26/Jan/2008 : Warangal
Technology is a Nonlinear Tool for Economic Growth
I am delighted to participate in the Technozion 08 being held in National Institute of Technology (NIT) Warangal. I greet the Director, Faculty Members and Students participating in the function. Since Technozion is a platform for showcasing the technology, I would suggest the members to particularly identify the technologies which will bridge the rural urban divide and bring the technology for the upliftment of the rural sector where 700 million people live in 600,000 villages. Since I am in the midst of the technologists, I would like to talk on the topic “Technology is a Nonlinear Tool for Economic Growth”.
When I see you all, I am reminded of one thought regarding inventors and inventions, discoverers and discoveries.
Inventors – inventions and discoverers - discoveries
Let us study important inventors and their inventions.
1. The Wright brothers and the plane.
2. George Eastman and film
3. Thomas Edison and the light bulb
4. Alexandra Graham bell and the telephone. Let us study a few Discoverers and their discoveries.
5. Albert Einstein and the energy equation E=MC2
6. Srinivas Ramanujan and number theory
7. Chandrasekhar Subramaniyam and Chandrasekhar Limit
8. Sir CV Raman and Raman Effect
Inventions and discoveries have emanated from creative minds that have been constantly working and imaging the outcome in the mind. With imaging and constant effort, all the forces of the universe work for that inspired mind, thereby leading to inventions or discoveries. Higher the number of creative minds in an organization, the best results of innovation in all the three sectors of the economy will emerge.
I would like to share two important developments in robotics carried out by the scientists and engineers of Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburg for land and moon applications which I saw during my visit to US in October 2007.
Robotics in land and moon
While I was in Carnegie Mellon University, I came to know about the development of Boss – A Robotic car developed by Carnegie Mellon University. This car won the 2007 Defense Advance Research Project Agency (DARPA) Urban Challenge first place price of $2 million in the autonomous vehicle competition held in November 2007. This is the first time that autonomous (driverless) vehicles traversed suburban roads at speed with real traffic represented by 50 moving cars with human drivers and the 11 race finalists in robot-on-robot competition. The autonomous vehicles in the DARPA Urban Challenge were required to navigate, park, and handle traffic on a 60-mile urban course within a six-hour time limit. The vehicles operated without human guidance and relied only on sensors and computers. The robotic cars also had to obey traffic laws, merge into moving traffic, avoid obstacles, and negotiate intersections. The robotic technology is indeed taking shape and we may see in this decade Robotic Cars in many parts of the world.
I also visited and interacted with the Carnegie Mellon - Google Lunar X Prize team, who are developing a robot which will land on the Moon, travel at least 500 meter on the lunar surface and transmit images to Earth by 2012 with the intent of winning a $20 million challenge announced by the X Prize Foundation and Google Inc. This will be the first private off-planet exploration. The result of this experiment will pave the way more robotic landing in Mars and Moon for exploration.
Both these developments give me the confidence that the world is not far off from realizing pilot-less combat aircraft and reusable missile systems. Now let me talk about Dynamics of Development.
Dynamics of development
Research today, not only has become important but is now becoming the driving force in the process of self-reliance of all cutting edge technologies. Research in certain universities has been the main contributor and the guiding force in realizing their core competence. Our road map for the next few decades will see many new frontiers in the areas of nano-science and engineering, space technology, advanced materials and composite technology, biotechnology in the fields of drugs and pharmaceuticals etc. It is imperative, that universities come together to realize the importance of these areas and the effect that they are going to have in shaping the future. There are 13 scientific organizations like ISRO, DRDO, DAE, DBT, CSIR, DST, DOD, etc. spend more than Rs.500 crores per year in sponsored research.
