KNOWLEDGE OF ECOLOGY

The empires of the future would be the empires of the mind Churchill A university professor set an examination question in which he asked, what is the difference between ignorance and apathy? The professor had to give an A+ to a student who answered: I dont know and I dont care. This dual syndrome of ignorance and apathy poignantly mirrors our present state of affairs. We are lodged deep into a dual quagmire of ignorance and apathy. Pakistan and South Korea came into being at approximately the same time, with a similar per captia income. Today our per captia income is $430 and that of South Korea: $10,500. Our country possesses many natural recourses, tiny Singapore none. Yet Singapore is the IT and financial hub of Asia-Pacific. The difference lies in the knowledge differential of both the countries; the variation in human resource development and transition from a feudal society and democracy, in the case of Singapore and maintenance of status quo in case of Pakistan. This is the century of knowledge. At no point in the annals of human history was the adage: knowledge is power, more applicable than today. Knowledge has replaced all other factors of production viz: land, labor, machine and capital. Knowledge, not material assets today hold the key to progress and development. Intellectual capital is the new currency and the resource to create value. Yogesh Gendera, a management expert says: In contrast to the traditional factors of production that were governed by diminishing returns, every additional unit of knowledge used effectively results in an incremental increase in performance. Indeed knowledge is the only instrument of production that is not subject to diminishing returns. Jawal Lal Nehru, the first Indian Prime Minister grasping the essence of the potential of knowledge; while touring MIT in 1950, requested the Americans to establish MIT-type institutions in India. Today India boasts of 8 such prestigious centers of learning called IITs. And on the other hand, we have anachronistic madrassas churning out suicide-bombers, spreading mayhem, anarchy and fratricide. Bangalore today rivals the vaunted Silicon Valley in software production. We have Darra Adam Khel supplying arms to fuel our sectarian wars and terrorism. The world has moved on, but we are condemned in the time-warp, static and underdeveloped. The only short-term and viable strategy for us to play catch-up is to create, acquire, sustain and implement 1

knowledge. We need a civil society, not a feudal/ tribal form of social organization; we need computers not missiles; we need leaders not demagogues. Knowledge is the one resource that is not consumed by use. Contrarily, it multiplies. We need to establish an ecology of knowledge. Knowledge ecology thrives on diversity of knowledge. Knowledge ecology treats knowledge creation as a dynamic, evolutionary process; in which knowledge gets created and recreated in multiple- contexts and at various points in time. Creating and sustaining this ecology is essential not only for our advancement and progress, but indeed for our survival. Primus inter pares in the field of knowledge is science. Academic science is being transformed into an economic as well as an intellectual endeavor. When scientific knowledge is appropriated to generate value and prosperity, science itself is transformed from a cultural process into a productive force that generates new prosperity. A synergy of teaching, research and technology is expected to play a more central role in the economy. Therefore we need to establish Centers of Excellence (C0E) to disseminate scientific knowledge. Such CoEs are expected to play a vital role: to provide basis for economic development through the generation of social, intellectual and human capital. These CoEs and such like universities are envisaged to become core institutions in our society. CoEs, through their research in the emerging technologies can also serve as an incubator for new industries in the country. A network of such institutions is urgently required to develop and sustain the knowledge ecology. The scientific knowledge must be leveraged into development of technology. Throughout history, advances in technologies have played important role in driving changes in the ways human beings have conducted their affairs. It has played a significant role in shaping the political, economic, social and cultural milieu of human society. And that those milieus in turn play a significant role in shaping technology and how technological advances are employed by society. And the capabilities those technologies provide the means to humankind to overcome the barriers imposed on communications by time, distance and location. These technologies are also expected to alleviate the limits and constraints inherent in human capacities to process information and make decisions. Advocate of this concept of the technology-driven change maintain; that we have embarked on a journey in which technology will become the dominate force in defining and shaping human actions, interactions, activities and institutions. Given the magnitude of change that the revolution in science and technology has the potential to induce, it is vitally

important that we understand that how this revolution, has changed, is changing and will continue to change our world. And we can derive the maximum benefit out of it. Advanced technologies are at the root of new productivity sources, of new organizational forms, and economy. The entire realm of human activity depends upon the power of technology, in a sequence of technological innovation that accelerates its pace constantly. For example genetic engineering, benefiting from the wealth of information processing capacity is progressing by leaps and bounds. It is enabling us for the first time to unveil the secrets of living matter and to manipulate life, with extraordinary potential consequences. Software development is making possible user friendly computing, so that millions of children when provided with adequate education, can progress in their knowledge, and in their ability to create prosperity. We can harness the same technology to stimulate growth and productivity; banish poverty and raise the quality of life of our masses. Therefore, knowledge ecology in fact expands to encompass and sustain the ecology of human existence. We have lost critical developmental space, in the last 6 decades. We have dispossessed three generations of ours; our criminal neglect to develop, our magnificent human resource potential has resulted in the barren landscape engulfing us. Today, we are intellectually, morally, ethically and materially barren and deficit. Do we want to continue in the same vein? Do we want to just criticize our present state of predicament? If the answer is in the negative, than we must gird ourselves for action! All is not lost- yet; we can still reverse the tide of failure, poverty, underdevelopment and illiteracy. The government inspired educational policies for the last 6 decades have failed to deliver. The lack of governmental oversight over the private educational institutions has made a mockery of education. Cognizant of the governments apathy and greedy carpet-beggars of the private education sector; we need a paradigm-shift to bring together scientists, educationists, business leaders and intellectuals to derive the benefit from a symbiosis of their collective thoughts and output. The Ivy-league universities of USA fund their massive research budgets from the generous help of the business and industry, thus deriving mutual benefit and enhancing national productivity. A similar arrangement between our CoEs and the business community could yield high mutual dividends. The case for mutually inclusive synergy between CoEs and the industry should be taken as a national cause; a crusade; and a jihad.

We must act on a war-footing. There is no time to vacillate, but to act urgently and collective to rebuild our country and society. Notwithstanding the pros and cons, despite seemingly insurmountable odds, we did manage to acquire the state-of-art nuclear technology; because the will was there. Similarly, if we harness all our sinews, we can acquire the state-of-art knowledge also. Sept 11, 2001 caused a paradigm-shift in our foreign and domestic policies; now again there is an imperative need for another paradigm-shift: we must move from a garrison-security state to an economic-security state. The times have changed: our security must derive from our economic muscle and not by military muscle. And the engines to affect this paradigm-shift are the CoEs; funded and nurtured by the civil society. We must rise from slumber to unshackle the fetters constraining our intellect; clear the cobwebs from our minds and eradicate, demolish and eliminate the feudal mind-set paralyzing our potential, well-being and future. We must build and nurture an ecology of knowledge. In the end let me give an interesting example of the power of knowledge versus the power of missiles. The potential war with India in the summer of 2002 was not deterred by the Pakistani nuclear missiles; but by the power of the knowledge-centric Silicon Valley. This is how it happened: all the data-banks of most of the Fortune 500 companies are based in Bangalore, India; at the height of the tensions, the heads of the Indian IT companies managing the back offices and call centers of the banks and airlines etc in the US were approached by their clients. The American clients indicated that unless the war risk abated, they would be constrained to shift their knowledge-assets/ operations elsewhere. This threat of exodus, would have had hit the Indian economy a debilitating blow. The Indian leadership, like Nehru earlier, grasped the essence of the argument and capitulated to the power of knowledge or the marketstake your pick- and de-escalated the military tensions with Pakistan.