanoetching technology and advance its practical applications.
4) Applying nanoimprint technology to various materials and advance its practical applications.
5) To develop innovative photo-lithography technology and laser processing technology.
6) To develop processing and inspection technology using super-parallel beam/probes.
7) Establishment of innovative bonding technology through nanosurface modification.
8) Establishment of organic synthesis technology to create nanostructures.
9) To invent new Miro-Nano Electromechanical Syatems (MNEMS) process and advance its practical applications.
10) Establishment of nanocoating technology.
11) Establishment of ultra-precision machanical processing technology with nanometer accuracy.
12) To develop next-generation nanoprocessing and nanoinspection machines.
13) Drastic improvement of the throughput and reproducibility of nanomaterial processes.
14) Establishment of large-scale nanomaterial production method.
15) Establishment of defect repairing technology for nanostructures.
16) To develop technology for the precise arrangement of biomaterials and apply the technology to biochips.
17) To produce nanomaterials and biomaterials using nanofluidic chips.
18) To fabricate new devices by integrating various nanoprocessing technologies.
19) To clarify the mechanism of self-organization, and control the self-organization.
20) Drastic improvement of manufacturing efficiency and reduce environmental burden through nanoscale science.
21) To clarify the interactions between tools in a broad sense and workpieces using nanotechnology.



Nitin Padture from the Ohio State University, Columbus, USA elaborated on recent results and concepts about 3-D ceramic/single wall carbon nanotubes compositers that posses unprecedented, hierarchical grain boundary structures. These nanocomposites are beginning to show promising mechanical properties that could be tailored; toughness, strength, contact damage resistance, and high temperature creep. In, addition, the unique grain-boundary structures of these nanocomposites could allow tailoring of their electrical and thermal properties independently, offering true multifunctionality.


Strategic significance of the workshop is understood if we glance through the areas in which current work of nanotechnology is being explored. At present, advanced photolithography, nanoimprint (nanopattern transfer), ink jet nanoprinting, scanning probe processing and measurement, laser nanoprocessing and nanomeasurement, self-organization, bioprocesses, microreactors etc. are studied as nanoprocessing technology. Nanodevices and systems such as ultra-high density LSI, nanobiochips and MEMS/NEMS and various nanomaterials are being studied. Consequently, a number of promising ideas and seeds have been generated. However, it has become clear that one important issue to be solved in the application and development of such ideas is to build the highly-efficient mass-production methods.


The scientific justification of this strategic sector is that the development of nano-measurement technology has made it possible to scientifically understand various phenomena at nanoscale. Technologies such as functional scanning probe microscopy, infinitesimal material identification, the ultra-sensitive measurement of surface-adsorbed materials, ultra-sensitive force measurement and nanoscopic positioning have been and continue to develop. These nano-measurement technologies have facilitated the scientific understanding of various phenomena seen in manufacturing processes at nanoscale.


In the presentation titled ‘Quantum Wells and Quantum Dots for Functional Devices’; S.B. Kripanidhi from Indian Institute of Science described his work in the context of recent progress in top-down lithograpjy, colloidal chemistry, and epitaxial growth have made it possible to fabricate structures in which carriers are confined in all three dimensions to a nano-size region of a semiconductor. The 3-D carrier confinement and the near discrete route of bound states are ideal for implementation of infrared detectors and energy related applications.


Amongst other notable presentations some were: Light Emitting Quantum Clusters of Gold and Silver (T.Pradeep, IIT Madras), Nanowire for logic and photovoltaic applications (Supratik Guha, IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center), Functional nanoscale materials for devices (J.V. Yakhmi, BARC), Template based synthesis of nanowires and nanotubes of metal oxide and molecular materials and experiments on single nanowire (A.K.Raychaudhari, S.N.Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata), Metal nanorod arrays: Modern solutions for classical problems(Pushan Ayyub, TIFR, Mumbai), Hybrid Solar Cells: Wet-chemical process for nanocrystalline semiconductor thin films with water soluble conducting polymers (Wonjoo Lee et. al., Hanyang University, Korea), Synchrotron based characteristics of advanced materials (Xingyu Gao, National University of Singapore), Designing superior piezoelectric ferroelctrics through nanostructured materials science (Nagarajan Valanoor, University of New South Wales,
Australia).


