Sustainibility Science and Sustainable Innovation

"Adaptation to climate change has emerged as one of the most important concerns in the global development agenda. How we adapt, and the solutions we create to overcome the adverse impacts of climate change must be developed locally, while being supported by regional and global knowledge and experiences. For adaptation strategies to evolve locally, local human resources and technical capacities should be developed, particularly in the vulnerable regions of the world. This can be achieved through postgraduate education, where the necessary research can be conducted in partnership with implementing agencies and local communities.

Currently, the knowledge gap on adaptation is vast. Knowledge and expertise remains primarily at the international level and is failing to reach those in the developing world who need it most. Higher education institutions in developing countries do have a critical role to play. To enable this, closer cooperation is needed between higher education institutions, through partnerships, interdisciplinary research, student and faculty exchanges, and collaborative degree programs. These would connect stakeholders and support the sharing of experience and data necessary for effective adaptation in the Region."

Bearing strong belief expressed above, United Nations University has organised a three day conference about "Role of Higher Education in adapting for Climate Change" during 10-12 June in UNU, Tokyo. Organisation of this conference marks significant development because of new and very recent realisation to define the ‘Sustainability Science’ as an emerging discipline that seeks to understand the interactions within and between global, social, and human systems, the complex mechanisms that lead to the degradation of these systems, and the concomitant risks to human well-being and security.

It also seeks to provide the vision and methodology that will lead to the restoration global, social, and human systems. A particular challenge is how to transform the educational system and process to make this possible. The goal of sustainability education (Education for Sustainable Development, ESD) is to equip the younger generation with leadership skills, management capabilities, and the broad knowledge needed to create the new systems that can lead to global sustainability.

To remain open for redefining our traditional concept of sustanibility is very crucial. This urgency has been amified by Uncertainty in Climate Change. Garry D. Brewer in his analysis has dealt with probable Uncertainties involved of every conceivable sort.(Inventing the future: scenarios, imagination, mastery and control published in Sustainibility Science of Springer in 2007) He says, "As the time frame into the future extends, uncertainties essentially dominate conventional theories, tools, experiences, habits, processes, and so forth. The scientific consensus linking human activity to climate change is now all but settled according to The Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The consensus says little, however, about who should be doing what and for what reasons under this singular, even unique circumstance. There are no data about the future on which to rely. We are challenged to imagine many different and possible “futures” as humankind seeks to exert its mastery and control."

Prof. Kazuhiko Takeuchi, Vice Rector of UNU and Director of Institute for Sustanibility and Peace is one of the founding architect of this new thinking. He explains how the new approach of 'Sustanibility Science' which is also a Journal edited by him, can change our traditional perspective of problem solving.In current mode of addressing specific problems we are adopting piecemeal approaches. However considering the massive complex problems of Climate Change we should adopt holistic approached discussed above.

The Integrated Research System for Sustainability Science of the University of Tokyo (IR3S-http://en.ir3s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ir3s)is established with active partnership with UNU after emerging consensus that existing academic inquiries based on the traditional reductionism are not adequate for resolving our complex and intertwining contemporary problems, and therefore we need some form of "structuring of knowledge" in order to overcome these problems. Sustainability is typical of issues that require the application of "structured knowledge. Hiroshi Komiyama, Executive Director, IR3S maintains that the IR3S will promote education and research in Asia, which in every sense holds the key to understanding and solving these pressing problems.

The Conference stressed on developing coping strategies through different novel initiatives in Higher Education. The different speakers emphasised need to adopt Adaptation strategies which are Anticipatory, Public and Planned. In this regard new role of Social Scientists was debated. The ability of intellectual and leadership community to cope stress and change will be decisive factor in responding to the UNCERTAINTIES of Climate Change. There was vigorous discussion about how to develop capability by fostering new alliances of more and more platforms of interdisciplinary research. There is urgent need to start new wave of research partnership with development agencies. This will really help affected communities to recieve information, guidance and vision from Development agencies to deal with the crisis in real time situation. In this respect role of higher education becomes extremely critical as it is the primary source to provide the wise leadership and knowledgeble courage to develop the gravity of perspective.

Going ahead in coming days Concept of Sustainable Innovation is bound to be discussed again and again. Sustainable Innovation is being looked from the prism of Environmentally and socially creative ways of expanding productivity and creating economic opportunities. Sustainable innovation means balancing our developmental needs with our planet’s ecosystems and environmental limits over the long term (without compromising the needs of future G).This type of innovation inclueds Functionality, Efficiency, Aesthetics, Minimal Cost and so on...