What is needed today is the appropriate networking of technical institutions with these scientific organizations and other government departments to spearhead important research programmes in the emerging areas. The networking of the institutions with the above organizations will provide the necessary inputs in realizing self-reliance in the years to come. With this in mind the DST and other departments have introduced novel schemes such as REACH (Relevance and Excellence in ACHieving new heights in educational institutes). Indian industry is working endlessly on ways and means to achieve better quality products. They look to other countries for technology transfer. Technical institutions can help the industry through basic research to enhance the innovative capacity for making indigenous products more competitive in the international market. This will enable the institutions getting transformed into Centers of Excellence in specific areas. This will also ensure that graduating students will prefer to carry out research within the country rather than going abroad due to the presence of quality researchers who will attract them like magnets.
Convergence of Technologies
The information technology and communication technology have already converged leading to Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Information Technology combined with bio-technology has led to bio-informatics. Now, Nano-technology is knocking at our doors. It is the field of the future that will replace microelectronics and many fields with tremendous application potential in the areas of medicine, electronics and material science. When Nano technology and ICT meet, integrated silicon electronics, photonics are born and it can be said that material convergence will happen. With material convergence and biotechnology linked, a new science called Intelligent Bioscience will be born which would lead to a disease free, happy and more intelligent human habitat with longevity and high human capabilities. Convergence of bio-nano-info technologies can lead to the development of nano robots. Nano robots when they are injected into a patient, my expert friends say, it will diagnose and deliver the treatment exclusively in the affected area and then the nano-robot gets digested as it is a DNA based product.
Convergence of ICT, aerospace and Nano technologies will emerge and revolutionize the aerospace industry. This technological convergence will enable building of cost effective low weight, high payload, and highly reliable aerospace systems, which can be used for inter-planetary transportation.
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Triad of Nano-Bio-Info Technologies
Now Nanotechnology will be the central focus for many technologies to converge and open a large number of applications. Further, this technology will have a large domestic market potential leading to a robust economy.
If one sees the world nano publications scenario, we realize that India has a long way to go. Rapid advances both in terms of materials and devices are taking place globally. Almost, 300 novel materials and 50 devices with unique characteristics have been successfully developed around the world. Many of these inventions in materials and devices that are being created today by nanotechnology were beyond human imaginations few years back. Further, this technology will have a large domestic market potential and hence would be a very robust and would be immune to the changes that would take place beyond our borders.
Next ten years will see nano technology playing the most dominant role in the global business environment and is expected to go beyond the billion dollar estimates and cross the figure of 1 trillion. Globally, it is seen that large number of universities, academic institutions and companies have already started making concrete efforts.
Indian Scenario
In India, modest beginnings have been made. Today, only a few institutions are contributing towards this pioneering research. A lot more needs to be done and we have to formulate an action plan by pooling all the available national resources. We should enhance our capabilities, identifying the gaps and steps required to make India a significant player in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. Both Government and Private sectors have to join hands and form a ‘Nano-Tech Enterprise’. India has invested around Rs. 1000 Crore for focussed research on Nano Science and Technology, which will propel the concept to reality missions in nano science and technology products and systems in association with industry and academia globally. It will also create Centre of Excellence in Nano science and technology.
Integrated approach
For us to succeed in manufacturing of nano products and their deployment we need to tackle the issues of science and technology, product development and societal aspects in an integrated way. Judging by the past experience of the country in driving technology missions like in Aerospace, Agriculture, Atomic energy and IT, I am confident that, if we take in a mission mode with a clear-cut vision, the country will reap the benefits of nano science and technology. Now let me talk to you on how India has done some focussed research and produced some products in nano science and technology area.
Products progress in Nano Science & Technology in India – some examples
a. Water: Nano tube filter – water purification The scientists from Banaras Hindu University have devised a simple method to produce carbon nanotube filters that efficiently remove micro-to nano-scale contaminants from water and heavy hydrocarbons from petroleum. Made entirely of carbon nanotubes, the filters are easily manufactured using a novel method for controlling the cylindrical geometry of the structure. The work was supported in part by the Ministry of Human Resource Development and Department of Science and Technology in India.
The filters are hollow carbon cylinders several centimeters long and one or two centimeters wide with walls just one-third to one-half a millimeter thick. They are produced by spraying benzene into a tube-shaped quartz mold and heating the mold to 900°C. The nanotube composition makes the filters strong, reusable, and heat resistant, and they can be cleaned easily for reuse.