This workshop marks the important transition phase in Indian context. As the world, mainly USA, EU and Japan has taken giant strides in the direction of development of novel devices from the quantum nanotechnology, our country has to take serious dedicated steps in the direction of long-term basic research on self-assembly/organization and surface/interface science, young researcher training programs and the importance of user facilities for interdisciplinary exchange. Also, this workshop underlined the urgency to reshape our orientation towards “complex nanosystems,” “three-dimensional measurements with excellent temporal resolution in engineering-related fields” and “convergence of science, engineering and technology at the nanoscale.”


The promise of nanotechnology can only be realized if robust, reliable devices can be constructed which have predictable functional and mechanical properties. While at the macro scale we know how to measure the requisite properties that can be used to predict mechanical reliability, straightforward tests don’t exist as the size of devices and specimens approaches the nanoscale. There are also serious questions raised as to whether the properties themselves are size dependent. Mechanisms of failure and the character of the flaws from which failure initiates can also be different for materials at the nanoscale. The coming world is the world of Electronical, Biological devices which are based on these applications of nanotechnology. Welcome to the world of Nano BioElectronics !!!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Indian Science Budget 2009-10

Substantial quantitative hike in science budget needs generational transformation...

Kindly consider following for the instance:

a) There is high-urgency to scale up the investment in frontier areas of scientific research and matching converging technology to that research like Material Sciences, Genomics and Bio-Medical, Renewable Energy Research and many areas likewise. We have not started to look towards many emerging possibilities of scientific research let alone the budgetary allocations.

b) Our scientific research budget even cannot be compared to budget of Multinational companies like Pharmacology company Pfizer which has research budget more than that of India`s total R&D budget.

c) The discovery of new drugs and their development into useful pharmaceuticals is central to the concept of medical progress. Remembering that Indian government has created separate Dept. of Medical Research and it has got 562 crores compared to 462 crores last year, the OSDD and other efforts of DSIR for invention of new drugs and pharmaceuticals; remains stand-still as Government allocations for drugs and pharmaceuticals research stands decreased from 100 crores in 2008-09 to 96 crores in 2009-10.

d) Remembering that Defense research has many civilian research spin-offs, fresh news report about Defense Minister's submission this month in Parliament reflects that for 70 % of Military technology and equipments procurement India is still dependent on foreign companies and self-reliance is still long way to go.

Different cheerful stories kept propping up about positive Philip Indian Government gave after the Annual Financial Proposal was tabled in Parliament in the first week of the month. “India hikes science budget despite slowdown” (Nature), “The Rebirth of Indian Science” (Business World), and “India pours funds into climate, space research” (Sci-Dev Net) have applauded Government on increase in science budgets.

India`s scientific research continues to rise to the occasion by realizing the challenges of fundamental research, link between research and undergraduate education, frontier areas of research in coming years. But looking at the the vast demography, expansive consumer market and rapidly growing higher education opportunities we are well behind the human resource development of all the sectors compared to the emerging and established countries in scientific research.

While Atomic Energy (from 1703 to 2730 crores), DRDO (from 3413 to 4787 crores), Space (from 2181 to 2828 crores) and Agriculture (from 2501 to 3135 crores) remain the pivotal sectors of Indian Scientific Research the new emerging areas are being given conscious attention. Climate Change, Ecology and Environment related investments are up from 682 to 955 crores while Oceanographic research will have it`s expanded share in the form of 519 crores up from 321 crores in 08-09.

Major thrust areas like Nano-science, Nanotechnology and Bio-Science and Bio-Technologies are witnessing transitional change in the national approach towards high-tech areas which are characterized by serious and expensive fundamental research. DST recently launched Energy Bio-sciences Research centre in University Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai. While National Mission on Nano-Science and Nanotechnology could not secure beyond 130 crores in 09-10 compared to what it got 145 crores in 09-10 the Department of Biotechnology also saw marginal increase from 821 to 912 crores in current fiscal.