The principal elements of this new orientation to Innovation will be 1)Guiding technologies to create opportunities for jobs and income for all in a sustainable manner, 2)Belieivng that innovations can create opportunities to fight poverty and improve quality of life, 3)Exploring the possibilities of innovations to lower ecological footprint, especially carbon footprint on our planet,4)Developing a concerted global compact to develop and use clean and zero emission technologies and 5)To visualise new probablities of Transfer and diffusion of such technologies in LDCs by using appropriate local knowledge.

So, there is New Innovation Dynamics emerging in times ahead !!!
Prof. Govindan Pariyal whoi is Director of Institute of Advance Studies believes that this new dynamics hopefully will bridge the gap between science and research with societal needs (social & technical innovation). New approach has tremendous potential to sustainably bridg downstream applications to ustream research discoveries. It is increasingly believed that moving beyond price signals for market clearance, let innovation to its evolutionary selection mode. It is clear that private sector will not allocate resources under the existing incentives structures without the visible hand of the government & civil society. Therefore there is need of bold taxation and regulatory measures. So, 'Open innovation' and 'user-producer interactions in manufacturing processes' are the biggest buzzwords of new century.

In coming postings we hope to discuss these issues in detail. Till then; have a pleasant feel of Monsoon in India !!!

"We're better, you know it." (Blue Ray) Vs "We're evolutionary, not revolutionary." (HD-DVD)

During the rampant financial crisis, Japanese companies are facing severe challenge to minimise the losses. As The Economist noted on 14th May 2009: " Toyota reported its first annual loss in 71 years, of ¥437 billion ($4.3 billion), reversing a record net profit of ¥1.71 trillion a year earlier. Hitachi suffered a ¥787 billion loss. Toshiba lost ¥343 billion and wants to raise ¥500 billion in fresh capital. Around 30% of Japan’s 3,820 public companies are expected to post losses for 2008, according to Nikkei, a financial-news service. So dire is the situation that the Diet, Japan’s parliament, passed legislation in April authorising the government to help bail out struggling companies. Pioneer, an electronics firm, and Elpida, a chipmaker, are said to be angling for ¥80 billion between them.

Since many days I was curious to know about long stand-off between Blu-ray and HD-DVD standards. Both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD drives use a blue-violet laser with a wavelength of 405 nanometers, as compared to a red lasers 650 nanometers. This shorter wavelength light can be focused into a smaller spot, allowing engineers to cram more data within a given space. Together with tighter track density and other enhancements, the blue-laser capability boosts capacity far beyond 4.7-gigabytes of a conventional DVD.Blu-ray stores more information than traditional DVDs and has more storage capacity than HD DVD (50 GB vs. 30 GB on a dual-layer disc).

Recently, the Blu-Ray Disc Association (BDA) has created a taskforce to ease the “integration of 3D technology into the Blu-ray Disc format”. Its ultimate aim is to define a standard for stereoscopic 3D content on a Blu-ray Disc, but nothing’s yet been mentioned about how this will be achieved or when such a standard could come into force. The BDA claimed that the format is “the ideal platform for bringing 3D technology to mainstream home entertainment”, thanks chiefly to its “flexibility and incomparable picture quality”. Its storage capacity will help too, we'd say. Executives from the film industry, and from the consumer electronics and IT sectors, will make up the taskforce. Blue-ray 3D films sold with cardboard red and blue glasses are already available. But it’s possible that the BDA taskforce will look towards higher quality options when defining the standard, such as shutter glasses



While reading these recent reports in the month of May and June; hours after a interaction with Mr. Hirotsune Akamatsu, General Manager, Enginnering Planning Division of Toshiba, I am eager to share with you the 'Technology Management' approaches adopted by Toshiba as one of the leading representative of huge Digital Media Network Industry of Japan. In Feb 2008 it was clear that High Definition DVD will represent one of the quickest ever option for competing formats and may effectively hand the entire HD movie format war to chief opponent of Toshiba, Blu-ray. The rapid fall began with movie studio Warner Bros.' plan to drop HD DVD just before the Consumer Electronics Show in January 08, which handed a clear majority of HD movies to Blu-ray and forced the HD DVD Promotional Group to cancel its keynote presentation for the event. The shift led to a sustained marketshare lead for Blu-ray almost immediately afterwards and spurred several independent studios to echo Warner's Blu-ray only policy.


