Besides listing multiple steps that his office is taking towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Principal Scientific Advisor Prof Ajay Kumar Sood stresses that innovations that we will do through science and technology will take the country forward. In the second part of his Q&A session with Deepak Dwivedi, Editor-in-Chief of Blitz India, Prof Sood stresses that the power of a country is in technology and that technology comes from deep science. Also, he advocates the adoption of S&T route to growth without any compromise on human values. The following are excerpts from the concluding part of the interview: Deepak Dwivedi: There is always a talk of innovations in schools. What about innovative programmes in schools with an innovative mind? Prof Ajay Kumar Sood: We have a flagship programme, scientific cluster, S&T cluster, city cluster. We have seven clusters in it. There are academic institutions around Pune, which are scientific universities and startups, industries etc. All of them together form clusters and we give some funding to them for starting. We are also making it in the country now. This is a small attempt, we are not saying that this is enough for the whole of India. This is not enough. But you can implement a lot by starting a small thing. This is to promote women and youth in this whole initiative. So, in that we have done many such programmes in which we give scholarships to girl students through this platform. And there are many programmes which are for women entrepreneurs, to ensure how we can empower women. So, if you see our platform, there are many programmes in it which are specific.
DD: Another very important issue that you have linked to the brainstorming is Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The real picture in the country is that only a few people know about Sustainable Development Goals. What measures have you added to promote it?
AKS:Let me tell you again by giving some examples. As you know that SDGs have 17 goals which come to different verticals. There is a vertical on health. Now, if you look at it in a conventional way, then you will say that for good health, do this, do that. But what our office has created a very important mission which we have just started. It is called ‘One Health Mission’. If you take human health and see it in isolation, only a limited effect will come. We have to combine human health, animal health and wildlife environment in One Health, because the diseases that come; like take the case of avian flu, it is coming from someone else. In One Health Mission, we have made many verticals. Eleven ministries are involved in One Health Mission. Yes, 11 ministries are working together! All have come together. In one of ICMR, one health institute has been created, which is coming up in Nagpur. All 11 ministries will look after it together. This is SDG. You see that animal health is quite different, the animal husbandry vaccine is also very less, so how we should run it. Now, I’ll give you a practical example of that. There are BSL labs which are very high-security labs. Bio-Security Labs are three and four. Without them you cannot do this research. We brought all the ministries on BSL labs, on the same platform. Anyone can use it. So, it is the SDG of health. Similarly if you see another SDG vertical, what can we do in education? We are seeing that. Waste-to-Wealth is part of that, circular economy comes in the same way, so there are many such efforts of the Office of PSC and the Government. Our effort is that how we see it with the SDGs. This revolution worked because we worked very closely with the SDGs, with NITI Aayog.
DD: An important thing has emerged in this. In the last one year, the Prime Minister has talked about a developed India by 2047 and he has spread the agenda of developed India to every village very fast. What should be the picture of sustainable development and developed India is directly linked to SDGs. As you have integrated all the laboratories, in that all 17 goals have been integrated with SDGs in developed India. One thing is decided then, that the awareness about SDGs has come in the country; we are not talking about implementation. Today, India is in front of the world, a model example of SDG awareness, and the Prime Minister has taken the lead in that.
AKS:See, we have to take this in many stages, like whatever programme-lunch happened, LiFE (Lifestyle for the Environment) for example. It is that how we balance our work and create a sustainable lifestyle. Our role in that is that wherever we do anything in whatever sector, the S&T intervention is there. Now, you see, renewable energy is a part of climate change mitigation. A lot of things are happening in that because unless you bring S&T intervention, it will not scale up. So, how are we promoting green hydrogen, how are we promoting electrical vehicles (EV), how we are bringing new battery technologies? All this will be done together so that it can become a part of our life. See, now lithium ion battery has become a part of our life. But we ask, is it sustainable, do we have the critical minerals that will take us for 100 years? The answer is NO. So, what alternate chemistry do we have to do it, this is S&T. This is a very entangled question without which you are not fulfilling the goals of SDGs.
DD: Viksit Bharat 2047, which is the agenda of the Prime Minister to make a developed India and on which all the people are working very hard, what is the role of science and technology in it?
AKS:There is a lot of work being done in this, there are many committees which are looking into it. There are a lot of verticals, many things have been confirmed in those verticals. We have to bring strength; where are our gap areas, and where do we have to work in the immediate five years? If you want to work in the next 10 years, then many things are coming in it, like it is quite detailed, actually there is a lot of work being done in it. There are many sectors in it, like we have Artificial Intelligence. Today, every country is talking about Artificial Intelligence. In that you have seen that India has launched a mission on Artificial Intelligence a few months ago. A lot of work is being done in that on Artificial Intelligence. Many ministers are participating in it. How will we make it compute? You cannot depend on outside models all your life, whether you make them in Europe, or in India. Why India-specific? We have a lot of diversity, we have so many languages. If you are asking the question in Punjabi, how will someone answer in the foundation model? He cannot do it. Then it is easy to say that the foundation model will be built, for that compute facility is needed of very high quality. It is coming in this mission. From where will the data come to us? So what is our great strength? Data demography, data diversity. How we use it, it has many pillars.
DD: As we have come to the conclusion now, as Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India, what is your message to the countrymen, especially the youth, industry, entrepreneurs and academics? How should they prepare themselves for 2047?
AKS:My point would be that we move forward considering science and technology as the base. The innovations that we will do through science and technology, the deep-tech innovations that we will do, because of that our country will move forward because the power of a country is in the technology and that technology comes to you from deep science. We have to move forward, we have to take forward innovation-led growth in the country, if we do that, then we are moving forward for the leadership of the world. Whatever is happening, it has to be speeded up, we have to scale up. My point is that if you have decided that I have to take science and technology with social values, you do not compromise human values. It is not that you do it by hurting someone. Don’t do that. Let’s get together. If we have to make this India a developed India, science and technology will have a central role in it with human values which are equitable and inclusive