Looking at the last three year trend by tracing the data provided by Statement I – Consolidated Fund Of India - Revenue Account – Disbursements estimates for 2007-08 FY were revised from 8596 Crores Rs. to 7321 Crores Rs. In 2008-09 this proposed allocation(unrevised) went on to become 9208 Crores Rs. This FY 09-10 sees the hike upto 12, 716 Crores Rs. There is one observed and uncomfortable indicator to the aspect of spending of Science budget allocations. Majority of the funds allocated to the basic and industrial science research are facing reduction in the following revised estimates compared to the other ‘Strategic’ sectors like Space, Atomic Energy and Defense which normally are spending more in revised estimates vis-a-vis other scientific bodies.

This raises two important questions. It is not entirely right to raise the doubt on efficiency of other scientific research institutions to spend money but it is observed that compared to the Strategic research institutions they are being little behind in comprehensive spending out of the allocated money. Secondly why we are not able to adapt to demand to initiate large scale public research programs and centers of excellence which will really address to the concern of apparently small but day to day problems of Indian life. Debate of Big Science and Little Science continues to harass the budgetary allocations whenever we watch the sharp divide between civilian and defense research balance tilting towards latter one.

While the trend in spending continues to be encouraging and there are some concrete reasons for the rejuvenation of research system due to the schemes which are launched rapidly in last two years such as formation of new central universities, new Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Indian Institute of Technologies, National Science and Social Science Foundation (NS3F) as well as National Foundation for Science and Engineering (NFSE). With an annual budget of Rs 1,000 crore. On the front of Human Resource Development it should be noted that we are spending money but not significantly. There are scholarships of INSPIRE, Young Scientists Programe of DST/DBT, UGC-CSIR JRFs/SRFs but those are minuscule when we look at the negative enrollment, completion and progress reports of the science students throughout their journey in graduation, post graduation and at research level. Government must devote extraordinary attention towards HRD in Science-Technology-Innovation because no committed research is possible unless and untill bright incentives are provided at early age.

India will not be able to respond confidently to the policy changes are being taken worldwide if we do not address the problem of research funding at two levels. Firstly Our failure in motivating private sector to contribute their money towards research is hampering the development of fundamental research in our public funded research institutions. Considering the pros and cons of the debate associated with “Utilization and Commercialization of Public Funded Research Bill 2008” it should be emphasized that new mode of knowledge production will arrive only when Govt-University-Industry will actively work when the fundamental research is directly linked to entrepreneurship, innovation and economic development of the nation based on the supportive funds provided by governments. Enactment of ‘Science and Engineering Research Board’ in Dec. 2008 was very positive development in this regard.

Secondly, we have to establish and fund more research alliances and knowledge networks in order to make cascading effect out of investment in HRD consisting of more and more Ph.Ds, These formal and informal research networks must be empowered by government in order to inspire themselves for more steps in the direction towards venture capital Culture. These people then will really come up with valuable suggestions on how we can transform the picture of spending in Scientific Research will move forward from 0.8 % of GDP to ahead compared to 3.1 % of Japan, 2.7% of USA, 2.5 % of Korea and 1.2 % of China.

National Knowledge Commission has amplified this already magnified problem of HRD in these words: “ If India is to make the transition to a Knowledge economy, it is therefore vital that research and development within the country be dramatically improved. There is ample evidence that India is not well-placed for this future transformation. For example, in many disciplines, there is already a severe shortage of well-trained young doctorates to fill in existing posts in research institutes and universities. This problem is likely to be even more acute in the envisaged elite new universities.” In this respect it should be noted that proposal for Scholarships in Science in Higher Education is lowered by 85 crores in 08-09 budget to mere 40 crores in 09-10 Financial Statement.

