Agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan on Saturday urged young scientists to harness science and technology to shape the ecological, economic and social future of the country.
“For mainstreaming the concept of sustainability in our research and development work, there are six major principles which our young scientists will have to keep in mind, namely ecology, economics, equity, employment, ethics and energy,” he said, inaugurating the second Indian Youth Science Congress that got under way at SRM University, Kattankulathur.
Noting that science was the prime mode of change, Professor Swaminathan, who is the chairman of M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, said every effort should be made to maximise the benefits of available financial resources and steps taken to strengthen the insurance system in order to reduce risk.
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Laying stress on equity, he said inequities arose during birth, and were intra-generational in the form of poverty, hunger, illiteracy, and inter-generational which affect yet to be born children. Genetic deformity occurring in children of the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy was an example of this and, hence, ecological economics should be promoted.
Young scientists have to be the prime movers of sustainable development, Professor Swaminathan said. He said the year commencing on August 12, 2010, has been declared the International Year of Youth by the United Nations. The theme of the year was “sustainability, our challenge, our future,” he said, adding that youth constituted the majority of India's population.
Later, in a brief interaction with reporters, he said agriculture output in the country had come down by 0.2 per cent last year owing to an extensive drought. With predictions of a normal monsoon this year, he was hopeful of a turnaround.
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On the impact of Cyclone Aila on the Sunderbans, he said necessary steps had been initiated along with the West Bengal government to effectively maintain the ecologically sensitive region. A joint committee to mitigate the damage caused by the cyclone in the mangrove forests had been formed. He pointed out that only one-third of the Sunderbans was in India and the rest in Bangladesh. There was need for governments of the two countries and also world organisations to come together in protecting this sensitive region. “The amount of damage caused to the Sunderbans is a warning for us that we are managing our ecosystems badly,” he said.
K.K. Dwivedi, Head, National Council for Science and Technology Communication, V.S. Hegde, Scientific Secretary, Indian Space Research Organisation, T.R. Pachamuthu and P. Sathyanarayanan, Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor respectively of SRM University, and Ajay Parida, Executive Director, MSSRF and vice-president of the congress were among those who spoke on the occasion. William Dar, Director General, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi Arid Tropics, was present.
More than 600 delegates representing students, young researchers and scientists, academicians from all over India would be taking part in several sessions and also presenting papers during the course of the three-day conference. The first Indian Youth Science Congress too was held in Chennai last year.