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The Hindu (Chennai, India)
June 10, 1999
By Dr C. S. Prakash
One of the archaic ideas that India with its 50 years of socialistic
history needs to shed is that privatisation and private capital are inherently
evil and that profit is immoral. The noted industrialist, Godrej, once
remarked that India will be on its path to progress when the word `profit'
stops being a dirty word. It is in our best interests today to face the
reality that the world is increasingly getting globalised whether any
nation likes it or not. We must therefore work towards helping India benefit
from changing realities, rather than continue to hug old illusions.
It is quite clear now that the Information Technology (IT) industry is
fostering globalisation, resulting in vast benefits to our economy. The
process of convergence of voice, data and video that we are witnessing
today as the IT revolution progresses by leaps and bounds makes that apparent
each passing day. Although India prides itself in its software exports,
its market share of the global software market is still minuscule.
Here again, if misguided policies that led to the exit of IBM in 1977
had not happened, India would have been an even bigger player in IT today.
Similarly, the increasing privatisation of the consumer electronics, automobile,
telecommunication, food processing, hospitality and transportation sectors
have already energised these sectors. The `trickle down' effect is clearly
impacting the under-served sections of the Indian society.
Indian agriculture has also begun to benefit enormously from private
sector investments in chemical inputs, irrigation, tractors and seeds.
Public institutions like the Indian Council for Agricultural Research
(ICAR) and agricultural universities should continue to play a valuable
and dominant role in developing crop science, especially in basic `upstream'
research, emphasis on non-commercial crops and extension and outreach
programs to facilitate farmer education and public awareness.
The National Seeds Corporation owned by the Government of India can meet
only 8 per cent of our seed needs.Thus private seed companies will play
an increasingly important role. This will also bring dynamism, accountability
and customer service to the market. A synergy between public institutions
and private seed companies can only benefit India as both have unique
roles to play in Indian agriculture. No private company can afford to
ignore the society that it serves and the success of any company depends
on the tangible benefits it can deliver to the environment in which it
operates. The future is bright Norman Borlaug, the Nobel laureate who
helped in India's green revolution says that ``agricultural scientists
and policy makers have a moral obligation to warn political, educational,
and religious leaders about the magnitude and seriousness of the food
and population problems that lie ahead. If we fail to do so in a forthright
manner, we will be negligent in our duty and will inadvertently contribute
to death by starvation. The problem will not vanish by itself; to continue
to ignore it will make a future solution more difficult to achieve.''
We thus need to explore every possible avenue to help increase food production.
Indian farmers will readily embrace any technology as long as it is affordable
and profitable. It would be criminally irresponsible and morally reprehensible
to throw away any valuable tool using archaic philosophical arguments
and claiming hypothetical risks. New technology has always been resisted
by no-changers down the ages. It is because a few visionaries saw its
potential and pressed ahead, often at great personal risk, that we enjoy
the benefits of technology today.
It would therefore be self-defeating for India to allow itself to be
dictated to by a small but vocal minority of misinformed and misguided
activists who are opposed to genetic modification of our crop varieties.
By sloganeering, burning crops and taking to the streets, they are holding
the country hostage and will only succeed in derailing India's journey
to prosperity. India is facing real challenges with a multitude of problems
like poverty, hunger, economic inequity, ethnic strife, urban congestion,
food and water shortages, institutionalisation of corruption, exploding
population, and serious concerns about its water, air and food quality.
We would be better served if these problems are tackled using technology
available to us, rather than let them be side-tracked because of fears
of new technology (I vividly remember bank employees in India going on
strike against computerisation a few years ago!). Fears must be debated
in a spirit of scientific openness. Above all, it must be remembered that
no one has a monopoly on truth and knowledge - certainly not those who
are unwilling to accept that there are two sides to every issue.
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