==============================================================================

Total Solar Eclipse 22 July 2009 Photographs

Click Here:

http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/world/solar-eclipse-sweeps-across-asia/20090722-dsrc.html

“Climate Change Challenge for Critically Vulnerable Coastal Areas”

New Delhi: (17^th July 2009)

New recommendations to take better action on draft Coastal Management Zone 2008 are accepted by Ministry of Environment and Forests here today. The committee headed by Dr. M.S. Swaminathan and comprising of Ms. Sunita Narain, Director CSE along with two Ministerial Secretaries. presented their report to Minister of Environment and Forests.

Key features of the recommendations has now made the draft Coastal Management Zone Notification 2008 irrelevant. Instead whole action regarding Coastal Zone Management will be oriented by the founding principles inherent in original CRZ notification 1991. Key features of these new recommendations are:

1. Check violations to CRZ through improved space technology enabled enforcement, strengthened institutions, and regulatory and legal reforms.

2. Enhance protection to fishing communities and families for habitat and livelihood secity through amendments in CRZ notification
3. Resolve issues regarding the development and redevelopment of Mumbai, based on local specific amendments
4. Introduce regulations to manage proliferation of ports along the coasts with possible impacts on coastline by considering cumulative impacts of these developments
5. Introduce tighter standards for disposal of effluents in coastal waters so that these water does not become cheaper alternatives to inland pollution management
6. Introduce new management regimes in the Andaman and Nicobar as well as Lakshwadeep islands after careful deliberation and discussion
7. Introduce any new protection regime-such as critically vulnerable new areas after careful deliberate understanding of the impact of the conservation policies on local communities, particularly fisher families
8. Strengthen protection of Mangroves based on clear definitions
9. Include the seaward side to ensure protection from current and future threats, but with safeguards to ensure there is no restriction on livelihoods of fishing communities.
10. Introduce measures to greatly strengthen research and regulatory capacity at all levels.
11. Introduce policies to cope with and adapt to the future dangers from sea level rise and increased vulnerability of the coasts.

The recommendations have distinctly identified the priorities of new approach towards Coastal Zone Management in the form of ‘Conservation’, ‘Sustainability, ‘Equitable use of natural resources of coastal areas’. Although new measures have been suggested for more enhanced use of Remote Sensing techniques for reporting and stopping of new violation of coastal regulation norms, Minister has mentioned it clearly that any violation which will threaten to create humanitarian crisis of large scale displacement will not be the prime concern of the executive. This is in direct interest of 25 % of population which resides within 15 km range from sea coast.

The government has moved from Coastal Zone Management (CZM) through Regulation in early nintees to CZM through planning upto the CZM notification 2008. By citing the 35 nationwide consultations about this issue conducted jointly with Centre for Environment and Education Government is claiming that Czm 2008 was very open for subjective interpretation and the The recommendations clearly mark the shift as it points out at the Preventive Approach by developing quality research base and ensuring introduction of new protection regime about critically vulnerable coastal areas. This realization is significant considering the fragility of Indian coast from the perspective of both recent security breaches and Climate Change Threats.

Considering the recommendations of committee about using satellite and information technology to map the coast and to monitor real time violations taking place, it has been suggested to MoEF that it should institute a national level programme to map the coast and to develop technology that can inform authorities of changes and violations as and when they occur. According to Prof. Saumitra Mukherjee, (Head, Geology & Remote Sensing, Jawaharlal Nehru University) Indian peninsula which is surrounded by water from three borders is witnessing seismic shift of five meters in northern direction every year. He also said that India is making full use of it's current potential of Remote Sensing capabilities through Oceansat I and Oceansat II but still we are lacking the exact resolution which is desirable for detecting violations in more accurate manner.

Referring to his own experience, Dr. Mukhearjee was concerned about how the deep divide between the scientific expertise and the executive authorities are making the it more difficult to solve the any impending crisis by informed judgment. As per his belief India is witnessing good research focused on Coastal and Climate Change related issues but the lack of linking agent between expertise and policy making bodies, we are not able to rebuild our skilled human resources towards solving problems which are anticipated by research much earlier than emergence of debate about the complex issue Coastal Zone Management which requires multiple expertise from all fields of sciences.

