Gigantism has run into problems

Speech of Shri P.V Narasimha Rao Hon’ble Prime Minister of India delivered during Inaugration of the National Council of Rural Institutes (NCRI) at Hyderabad on December 3, 1995 RURAL UNIVERSITIES MY VISION

Now look at the Japanese what they are doing. Miniaturisation, with greater technology, more ingenious technology, more delicate technology. That is where they are beating the others. So you will have to see that the technology that is needed for a small village, for a household would have to be found out not in the old fashion, but it has to be as sophisticated as the modern man requires. And that is what I have been calling LAPTOP technology. You know the computers, big computers, small ones, then the PCs and then finally it has come to LAPTOP and may be the PALMTOP. The next one is PALMTOP which comes on a palm. But the sophistication is the some except that it has the bigger memory and the smaller memory. That size you can always alter but the sophistication will not change because it will become more sophisticated.

Now where is it possible These technologies would have to be introduced and developed in the rural universities. This is what I wanted to tell. Others will not look at it because they have got bigger things to attend to. So it is these technologies, it is these universities would have to be married to these technologies of tomorrow, then no other country can say that India is backward. That question will not arise. Our backwardness will be gone within, say, ten years, one decade. India can jump to the forefront of the nation because this is a technology which has not been developed by any country. They have developed gigantism in the 19th century and the 20th century. They have run into problems, they have overgone things, they have over-exploited nature they have over-exploited environment; they have brought everything to the brink of destruction and now they don't know what to do. You ask them to do anything, they will only say yes we will have power plant for 8000 crores here. This same technology, they don't know how to do it from the solar energy, from wind energy. The potential of wind energy in this country by any calculation, I have been told; is over 20000 megawatts. Now why don't you do all that first in the next ten years or five years? If you can have 20000 megawatts of only wind energy completely harnessed, no pollution, no environmental problem.

Then what is the problem? The problem is of technology. And what is the technology to do? The technology has to be affordable. The farmer will say, is it cheaper than the power that is coming from Ramagundun ? So it is that simple from his point of view. Otherwise, he will say,you giveme subsidy.O.K. we will give you subsidy but we should take a decision, a policy decision, we give subsidies but we will not, we will not fight any of developing our natural resources in the matter of power. Now this is a very big decision, a decision we have not taken,we have not been able to take it. May be future Governments will. So you see that from one side, very difficult I policies are involved on the other side, very difficult questions are being faced and unless you have the entire population of this country starting from the villages, taking part, thinking about it, giving you the assistance giving you the support, the moral support, the support of the, what you call, political support, every kind of support, you will not be able to crack these problems. It is not just these words, they can show the way, they can draw lines on papers. But otherwise beyond that we cannot do. A lots of things where ideas have to come from the grass roots.

So this is the idea why we have this Institute and a Council for these institutes. We want the Council because conditions being very different from area to area, State to State, we must have someone to do the coordination and that will be done by the Council. Now the task of this Councilor the task of these institutes is going to be very complex, not what we used to do on a traditional basis, let me tell you, but it has to be very complex. We must have the help, the complete participation of the highest of our technicians in this country. Otherwise it will not be possible. So now is it going to be fashioned, how we are going to people in it. Number one, we want people who believe in this. That is why, I immediately agreed to Mr. Vavilala Gopalakrishnayya being the Chairman or whatever. He has the flair for it. But he alone will not be able to do it. I know it. Someone needs to sit with him, going to the problems, going to the technical aspects of the problem. They will have to reduce into technological components, physical components, intellectual components, so many components.

So this will have to be done at the level and we want people with conviction, we want people with the most modern knowledge, people with certain dynamism who can go to the ordinary persons and explain to them in their own language what you and I use in the jargon. Jargon will not do. It will have to be the common man's language. So many things are involved; proper communication is involved. So this is where we have been thinking of this Institute and since 1986 the functions of this Institute have become much more sophisticated and much more demanding. This is what I wanted to tell you.

I hope that we will be able to crack this problem, this problem is not only for India, it is meant for the whole world or at least for the developing countries. What succeeds in India will succeed in Burma, it succeeds in Pakistan, it succeeds in Sri Lanka. So what we are doing is a pioneering kind of work for all the developing countries plus the developed countries also in a different way from a different angle. So it is revolutionary from that point of view. That is how, I am thinking about it. My own vision of this programme is really, truly revolutionary. I hope we will have the courage, the ingenuity to do this and make it a success for the whole of mankind. Thank you very much, I have great pleasure in inaugurating it.