Page 62 - EducationWorld March 2022

Special Essay

National Science Day

ruminations

RAMJEE CHANDRAN

E BLEW PAST INDIA’S NATIONAL Science Industrial licensing killed indigenous
Day on February 28 — so named to cel-
ebrate the discovery of the Raman Effect by development. Despite government
WNobel laureate, Sir C.V. Raman. Deservedly, funding and import protection policies,
we must acknowledge and celebrate this great scientist, as
we must others including Bose, Chandrasekhar, Ramanu- scientific research in India rarely
jan, Khorana; and the lesser known science stars. resulted in saleable products
But as with everything Indian, it satisfies our sense of
achievement to bask in ethnic affinity with these men —
but not ask the follow-up question, “And then…?” Prob- Instead India Inc obtained licences to import foreign
ably because we know the killjoy answer would be, “And technology for items like scooters, cars, agricultural
then, not much.” machinery, white goods, and practically everything else,
Recently, speaking to a group of startups, prime min- while government scientists were being funded for R&D.
ister Narendra Modi stated with an unmistakable tone of Under the licence-permit-quota system there was no
pride that India’s ranking in the Global Innovation Index reward for innovation.
(an annual whodunit of the World Intellectual Property For business, the goal is to employ tech and resources
Organisation) has “improved” to #46. to manufacture products that are tried, tested and reli-
And though it may come as a shock to many that India able. There was no incentive or compulsion to build
is ranked #46, behind Malaysia, Vietnam and the United something with locally developed technology. In other
Arab Emirates and that even in Group 3 (lower middle in- words, central planning failed to incentivise indigenous
come countries), we are #2, behind Vietnam, it is neither technology. Government was quick to erect fiscal and
a shock nor surprise to me. physical barriers to manufacturing, but completely out
With all our bombast, boasting and tireless references of its depth in how to plan to fill the void. And this killed
to “Sir C.V.”, the question is, why did we end up like this creativity and innovation.
— also-rans in the league tables of science and technology In practice, the soft option was to import technol-
innovation nations? Here’s my take. ogy through a foreign collaboration to manufacture even
Right through to the end of the 1980s, all economic the simplest products. For instance, equipment of vital
activity in India was possible only by obtaining govern- importance to the many small sized farms of India. No
ment licence. Industrial licensing, and currency and im- one in charge asked the question, why none of our IITs or
port controls, were routine in India’s centrally controlled mechanical engineering colleges were tasked to develop
economy. Central planning was designed to protect local low-tech equipment such as power tillers.
manufacturing, discourage imports and prevent capital Now a couple decades into liberalisation, the centrally
flight. controlled economy is a faint memory. But nothing has
It followed that the mantra of self-reliance should improved for local R&D, to the extent that there is very
extend to technology; and to this end, there was token in- little of it left. The only statistic that I need to sustain
vestment in R&D projects attached to schools of science. this argument, is from the Department of Science &
Under central planning, detailed procedures for vetting Technology, which states that of about 48,000 patents
applications for licences were designed in the belief that filed in 2017-18, less than a third were by “Indian
industry and business would resort to frivolous and “un- residents”— a term that does not necessarily include R&D
necessary” economic activity, if they were not controlled. labs.
Therefore, there were constant cat and mouse contests The old schizophrenia is now throttle. We open the
between business and government. Business tried to find economy to total foreign ownership and imports without
loopholes and the government tried to plug them. fetter but then, we weakly bleat, ‘Make in India’, with
Unsurprisingly, industrial licensing killed indigenous neither provision nor plan.
research and development. Despite government fund- On a whim, I googled the phrase “what products were
ing and protectionist policies against imports, scientific developed in India” and came up, with yoga, buttons,
research in India rarely resulted in the development of shampoo, cataract surgery and a bunch of products for
saleable products. which we appropriate credit without evidence, including
True, rockets and bombs were designed by isolated things invented abroad by anyone remotely Indian. And
R&D establishments, but it was hard to find any product of course — way back in time we invented the zero.
of value to the general public developed in Indian
labs. Most products we manufactured were based on (Ramjee Chandran is a writer, head of Explocity and host of the podcast,
technology bought or licensed from foreign shores. The Literary City with Ramjee Chandran)

62 EDUCATIONWORLD MARCH 2022