To strengthen the research base by expanding the institutional framework at all the levels is also prime concern of legendary experts working in this field. In this direction, Ministry has proposed to establish National Coastal Zone Management Board the approval of which is pending with the Ministry of Law and Justice. Also, the proposal of new National Institute of Sustainable Coastal Zone Management is in the process of finalization. Let us hope that these newly proposed bodies will really help to visualize the intellectual foundation of newly envisaged protection regime of Critically Vulnerable Coastal Areas. This knowledge base as the report maintains will be used to address the question of identifying, classifying and conserving of critically vulnerable coastal areas including national parks, marine parks, sanctuaries, reserve forests, wildlife habitats, mangroves, corals/coral reefs, areas close to breeding and spawning grounds of fish and other marine life, areas of outstanding natural beauty, historically/heritage areas, areas rich in genetic diversity, areas likely to be inundated due to rise in sea level consequent upon global warming etc.

Emphasizing the role of research in regulating, planning and preventing any further problems in coastal areas the role of information, warning and monitoring becomes of paramount significance. As Committee Report notes, “Currently there is huge gap in data collection, information and more importantly using the knowledge for policy and practice change. This will be only possible after the capacity development of current coastal research mechanism which involves both fishers and environmentalists. !”

===========================================================================

COPENHEGAN CALLING: Another Paradigm Shift at UN Summit for adaptation to International Climate Change Policy Regime ?

=====================================================================================

Abstract:

This paper tries to trace the thinking processes which influenced contribution of United Nation Systems in formulating the discourse and International Legal Regime of Environmental Issues and Climate Changes. This paper has been inspired by Silent Spring written by Rachel Carson in 1960s where she warns us about how difficult will be our journey while dealing with environmental crises. She says, “The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lays disaster. The other fork of the road…offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth." (Page 277 of Silent Spring) Further, this brief study tries to focus on how the initiatives of United Nations motivated different periodic summits which guided International Policy Making Institutions to finalize (1) holistic perspectives, (2) agenda setting, (3) regime formation, (4) regime effects, and (5) transnational networks.

=====================================================================================




Origin of National Awareness about Environment Legislations on Global Scale:

First major post-second world war effort in this direction was launched with the leadership of UNESCO in 1948; ‘International Union for Protection of the Nature’. The seeds of further cooperation were sown when United Nations Conference on Conservation and Utilization of Resources (UNCCU) was launched. This conference laid emphasis on ‘continuous development and techniques of conservation’


At the end of 1960s; scientific studies raised general public awareness of dangers threatening the biosphere. The resulting mobilization of public opinion was unfrequented in two ways. First, it was grass roots phenomenon, only later founding a power base when several governments officially adopted environmental policies. Second, movement was transnational from the beginning. The global grass roots effort emerged from a changing philosophical and ethical consensus, incorporating new ethical and social values in reaction to new Post War “Consumer Society”, Rejecting traditional ideologies that to the degree that they were seen as materialistic, the ecological movement spanned all political factions and political parties. In consequence, many environmental laws were adopted unanimously by national legislatures.


The Power of ‘Technical Communication, Leadership Initiative and Awareness Building’:

The major contribution Rachel Carson and Loren Eiseley made in their critical writings about the nature not being mechanistic and there is certain limit to it’s efficiency really made international community to think in the direction of visualizing the future degradation of natural resources and limiting the human intervention through different instruments of developments i.e. industrialization.

The required leadership for establishing that “Earth is one but World is not” was given by United Nations. In late sixties when whole world was dealing with the different pollution challenges, United Nations initiated in General Assembly for comprehensive review of concept of Human Accountability towards nature and protection of human rights through the virtue of conservation and preservation of natural resources and environment.

In order to create massive institutional mechanism to ensure the timely information dissemination and education media, Stockholm Conference directed United Nations to create diversified platforms such as WHO, FAO and UNESCO. Further this year gave rise to Paradigm Shift in how world looks at environmental issues and this was emphasized by creation of United Nations Environment Programme. (UNEP)

The success of United Nations in organizing the international community on one table is noted by Oran Young. He contests the analytical perspective of science and technology dealing by dividing the problems into subparts and rewarding efforts to tackle them separately by experts. He asserted the ‘holistic perspective which recognized interdependencies and linkages among large clusters of factors.’ Going ahead he emphasizes the uncertainty and bargaining possibilities’ in interdependent consultative and decision making mechanism. He maintains, “Central prerequisites for regime formation are a thick veil of uncertainty, the existence of solutions that are both salient and acceptable to all participants as equitable, the existence of clear cut and reliable compliance mechanisms, exogenous shocks and crises, and individual leadership.”