In this context Mr.Hirotsune was analysing the formation of DVD Consortium in 1996. He talked about Patent Portfolio of Toshiba, Consortium of DVD manufactureres in Japan which was founded to avoid the conflict of different standards and the mechanism of commercialisation of specific technology with the help of institutionalised mechanism which is run by the force of mutual interests of different partner companies in the same industry.This consortium has three main divisions of operation. One at Policy level, other at Legal level and third at Technological level.


Among the core constituents of the Consortium, Policy group consisting of different Corporate Managers are responsible to define and initiate future strategy for entering in new technology areas. Legal team takes care about having common approach towards avoiding Anti-Trust cases consuming the huge time and tremendous cost of the partner industires and also IPR and compliance isssues. Technology group tries to address the benchmarks, standards and compatibility issues by envisioning possible conflict and technological viabilities. Blu-Ray Disc Association (BDA) works under the Task Force and Secretary Office followed by deputy offices of Joint Technical Committe, Compliance Committe and Promotion Committe.

The "Blu-ray Disc Founder group" was started in May 20, 2002 by nine leading electronic companies: Sony, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Thomson, LG Electronics, Hitachi, Sharp, and Samsung[2]. In order to enable more companies to participate on May 18, 2004, it announced that Blu-ray Disc Founders will shift to Blu-ray Disc Association in October. Blu-ray Disc Association It was inaugurated on October 4, 2004 by 14 companies of Board of Directors which added 20th Century Fox to the 13 above-mentioned companies, Contributors of 22 companies, General members of 37 companies, and a total of 73 companies.


Currently Toshiba founding member of HD-DVD Consortium, along with few companies is pitted against large alliance lead by Sony who are following Blue Ray for development of coming technological innovation of 3D TV. This fight for marketplace is interesting to watch for. Tohsiba looks way ahead comapred to efforts of other competitors in development of 3D Tv while Sony in gaming consoles powered by their '3Play Station' version, Toshiba claims that they are in the process of developing 4000* 2000 Pixel resolution having 60 frames per second. It appears that Sony with their 3PS gaming system will have lead in the market of 3D Animation but Toshiba`s strength in downloadable and sharing platfomr may outdo Sony in maintaing their market.This is due the fact that Sony is struggling to increase the customer base for PS3.


Unfortunately, Blu-ray does not offer much for games. The extra storage capacity is not needed since Xbox 360 games come on traditional DVDs. The PS3 Blu-ray drive also has a slower read speed than a standard DVD drive, causing longer game load times. Furthermore, there are less than 300 movies currently out in the Blu-ray format. If Sony wants the PS3 to succeed with Blu-ray, it must capitalize on Blu-ray content.


A study of 2009 by 'Competitive Strategy of California Institute of Technology' says that "Console gaming is currently entering a new generation with the introduction of the Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3), Microsoft Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii. Sony, with its PlayStation 2, was the market leader in the previous generation with an estimated share of 70%, while Microsoft and Nintendo split the rest of the market. However, Sony is in danger of losing market share with the PS3, mainly due to the PS3’s significantly higher cost.If you are interested in details please click this link (http://www.mcafee.cc/Classes/BEM106/Papers/2007/sonyps3.pdf)



Annex:
What is the ongoing development in Blue Ray Research:(Source: Wickipedia)

Although the Blu-ray Disc specification has been finalized, engineers continue working to advance the technology. Quad-layer (100 GB) discs have been demonstrated on a drive with modified optics (TDK version) and standard unaltered optics ("Hitachi used a standard drive.")In August 2006, TDK announced that they have created a working experimental Blu-ray Disc capable of holding 200 GB of data on a single side, using six 33 GB data layers.

In January 2007, Hitachi showcased a 100 GB Blu-ray Disc, which consists of four layers containing 25 GB each. Unlike TDK and Panasonic's 100 GB discs, they claim this disc is readable on standard Blu-ray Disc drives that are currently in circulation, and it is believed that a firmware update is the only requirement to make it readable to current players and drives.

In December 2008, Pioneer Corporation unveiled a 400 GB Blu-ray Disc, which contains 16 data layers, 25 GB each, and will be compatible with current players after a firmware update. A planned launch is in the 2009-2010 time frame for ROM and 2010-2013 for rewritable discs. Ongoing development is under way to create a 1 TB Blu-ray Disc as soon as 2013.

