Industry & Economy
-
Events
`Technology should serve national needs'
Our Bureau
Chennai
,
Aug. 9
NATIONAL needs should drive technology exploitation. India needs to plan the direction it takes in technology development based on a national perspective, according to Dr R. Chidambaram, Principal Scientific Advisor to the Union Government.
Addressing the "International Conference on Human Centred Sustainable Development Paradigm organised by the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation recently, Dr Chidambaram said that nuclear technology should be exploited for rural development.
Apart from playing a larger role in power generation, nuclear technologies find application in agriculture, food processing and water management. In India the annual per capita power consumption was about 63 kWh while in developed countries it was about eight times higher.
Maximum demand for energy is expected to come from China and India. "Nuclear energy is an inevitable option," he said.
Dr Ismail Serageldin, Director, Library of Alexandria, Egypt, said that world agriculture needs to follow certain ground rules for all round development. Net imports of food grain are expected to double in developing countries though prices are expected to be stable.
But if either India or China were to become net importers the prediction of price stability will not hold good, he said.
This would call for augmenting production in a sustainable way with equal importance given to environmental and social concerns. This called for certain ground rules, which he described as the Ten Commandments.
Article
E-Mail
::
Comment
::
Syndication
::
Printer Friendly Page
|