New Approaches to Environment and Development :
‘Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future’ laid the foundation for further introspection regarding New Approaches to Environment and Development. This report realized that human progress depended on technical excellence and an ability for cooperative action directs to strengths deployed to achieve development and environmental progress: in different pollution control and in increasing the energy efficiency.
In a major intervention, Brudtland Report observes that failures to manage the environment and to sustain development threaten to overwhelm all countries. Continuing the much needed holistic line of enquiry and thinking which we discussed above, Commission emphasized repeatedly Environment and development are not separate challenges; they are inexorably linked. This understanding was based on evolution of international consensus that Development cannot happen when a depleting resource base and the environment protection cannot happen as growth goes out of account the costs of environmental degradation. These problems cannot be treated separately by fragmented institutions and policies. They are linked in a complex system of cause and effect.


Regime Effects:
Different institutional mechanisms powered by niche expertise in the specific areas of development, economics and environment enabled United Nations to really utilize the resources for the coordination of the efforts of understanding the gravity of problem. This is being done consistently by institutionalized coordination of research and periodic assessments of the relevant discipline, the existence of ongoing forum for addressing issues, the systemic collection review and assessment of national policies.


Question of Coordination:
Different mechanisms for awareness building and participation are built in some countries to get involve a wider range of social actors into debate, communication and interaction, there are very few who are capable to shift power away from groups supporting a less proactive version of Sustainable Development. Environmental policy is globalized now looking at total no. of agreements coming into force regularly. Global trade, signified most pointedly by the power of the WTO, now observes as a locus for disputes over environment and development priorities, a move that in effect deprioritizes the environment as a focus of serious political action.


Just as the representatives to Stockhom wrestled with seemingly competing issues of environment and trade, so did the policy-makers at Rio. In the twenty years between the two summits, trade/environment debate did not wane but rather intensified. This growing tension warranted further exploration of institutional remedies; thus it became apparent that any future world conference would have to treat environment and development issues simultaneously and that coordination rather than reconciliation of these two issues would be the challenge.


Historical analysis suggests that coordination and institutional needs for environment and sustainable development issues have changed according to the three periods demarked by Stockholm, Rio and Johannesburg. Today institutional landscape has become so complex that it is longer sufficient to think of coordination and institutional arrangement through a singular approach, such as creating ‘World Environment Organization’ though some European countries tried to do it unsuccessfully in later 1990s.


Salzburg Consensus formed after seminar in 1991 which was part of Rio-conference preparation reflects: “States in principle with the UN Charter and the principles of international law, have the sovereign right to use their own discretion addressing to their own environmental and developmental concerns, and with commitment to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to the environment of other States or of areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction.”


Multilateral Environmental Agreements:
Despite their variety in subject matter and geographic scope, environmental treaties have common characteristics, use similar legal techniques and often are interrelated. The main features they share are 1) An absence of reciprocity of obligations 2) Interrelated or cross-references provisions from one instrument to another 3) Framework agreements
4) Frequent Interim Application 5) The creation of new institutions or the utilization of already existing ones to promote continuous cooperation 6) Innovative compliance and non-compliance procedures and 7) Simplified means of modification or amendment


Some scholars have identified the weaknesses in the multilateral environment treaty making: First of all, representative privileges do not guarantee that all countries and interests are taken care of. Also, politics surrounding scientific facts and perspectives are not balanced to ensure well reasoned understandings to codify in agreements. There is some observed lack of linkages among the concern over implications of environmental hazards and other adaptive policy approaches. Going ahead this criticism observes that effective monitoring and enforcement arrangements are not implemented.