At CES 2009 Panasonic unveiled the DMP-B15, the first portable Blu-ray Disc player and Sharp introduced the LC-BD60U and LC-BD80U series, the first LCD HDTVs with integrated Blu-ray Disc players. Sharp has also announced that they will sell HDTVs with integrated Blu-ray Disc recorders in the United States by the end of 2009.

As of April 2008, a joint licensing agreement for Blu-ray Disc has not yet been finalized. A joint licensing agreement would make it easier for companies to get a license for Blu-ray Disc without having to go to each individual company that owns a Blu-ray Disc patent. For this reason a joint licensing agreement was eventually made for DVD by the DVD6C Licensing Agency.

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‘New Women’ of Japan and Rising Wave of Entrepreneurship

• 
  For women, in traditionally male dominated society it is believed that, “Home is public place where private feelings should be forgotten.” Male-female relationship began to change due to influence of Confucianism which had great affect on how people think. Because of many of the paternal aspects of Confucianism, the idea of “men outside and women inside” became widespread, and this attitude is still prevalent in Japanese society today.
  
  A few decades before, in earliest part of 20th century, there was wave of New Women in Japan who spoke language of liberty. One such, Yosano Akiko who went to Paris along with her husband in 1912 wrote something which is still regarded as ignition of new movement leading towards starting of liberation of Japanese women from the custody of traditional customs.
  
  Yosano writes:
  “The day the mountain move has come,
  I speak but none believes me;
  For the time the mountains have been asleep,
  But long ago they all danced with me;
  It does not matter if you believe this,
  My friends, as long as you believe;
  All the sleeping women, Are now awake and moving!!!
  
  
  This woman of modern ideas, a "bluestocking" was born near Osaka, Japan in 1868 just as the country restored the emperor to power. The times, along with the ideas, were changing rapidly and Akiko was in the center of change. Born into a prosperous family of confectioners, she graduated from the Sakai School for Women where she was the foremost poet, evolving into a social critic. She fell in love and openly lived with Yosano Tekkan, a married man and publisher of Myojo, a publication featuring new concepts: the new 31 syllable waka poetry, as well as traditional forms. Akiko was not a woman to restrain her emotions or her voice. She openly criticized the government for entrance into the Russo-Japanese war and, with her colorful vocabulary, condemned them in her writing.
  
  
  How was ‘new woman’? Just like today’s one…She was not hysterical. She was direct, aggressive and she began to check male counterpart whether he is sexually compatible is or not…She scoffed at chastity… She could be poor but that was not obstacle or damaging reputation for her self esteem, she started feeling liberation from double fetters of class and gender…She was setting trends by being anarchist…
  
  
  Now moving ahead with this flash back let us land in 21st century Japan ! The Japanese language also has a great many expressions used only for females, which sometimes make fun of women or dictate how they should behave. There are three words explaining this: First is otoko-masari meaning a woman who is superior to men physically, spiritually and intellectually…this even though is positive aspect sounds negative in Japanese because perception is that it lacks “womanhood”. Otenba is applied to healthy and active girls. This word is used negatively when parent feel girl is out of control and hako-iri-musume refers to the ‘daughters in the box’, the parents grow up children as if they are some kind of treasure trove.
  
  
  Face of New Woman of Japan in a new resurgent spirit was reflected in Symposium ‘Entrepreneurship in Japan’. This was held on 29th May 09 in Todai Hongo Campus jointly organized by Stanford University’s Project on Japanese Entrepreneurship (STAJE) and The University of Tokyo. Speaking at this occasion, Charla Brown who is Associate Professor of Technology Management and Innovation in Pepperdine University elaborated on the new wave of Women Entrepreneurship in Japan.
  
  
  Govt. of Japan has already introduced “Mentor Introduction Service for Women Entrepreneurship”. This was followed by Amendment in Act on Securing, Etc. of Equal Opportunity and Treatment between Men and Women in Employment i.e. Equal Opportunity Act in 2006. There are some contemporary reasons which facilitated the rise of New Women in today’s time. Here the concept of loyalty and lifetime employment is slowly loosing it`s charm. Also, seniority based payment structure is paving way for quality and competitive compensation mechanisms.
• 
  
• Looking at the shrinking workforce population in Japan the new business leadership is evidently being transferred to highly educated woman who is simultaneously taking care of family, office and new challenges of learning the changing technology and management practices. This is possible here because of lowest cost of connectivity and easily available technological assets in the cluster of people which are easily accessible. For example, internet penetration in Japan has gone up from 37% of total population in 2000 to more than 74 % in 2007. Also this country is cheapest ISP (0.09 $ for 100 Kbps) in whole world not to forget fastest connectivity (26. Mbps).
  
