Kapil Sibal calls for Convergence of Technologies

Union Minister for Science and Technology & Ocean Development, Shri Kapil Sibal has said that unification of science based on unity in nature and its holistic investigation is leading us to technological convergence of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and new technologies based on cognitive science. In his address at the inaugural session of ASOCHAM Global Knowledge Millennium Summit- Nanotechnology and Biotechnology, in New Delhi today, he said that with proper attention to ethical issues and societal needs, the result of this convergence can be an unprecedented improvement in human abilities, absolutely new industries and products, egalitarian societal outcomes and highest levels of quality life.

The Minister termed the potential payoffs of the convergence of the four domains as mind boggling, ranging from enhancing individual sensory and cognitive capabilities to fundamentally altered new manufacturing processes and novel products to revolutionary changes in healthcare, to improving both individual and group efficiency, to highly effective communication techniques including brain-to-brain interaction, human-machine interfaces including neuromorphic engineering for industrial and personal use and many more.

Shri Sibal pointed out that for industry, the convergence of the four technologies has the potential to provide better value to customers at lower cost to producers, offering the possibility of further profitability improvements.

At the human level, it holds the potential to sustaining human physical and mental abilities throughout the life span, which would exceed 100 years. This would be facilitated by progress in neuroscience, cellular biology, at the nanoscale and gene therapy to cure early aging syndromes. An active and a dignified life could then be possible far into a person’s second century.

At the farm level, inexpensive nano-enabled biosensors could monitor the health and nutrition of cattle, transmitting the data into the farmer’s personal computer that advises him about the care the animals need. In the same way, sensors distributed across farmland could advise the farmer about the need for water and fertilizer, thus avoiding wastage and achieving the most profitable crop yield. Bio-nano convergence can also provide new ways of actually applying the treatment to the crops, increasing the efficiency of fertilizers and pesticides.

The Minister said that while each of these disciplines and domains is currently progressing at a rapid rate, much greater scientific and social progress can be achieved by combining research methods and results across these domains in duos, trios and the full quartet. One of the reasons that these sciences have not merged in the past is that their subject matter is so complex and challenging to the human intellect that we must find ways to rearrange and connect scientific findings so that scientists from a wider range of fields can comprehend and apply them within their own work. It is therefore necessary to support fundamental scientific research in each field that can become the foundation of a bridge to other fields as well as support fundamental research at the intersections of these fields as well. Convergence also means more than simply coordination of projects and groups talking to one another along the way, integration is the key element of convergence.

Admitting that the governments and bureaucracy are slow to respond to the grand alliance of the four technologies, Shri Sibal observed that as a result, the gaps between the potential goods and services, productivity, efficiencies and conveniences being created by convergence in the ‘age of transitions’ and the behaviours of government and bureaucracies will get wider than ever before. He said we must decide rise to the situation because those countries that are slow to recognize these patterns of change will fall further behind the more change oriented ones.

Source : Press Information Bureau
Date : March 27, 2006