Most environmental treaties are initiated by international organizations lead by United Nations. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has been major driving force to produce Convention on Ozone Layer in 1985 and Basel Convention later in 1989. The Earth Summit which was officially conducted under supervision of UN Conference on Environment and Development but it was moreover a product of UNEP`s efforts. Though Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties between States and International Organizations or between International Organizations 1986 does not specify who should initiate the efforts in the direction of treaty making, treaty enforcement and indicting the states who are not following the states, the United Nations is equally responsible for creating global awareness and realization to enforce international consensus in responding to the widespread challenge of environmental degradation.

Consensus building for UN Conventions and Protocols:
An initial approach of scientific evidence is established in series of expert meetings. These meeting also discuss draft framework convention. Subsequent meetings of signatories focus on preparation of detailed protocol. Convention-Protocol approach allows countries to “sign on” at the outset even if there is no agreement on the specific actions that must be taken. Even if Convention does not set the targets or timetable the subsequent meetings will consider the results of ongoing and evolving scientific inquiries and evidence so as to explore the possibility of adopting specific implementation measures. In the mean time some countries voluntarily adopt the standards of implementation mechanisms and this really affects the future negotiations of the international treaty negotiations and enforcement.. Because the efforts of the countries trying to set some norms in consistency with the internationally agreed Convention sets criteria of applicability in actual in following time period.


Post- Rio and Agenda 21:
The Earth Summit resulted in Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Convention on Biological Diversity and Convention to Combat Desertification. Based on these documents, significant efforts are being made to reverse the tide of environmental decline. While the importance of these agreements and like many other agreements should not be minimized, what is missing is the holistic perspective and approach not only to environmental problems per se, but also to how they are connected to fundamental trends of economic globalization. Always environment is addressed in isolated manner completely different from economic approaches. There is fundamental inconsistency between uneven environmental regulation systems and comprehensive character of environment itself.

According to the Principal Two of the Rio Declaration: “States have, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the principles of international law, the sovereign right to exploit their own resources pursuant to their own environmental and developmental policies, and the responsibility to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to the environment of other States or of areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction.” This was the first serious effort on international level to develop consensus on front of International Environmental Jurisprudence.


Continuing our discussion about Convention-Protocol approach actually motivates “hard bargaining” tendency and does little to discourage the countries to misrepresent their interests. It is not designed to encourage countries to separate the tasks of having mutual gains from the task of securing agreement. Further it focuses more on informal alliances, agreements, coalitions before formal meeting. These are well known negotiating problems often surfaced in international treaty making.

Few countries maintained the resources for developing technically sound and politically informed perspectives on every policy issue which has aroused globally. Some officials involved in the institutions concerned with the changing environmental policy regime express their unhappiness about regular international briefings or strategic advice being not available to countries which need them. These could be provided by transnational scientific associations, international businesses organizations, and consortia of non-governmental organizations and most importantly different services of United Nations. Some analysts have observed that there are no efforts made in Agenda 21 to develop the capacity in developing countries.


Factors influencing International Environment Policy Regime:
The economic goal of trade liberalization and environmental policy are the same. Both policy interventions ultimately aim to promote structural economic change. It has inherent trade element in it and all the major initiatives regarding Benefit Sharing in Convention on Biodiversity and Carbon Trading in UNFCC are driven by clear focus on economic component of environmental policy. The entire argument about comparative advantage in strengthening production system to make countries more competitive in globalised economy in trade literature is being applied to changing policy regime of environment. Moltke says that “…the implied criteria of efficiency are different in trade (productivity, economies of scale, cost reduction) and environment policies (conservation, environmental quality, emission reduction)” Going ahead confidently Moltke asserts that the international agenda is no longer dominated by the perceived needs of security and ideology. Rather, it is increasingly defined the needs of an emerging international civil society supported by both economic policy and environmental management.