  Starts up are providing safe environment for women to work hard. These start-ups provide anonymity so as to remove prejudice in the minds of male counterparts. As all these new emerging companies are knowledge- ICT bases they are providing flexibility for women to set working hours as per their convenience. This helps them to minimize traditional barriers. More and more new woman could assert themselves and lead start ups in the market place of fierce race. But still some significant problems of society cannot be ignored. Few of the companies which are making their mark as new symbol of rising women entrepreneurship in Japan are: Digimom, Coolgiris, Palias, eSampo, SOHO, Women, Photonet, DeNA, New Year Group etc.

Ownership Facts

(Source Report on: http://www.cipe.org/pdf/programs/women/jalbert.pdf)

• Women in advanced market economies own more than 25% of all businesses · In Japan 23% of private firms are established by women · In Russia women own 64% of firms employing 10 people or more · In China women founded 25% of the businesses since 1978. In Germany women have created one-third of the new businesses since 1990 representing more than one million jobs. In Europe and Newly Independent States Transition Economies women are 25% of the business owners

Above report goes on to say that: Entrepreneurship is a highly personal,subjective process. Becoming an entrepreneur is an evolution of encountering, assessing, and reacting to a series of experiences, situations, and events produced by political, economical, social, and cultural change. These diverse circumstances prompt individual entrepreneurs to modify their personal living conditions. Women who own and operate a business are not a homogeneous group. Cultural and social patterns prescribe whether a woman can become an entrepreneur within her society or not.

Some constraints are obvious; others are disguised in patriarchal heritage within cultures that preclude female entrepreneurship. ...In spite of many obstacles, women somehow find a way to engage in entrepreneurial activities. For the woman entrepreneur, the process of starting and operating a new enterprise can be tremendously difficult in both the formal and informal sector because she often lacks the skills, education, and societal support system to facilitate her efforts. Although women’s efforts may be thwarted in many ways entrepreneurship among women is a vibrant and growing trend internationally...”

Apart from these developments, there is tension between traditional family and changing socio-economic paradigm. Increasingly a higher level of cohabitation of non-married couples is being observed. Birth rates are declining. When I discussed this issue with Chief Priest of Kamakura Shinto Shrine he said that people listen to the government and not to the religion. If government gives incentives for early marriage then only citizen will really start to think about it seriously. When I asked about this to member of UNU Women Association then she said that girls do not wish to lose their privacy. Also majority of the women realize that Man does not know how to behave responsibly like a MAN but women certainly know how to complete the responsibility in any form of relationship.

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The Ruin of the Nation begins in homes of it`s people...

While listening to the words in title of this posting, I pleasantly recall another by Swami Vivekananda: Destiny of the nation is being shaped in the classrooms of the nation....In spotlight of these words let us take a considerate look at what children urged at the inaugeration of 2009 'UNU Africa Day Symposium' -'The global financial crisis and its impact on Africa: the role of Japan and TICAD.'


"We are the children of the Earth
Our Smiling faces are always kindling
We want peace here and now
All of us who like on this planet are one big family

Small smiles are coming from all corners of the world
Now they will become a big power; Piece to Peace

We all grew up on this shining earth
Creating tomorrow with a lot of smiles
The sky holding clouds is a part of our planet
The shining light becomes stronger and stronger
Even new born babies hold their mother`s happiness with their little hands
Here, everything gathers and becomes part of big picture..

Now, from us to you; Piece to Peace
Let`s move on toward the future; Piece to Peace
Now, lets fill the world with smiles; Piece to Peace"

Former President of India wrote Ignite Minds by the inspiration he recieved from one child who questioned him to know how to eradicate poverty from this beautiful earth. While the ambitious target of Millenium Development Goals still needing the redoubling of the efforts and assistance from developed countries, current financial crisis has made it more difficult for the developing and least developing countries to focus on providing Essential Services to their citizens.