The carbon nanotube filters offer a level of precision suitable for different applications. They can remove 25-nanometer-sized polio viruses from water, as well as larger pathogens, such as E. coli and Staphylococcus aurous bacteria. The researchers believe this could make the filters adaptable to micro fluidics applications that separate chemicals in drug discovery.
This is a classic application of the latest in science – Nano science, to age old problem of water purification. If properly used, this can help in lessoning the burden in our drinking water missions leading to the availability of safe drinking water that will result in minimizing the water borne diseases.
b. Healthcare: Typhoid Detection Kit Typhoid Detection Kit has been developed by DRDE, Gwalior using the nano sensor developed by Prof. A.K. Sood, and his team from IISc, Bangalore. Typhoid fever caused by Salmonella typhi is a major health problem and an important challenge to health authorities of third world countries due to unsatisfactory water supply, poor sanitary conditions, malnutrition, emergence of antibiotic resistant strains etc. According to an estimate the worldwide incidence to typhoid fever is 16 million cases annually and death rate is 6 lakhs individual per year worldwide. In India, the morbidity due to typhoid varies from 102 to 2219/100,000 population in different parts of the countries. In some areas typhoid fever is responsible for 2-5% of all deaths.
In India for routine diagnosis for typhoid disease Widal test is performed with single serum sample which does not provide the correct diagnosis of infection. Therefore a Latex agglutination based test has been developed at DRDE, Gwalior using recombinant DNA technology and immunological technique for rapid diagnosis of typhoid infection. The test detects S. typhi antigen directly in patient’s serum within 1-3 minutes which is very important for initiating early treatment and saving human life.
A collaborative work has been carried out with Prof. A.K. Sood of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, the sensitivity of the test has been increased 30 times by applying a small electric charge (1.5 V). With this improvement, extreme low concentrations of the antigen in clinical sample can be detected. Moreover, very small quantity of clinical sample as low as 2-3 µl is required to perform the above test as compared to 10-15 µl sample required for latex agglutination test.
c.Power: Gas flow induced generation of voltage from solids Prof AK Sood, professor of Physics at IISc and his student Shankar Ghosh has studied, experimented and found that the liquid flow in carbon nano tubes can generate electric current. One of the most exciting applications to emerge from the discovery is the possibility of a heart pacemaker – like device with nanotubes, which will sit in the human body and generate power from blood. Instead of batteries, the device will generate power by itself to regulate defective heart rhythm. The IISc has transferred the exclusive rights of the technology to an American start-up Trident Metrologies. They will develop the prototypes and commercialize the gas flow sensors.
d.Drug delivery systemA research group headed by Professor A. N. Maitra of the University of Delhi’s Chemistry Department has developed 11 patentable technologies for improved drug delivery systems using nanoparticles. Four of these processes have been granted U.S. patents. One of the important achievements at the initial stage of drug delivery research was development of a reverse micelles based process for the synthesis of hydrogel and ‘smart’ hydrogel nanoparticles for encapsulating water-soluble drugs. This method enabled one to synthesize hydrogel nanoparticles of size less than 100nm diameter. This technology has been sold to Dabur Research Foundation in 1999.
Another technology has been transferred to industry deals with nanoparticle drug delivery for eye diseases. Traditionally, steroids have been used extensively in the treatment of ocular inflammatory disease and allergies. However, prolonged use of steroids has many side effects. The Delhi university group’s process uses nanoparticles to encapsulate non-steroidal drugs. “This process improves the bioavailability of the drug on the surface of the cornea”. The technology has been transferred to Chandigarh-based Panacea Biotech Ltd.
e.Microwave CNTs Production unit DMSRDE, Kanpur is synthesizing non-aligned, quasi-aligned and aligned CNT with a batch size of 50 grams using a fast synthesis process. It has a maximum operating temperature 12000 C. The CNTs will have applications in EM absorbers, composites, gas sensors, flow monitors, field emission devices. Now let me discuss the dynamics of development and the role of educational institutions like NIT.
