Uttarakhand Governor Dr KK Paul stressed the importance of science and technology for enhancing production. Till now, it was believed that technology had a marginal role in production but this belief had now changed. “Those nations that have access to knowledge have been able to bring about many great changes utilising the remaining factors of production namely man, land and capital in a better manner through this technological knowledge,” said the Governor while speaking as the chief guest at the 11th Annual Conference of Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand Economic Association at IIT Roorkee.
Elaborating on this, he said that some countries may be having oil somewhere under their part of the earth and they may be making money out of it, but to become a great nation, they have to add value to that oil; they have to convert that oil into chemicals; they have to convert that oil into materials. “This transformation is achieved by those who have access to Science & Technology. With such imperatives, S&T has become the primary and the most significant factor of production. Thus access and use of technology is today a must for all forms of economic development,” he said.
Dr Paul said that education is the driving force behind technology and until education flows from top to bottom, a S & T oriented society cannot emerge.” Our universities need to improve their standards. Besides education, in technology – we have to be innovative.” The Governor also emphasised the need for focussing on education of women which would make them financially independent and lead to strengthening of society. Some countries which were lagging behind India had, over the last few decades, made social and economic progress by paying attention to women empowerment through education.
A country could not just keep inventing things. “Innovation has become very important. Japan was not the country where either the automobile was developed or its manufacturing started. It was England, Germany and America that were in the forefront. Japan took it up much later, and yet Japan overtook all these leading countries. In the same car, the Japanese have installed an air conditioner, a watch and a music system, though none of these was meant originally for the car.”
He said Japan made light weight and fuel efficient cars . These and some other innovative changes made the product so different from the original one, that it became accepted as the best in the world. Even those who created the car were humbled.
Present on the occasion were Dr M Muzammil, VC of Agra University, Member of 7th pay commission Ratin Rai, Deputy Director of IIT Roorkee Vinod Kumar , Prof PKChaube of Indian Institute of Public Administration and others.