Today being the tenth anniversary of the conclave, event witnessed former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and Deputy Foreign Minister of Govt. of Japan both of them raising the agenda of PRIORITY AFRICA for coming years which is emphasised by Yokohama Declaration, Yokohama Action Plan and TICAD Follow up Mechanism. TICAD stands for "Tokyo International Conference on African Development". TICAD has become a major global framework for Asia and Africa to collaborate in promoting Africa's development. The first Tokyo Conference was held in 1993 and ushered in a continuing process of support for Africa and consensus-building around African development priorities. That process was bolstered with a second Tokyo conference in 1998.

All the people speaking at the occasion were having one common priority in the backgorund of financial crisis, that we should invest more in childern. In the devastating experience of crumbling financial institutions in developed world and crashing national budgets under heavy burden of huge fiscal deficts in developing countries where no system is in place, the message is clear...We have to invest heavily in 'Social Security' measures compared to delievery of physical infrastructure and services.

As asserted by Mr. Mori, Japan`s decision to doube it`s ODA to Africa by 2012 despite current shocks of crisis speaks volume of this country`s determined resoultion to build Conflict Resolution approaches through the means of development schemes. Recently Scandanivian countries also have taken certain initiatives to invest heavily in human resources for education and research, human resources rather than physical development of country.

While JICA representative talked about need to define Crisis Recovery Mitigation Measures by understanding the implications of macroeconomic measures, Mr. Mori asked the question that why Africa is suffering despite availability of resources at hand and it is the responsibility Global Community not to give up hope on the front of contribution to build Africa. According to UNU-WIDER representative, identifying the vulnerabilites remain top agenda while supporting the resilience in the system is the concern of the many nations in the mechanism devoted to the plans developed countries may have about Africa. Besides this, strengthening of knowledge skills by enhancing information respurces and networks will certainly help the efforts of reconstruction of whole continent yearning for progres. Here we must remember that Last Mile is always hardest.

Taking a line of thought from presentation of UNICEF, Tokyo office at the conclave and according to The State of Africa`s Children 2008 report on CHILD SURVIVAL 2008 published by UNICEF says: " Prospects for child survival are shaped by the institutional and environmental context in which children and their families live, as well as by the provision of essential services and practises. Infant and child mortality rates are highest in poorest countries, among the mpst impoversihed, isolated, uneducated and marginalised districts and communities, and in countires ravaged by civil strife, AIDS, food insecurity, weak governance and chronic underinvestment in public health systems and physical infrastructure. Similarly fragile states, characterised by weak institutions with high levels of corruption, political instability and shaky rule of law, are often incapable of providing basic servies for their citizens"

Idea of Functional Food: Eat Silver, Think Gold, Act Platinum !!!

While having food for thought about how Human Rights can be and are being protected all over the world under the roof of UN system, today it was my longest ever dinner in one Japanese family where I went for home stay programe. There is no end to evening dinner in kind Japanese family～　it goes on and on. Salad, soup, slowly slowly some snacks, sea-food, every kind of non-veg you are used to, not to forget sushi with sake, juice, goes on and on...why to leave behind green　vegetables, fruits, cake and lastly green tea...Can you imagine a dinner for four hours...I had today.

Everyday I am observing here in Tokyo people are used to packed lunches. I was told that rarely someone carries lunchbox from home. All the people believe in branded/unbranded pack lunch and this culture I realised is better than having occassional raw fast food where you are just left to the mercy of god for the disastrous nutritious value they posses and exaggerrating prices the companies charge for the minute quantity of food.

It was mainly the advances in understanding the relationship between nutrition and health that resulted in the development of the concept of functional foods, which means a practical and new approach to achieve optimal health status by promoting the state of well-being and possibly reducing the risk of disease. Functional foods are found virtually in all food categories, however products are not homogeneously scattered over all segments of the growing market.


The development and commerce of these products is rather complex, expensive and risky, as special requirements should be answered. Besides potential technological obstacles, legislative aspects, as well as consumer demands need to be taken into consideration when developing functional food. In particular, consumer acceptance has been recognized as a key factor to successfully negotiate market opportunities. I came to know all this because I could meet Masaya Yabe, Project Manager of Licensing & Business Development Dept. of NIPPON SHINYAKU Co. Ltd.

This company in their Annual Report of 2008 says: "In the functional food business, Nippon Shinyaku isinvolved in the development, production and sale of functionalfood ingredients that meet the requirements of processed food manufacturers and health food manufacturers. Research is being conducted by our Food Development Research Laboratory in Kyoto, and recently we have been making a particular effort in the research and development of health food ingredients that help maintain and improve public health. We have two production bases – the Chitose Functional Food Plant, and our subsidiary Tajima Syokuhin Kogyo Co., Ltd. inToyooka. The majority of our customers are major　Japanese food manufacturers."