Dear friends, so far I have discussed with you on the emerging technology that is nano science and technology. Let me now present the distinctive profile of India 2020. Dear friends, when you graduate yourself from NIT, Warangal as an Engineering professional, you should map how you can contribute to one or more of the 10 National missions.
Distinctive Profile of India 2020
1. A Nation where the rural and urban divide has reduced to a thin line. 2. A Nation where there is an equitable distribution and adequate access to energy and quality water. 3. A Nation where agriculture, industry and service sector work together in symphony. 4. A Nation where education with value system is not denied to any meritorious candidates because of societal or economic discrimination. 5. A Nation, which is the best destination for the most talented scholars, scientists, and investors. 6. A Nation where the best of health care is available to all.7. A Nation where the governance is responsive, transparent and corruption free.8. A Nation where poverty has been totally eradicated, illiteracy removed and crimes against women and children are absent and none in the society feels alienated. 9. A Nation that is prosperous, healthy, secure, devoid of terrorism, peaceful and happy and continues with a sustainable growth path.10. A Nation that is one of the best places to live in and is proud of its leadership through creative and effective leadership in Parliament, State Assemblies and other institutions of the State.
I am confident that these distinctive profiles of the nation will give adequate challenge to the creative and innovative ability of the Warangal NITians. Don’t you think it is a challenge to the young minds? Now let me give one example on how the technology has to be applied for bridging the rural urban divide. I would like to talk about Periyar PURA, which is an example for promoting sustainable development in rural area.
Periyar PURA (Tamilnadu)
Periyar PURA complex pioneered by Periyar Maniammai University, Vallam, Tanjore is functioning near Vallam having a cluster of over 65 villages in Tamilnadu which involves a population of 1 lakh. This PURA complex has all the three connectivities - physical, electronic and knowledge - leading to economic connectivity. The center of activity emanates from the women engineering college that provides the electronic and knowledge connectivity. Periyar PURA has health care centers, primary to post graduate level education and vocational training centers. This has resulted in large-scale employment generation and creation of number of entrepreneurs with the active support of 850 self-help groups. Two hundreds acres of waste land has been developed into a cultivable land with innovative water management schemes such as contour ponds and water sheds for storing and irrigating the fields. All the villagers are busy in cultivation, planting Jatropha, herbal and medicinal plants, power generation using bio-mass, food processing and above all running marketing centre. This model has emanated independent of any government initiative. The committed leadership has been provided by the Periyar University. Recently, 5 of Periyar PURA villages are connected through Wi-MAX Wireless and having minimum 4 mbps connectivity with the Periyar PURA nodal centre. It provides a sustainable economic development in that region. I would suggest NIT Warangal may like to consider how to deploy the technologies showcased in the Technozion could be adopted for application in the village clusters around Warangal which will enable rapid economic growth of this region. This type of approach will enable the students to think what technology they can give to the village, to the district, to the state and to the nation.
Conclusion
Now I would like to administer a eight point oath to the participants of Technozion. Eight Point Oath for the NITian
1. Wherever I am, a thought will always come to my mind. That is “What can I give?” 2. Whatever the mission I will do, my motto will be “Work with integrity and succeed with integrity”
3. I will always remember that “Let not my winged days, be spent in vain”.
4. I realize I have to set a great goal that will lead me to think high, work and realize the goal. 5. When I am in a professional carrier, I will ensure that I will lead at least ten members to achieve higher education.
6. My greatest friends will be great human beings, great teachers and great books.
7. I firmly believe that no problem can defeat me; I will become the captain of the problem, defeat the problem and succeed.
8. My National Flag flies in my heart and I will work for removing the ignorance wherever needed, freedom from poverty and freedom from injustice.
My best wishes to all the participants of Technozion and the NIT community success in their mission of using the power of technology for inclusive economic growth of the nation. May God Bless you. Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam,26.01.2008