Moving towards understanding of implications of current Environment Regime:
International environmental management presents a substantial challenge to established innovative approaches to dynamics of construction and operation of international relations. International environment policy responds to different dynamics than those to which security or economic policies respond. The conflict between trade and environment policy creates a number of challenges to international governance. It has to be realized that plethora of international environmental agreements and regime of environment management is still to come up with clearly visible and tangible channels of enforcing comprehensive measures of environmental processes of conservation, preservation and sustainable development which go beyond any trade related aspects.


The biggest decisive factor is unpredictability and uncertainty of physical nature of Climate Change. This understanding is arriving due to grave realization about the nature of evolution of environmental regime. There are many issues which truly overlap with other policies which may attract conflict with other members of international environment negotiating framework e.g. trade, strategic policies, consumer policies etc. Also, environmental agenda is based on uncontrollable developments in the natural environment and frequently driven by unanticipated occurrences. Secondly scientific knowledge about environment is also continuously evolving. So addressing these issues in a time phased short term and unpredictable longer term presents us a biggest challenge to explore the solution to our problem of understanding complex, multivariable analysis of Climate Change.


Conclusion:
While all this analysis has been covered in literature published up-till now, it will be interesting how the new negotiations round to be taken up in Copenhagen at this year end will evolve in new possibilities. As described earlier about clarity in targets, it is the aim of the UN that the UN climate conference in Copenhagen agrees on a deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol, as it has no targets on emissions reductions further than 2012.

International Community is hoping to achieve some results in this direction by addressing following questions: 1) How far are the developed and industrialized countries ready to cut emissions of GHGs.? 2) Upto what extent major emerging economies China and India will limit the growth of their emissions? 3) What is the financial mechanism (help) is going to come to deal with reduction of GHGs and adaptation. and 4) What are the probablities for financial management and procurement in this regard. With last two questions clearly directing towards the trade issues once again, it remains to be seen whether or not we will be able to curb the curve of the greenhouse gas emissions before 2020... We have to watch carefully whether in Copenhagen we recall the proverb “Promises to keep and dreams to be fulfilled!” or we end up in asserting once again pessimistic message of “Promises to forget and dreams to be shattered!”
===================================================================

References:

[1] Sands, Philippe; Principles of international environmental law, Cambridge University
Press, 2003

[2] Kiss, Alexandre and Shelton, Dinah; International Environmental Law, United Nations
Environment Programme, 2004, Transnational Publishers, Inc

[3] Michael A Bryson. (2003). Nature, Narrative, and the Scientist-Writer: Rachel Carson's
and Loren

[4] Eiseley's Critique of Science. Technical Communication Quarterly, 12(4), 369-387.
Retrieved June 7, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 551572171)

[5] Oran Young, International Governance: Protecting the Environment in a Stateless
Society, Ithaca, N.Y. Cornell University Press, 1994, 221 pp.

[6] Michael Zurn, The Rise of International Environmental Politics: A Review of Current
Research, World Politics, Vol.50, No.4, (1998), pp. 617-649

[7] Victor, David G., Abram Chayes, and Eugene B. Skolnikoff. "Pragmatic Approaches to
Regime Building for Complex International Problems." In Global Accord: Environmental
Challenges and International Responses. Edited by Nazli Choucri. Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press, 1995, pp. 453-74.

[8] Lafferty, W., Meadowcroft, J. (Eds.), Implementing Sustainable Development: Strategies
and Initiatives in High Consumption Societies. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 422–
459, 2000

[9] Chambers, W. Bradnee, Interlinkages and Effectiveness of Multilateral Environmental
Agreements, (P. 24) United Nations University Press, 2008

[10] Susskind, Lawrence; Environmental Diplomacy: Negotiating More Effective Global
Agreements, Oxford University Press, 1994

[11] Human development and the environment : challenges for the United Nations in the new
millennium / edited by Hans van Ginkel, Brendan Barrett, Julius Court, and Jerry
Velasquez, Tokyo : New York : United Nations University Press, 2002 pp.284

[12] Moltke, Konrad Von; Institutional Interactions: The Structure of Regimes for Trade and
Environment, Global Governance, Drawing Insights from the Environmental Experience,
ed. Oran Young, The MIT Press, 1997 , pp. 250

[13] Agenda of UNFCC for Copenhagen 2009