What is Functional food ?
Functional foods are "those foods that encompass potentially healthful products including any modified food or ingredient that may provide a health benefit beyond the traditional nutrients it contains," as defined by the Institute of Medicine. The Institute of Medicine based in Washington D.C. is a body under National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A. and provides independent, objective, evidence basedadvice to policymakers, health professionals, the private sector, and the public.　

Functional foods can include foods like cereals, breads and beverages which are fortified with vitamins, herbs and nutraceuticals. The healing power of foods is a popular concept that focuses on how "super foods" can have health protecting properties. Medicinal foods or "nutritionally high powered foods" have been part and parcel of the natural products industry for a long time and, through emerging scientific research and particularly through growing public interest, they have reached the mainstream.　


According to Proposal for the Establishment of Scientific Criteria for Health Claims for Functional Foods published by Nutrition Reviews in the issue of 27 April 2009　authored　by Fergus M. Clydesdale： Functional foods are defined and used differently in different nations.
Health claims for these foods influence consumer behavior and potentially affect public health. In an increasingly global economy, health claims for functional foods should meet internationally agreed upon scientific criteria.
The concept of health claims as it exists internationally is discussed, and suggestions to assist consumers, government, industry, and academia in deciding on a scientific and ethical basis for international agreement on health claims for functional foods　are offered.

Celebrating Cultural Diversity while understnading Biodiversity

How many names of trees and flowers you can recall? I tried a day before and I was shocked to know I did not know more than twenty five names of flowers in Marathi, fifteen in Hindi and ten in English. It is not only about love I have for charming beauty of flowers but if we go much beyond than that, it is silent witness to our relationship with the sorroundings, nature and environment.

“The cultural wealth of the world is its diversity in dialogue” are the preambular words of UNESCO Declaration on Cultural Diversity Cultural Diversity adopted by 31st Sesssion of General Conference of UNESCO held on 2 November 2001 in Paris. It raises cultural diversity to the level of “the common heritage of humanity”, “as necessary for humankind as biodiversity is for nature” and makes its defence an ethical imperative indissociable from respect for the dignity of the individual.

While the world is celebrating "Cultural Diversity" on 21 May which is marked as 'World Day for Cultural Diversity, for Dialogue and Development'; Prof. Jose` Sarukha`n Kermez a Senior Researcher at Inst. of Ecology, National Autonomous University of Mexico was talking at UNU about "The Privililege and Challenge of Megadiverse Country".

He was trying to explain the importance of Biodiversity as an integral component of wealth developing countries possess and it being a characteristic feature of evolution. Mexico being fifth largest country possesing vast pool of available Biodiversity has made special arrangements to preserve this treasure trove of nature which is truly a "Bank by God".

Declaration goes ahead to assert that "ONE CANNOT EXIST WITHOUT THE OTHER" by saying that "...each individual must acknowledge not only otherness in all its forms but also the plurality of his or her own identity, within societies that are themselves plural. Only in this way can cultural diversity be preserved as an adaptive process and as a capacity for expression, creation and innovation. The debate between those countries which would like to defend cultural goods and services “which, as vectors of identity, values and meaning, must not be treated as mere commodities or consumer goods”, and those which would hope to promote cultural rights has thus been surpassed, with the two approaches brought together by the Declaration, which has highlighted the causal link uniting two complementary attitudes."

Prof.Sarukha`n was describing Mexican efforts to coserve Neotropical, Boreal and Endemic species which range in thousands throughout the topography of the country. Mexico has established CONABIO, a comprehensive databse of different species found in whole region. Through database, Govt.is trying to promote and coordinate actions towards increase in sustainable knowledge. As observed by Prof.Sarukha`n the main challenge ahead of Biodiversity practises is to obtain, organise and make Conservation managment more efficient. In this, he says, role of Information Communication and Education is extraordinary.

In the age of rampant Biopiracy, he advocated the national intelligence to help conserve and manage sustainable Biodiversity with the help of "Local Action" i.e. with the help of indigenous peoples, organisations and their experience. Without saying anyhting about the term "Benefit Sharing" Prof.Sarukha`n said that actors in conserving and managing Biodiversity should be owner`s of country`s natural capital.

