‘My interpretation on sustainable development is that the development which result in social harmony not social unrest. Handful are richer more are poor what type of technology is it. 75% commoners are only earning 20 rupees per day. Eating ratio in a day has decreased in this last decade. Problem is unemployment. You will eat your physics, chemistry or engineering degree? When jobs are not there what is it to pass out from famous institutes. You should have knowledge of economy to solve these problems, technology would not solve. We have to introduce technology in agriculture. Government policies in the urban centers should be reversed. Problem is how to raise purchasing power. We can increase the production of say steal or chemicals, but the major problem is how will we sold. You should increasing purchasing power in urban areas. Farmers should become more prosperous. Unless farmers will not make profit how will they buy industrial good? Because of low purchasing power manufacturing jobs are also declining. At present prices are skies rocketing. Every parent wants to see their kids in IIT, but it cannot be true. ’- these lines were delivered by Justice Markandey Katju, Chairman, Press Council of India, who was the Chief Guest in inaugural function of Golden Jubilee Conclave on Technology For Sustainable Development.
At the M.P hole of Moti Lal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad the function started by the lecture of Guest of Honour, Dr. Santosh Mehrotra, Director General, institute of Applied Manpower Research, Government of India. He started by saying number of poor have not decline Young people should be used for the development of the nation. We should use technology for sustainable development. Water table is declining. Only 40% land is irrigated 60% depends on rain. Why manrega in the country is so important because it is creating asset which will save rain water. As we grow we would industrialize, we need land for that. Mining in unplanned manner is there both in legal and in-legal manner. You can’t go on displacing Adivasi. We have no action plan for climate change. China is 20 years ahead of us because it relied on solar, pekoe micro hydra. We can take the example of Allahabad where there is electricity in most of the houses but there is a 6-8 hours power cut. I would like to challenge the youth how solar can be used. He concluded by words of Mahatma Gandhi- ‘If you want to see change be that change.’
The conclave had the invited lectures by some of the prominent experts. This includes personalities like Prof G.K Rai, Director, Institute of Professional Studies, University of Allahabad who delivered his lecture on Technology and Sustainable Development-finding our way out. He started by saying there is no harm if we are adopting western model. We cannot desire that a small kid will have the deep knowledge of culture. One and all cannot be a scholar. He also compared America and Africa and showed some analytical statistics. He concluded by saying ‘Poor man can be rich in terms of happiness’.
Other speakers were Prof K.S Rao, IIT, Delhi who spoke on Sustainable Infrastructure Development, Prof D.K Srivastava, Director, Madras School of Economics, Chennai, who spoke on Sustaining India’, Prof Kiran Seth, IIT, Delhi, who spoke on India’s Core Competence, Dr. G.N Pandey, who spoke on Nuclear Energy for national development, Prof Chandan Ghosh, NIDM, Delhi who spoke on Sikkim Earthquake 2011, Prof. S.K Joshi, NPL, Delhi who spoke on Sustainable Development-Needs a realignment of engineering education, Prof D. Bandopadhay, Vice Chancellor, GGIP University, New Delhi who spoke on Sustainability in the paradigm of Management & Policy, and Prof M.M Pant, who spoke on Education and Sustainable development.
The conclave had many students and faculty members of different colleges of Allahabad. The conclave’s inaugural function was preside by Prof. P Chakrabarti, Director, Moti Lal Nehru National Institute of Technolgy, Allahabad.