As maintained by Office of CONABIO, "This information in the database has become absolutely essential to public-interest tasks like monitoring, ecological cordination, environmental impact assessment including its supervision. Moreover, in many countries,the law protects by name certain species and in practice this has been a very powerful tool for protecting areas (specified in Endangered Species Act of Mexico), but also it is now doubly important to be able to access as much scientific information as possible, to avoid erring in any direction."

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The University of Tokyo... Todai !!!

Nothing is more fascinating that visiting the centres of excellence in Universities across the world as they are really the citadels of strength nations possesse. " A University stands for humanism, for tolerance, for reason, for the adventure of ideas and for the search of truth. It stands for the onward march of the human race towards ever higher objectives. If the universities discharge their duties adequately, then it is well with the Nation and the People." ...this we all know said Jawaharlal Nehru.

I was fortunate to visit two campuses of one of the greatest universities- The University of Tokyo, in Hongo and Komaba. The University of Tokyo was established in 1877 as the first national university in Japan. The University of Tokyo has a faculty of over 4,000 and a total enrollment of about 29,000, evenly divided between undergraduate and graduate students. As of 2006 there were 2,269 international students, and over 2,700 foreign researchers come annually to the university for both short and extended visits.

Prof. Yoichiro Nambu, a graduate of the Department of Physics, the University of Tokyo, Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago, and Professor Emeritus at Osaka City University, was awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics sharing the prize with Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Masukawa. He has contributed to the development of Physics by making a great deal of achievements reaching beyond the walls of many branches of Physics, including ‘The Discovery of Spontaneous Broken Symmetry’, which is common in various physical phenomena: the origin of elementary particle masses, superconducting phenomena etc.

According to Times Higher Education (THE) Supplement, Tokyo University stands on 17 th place in World University Rankings 2007. Further 'THE' comments: "Many Asian universities have higher scores in 2007 than previously. Their governments may regard this as more important than the number of appearances for their own country. The Asia-Pacific region now has five of the world’s top 30 universities, two fewer than the UK but four more than France. Some of the improvement may be due to their enhanced citations performance. But it is also very possible that these and other Asia-Pacific institutions will become yet more visible in the rankings in future years."

This University is member of IARU(International Alliance of Research Universities. The members are The Australian National University (ANU),National University of Singapore(NUS),Peking University, ETH Zurich, University of California, Berkeley, University of Cambridge, University of Copenhagen, University of Oxford, The University of Tokyo and Yale University.

Thomson Scientific, a division of Thomson Corporation, have announced the top 20 ranking of Japanese research institutions for all fields based on citation data of academic papers published from January 1997 to December 2007. This includes the Top 10 ranking for each of the four fields in which Japan’s contribution is particularly noteworthy. Tokyo University tops the list among Japanese institutions after comprehensive review of 22 fields of sciences being considered into evaluation process.

Three JNU students currently are pursueing their Ph.D. from The University of Tokyo. Mr. Manish Kumar Singh, Mr. Punkaj Kumar, Mr. Ram Avatar are all students of SES over the years in successive batches. Mr. Ram said difference between what we research in India and what in Japan lies in the perception; where in India we lay more emphasis on results rather than on the failures and small steps being taken in the process of research have to be justified in Japanese Universities. One of the striking disparities ramain the key infrastructure and funding patterns. Also, as mentioned in one of my previous blog postings, with the dwindling population of Japan, Ministry of Science & Technology, (MEXT) is trying to attract more tallent to study fundamental sciences.(http://www.mext.go.jp/english/kaihatu/index.htm)

Few days before I met Dr. Babasaheb Sankpal on the sidelines of Nobel Laurete Conclave in Allahabad. He is Associate Proffessor of Physics in North Maharashtra University. He was also in Japan for nearly three years for Post Doctoral studies in Material Sciences. He was sharing with me his concern that he could not get the desired machines for his lab for more than six months due to administrative delays in UGC, let alone the pressing urgency of Ph. D. students who really deserve JRFs. With the kind of scholarships foreign universities are giving to attract the students from India, it is certainly alaraming situation for S&T System in India. It is agreed that UGC and CSIR have increased in recent months the JRFs and SRFs but compared to kind of committment and sacrifise one student makes to come to do reasearch, they are not and not at all rewarded well. The reward system remains at the helm of debate when India is witnesing passionate debate about recently introduded Bill in Parliament i.e. 'Utillisation and Commercialisation of Public Funded Research'.