[Dec 2007, Volume 4 Quarterly Issue] Pdf File size - The IIPM Think ...

REIMAGINING INDIA
systematic underinvestment in science “is
likely to be the result if the growth of science
is left to competitive market forces”.
He then refers to the “dilemma of ‘knowledge”,
which he describes as that which,
“pertains to the lack of compatibility between
institutions which lead to the widest
possible diffusion and utilization of
knowledge and those which are particularly
relevant for its creation in the very
first instance”.
If you need active, democratic, broader
socially based, natural resource sustaining
and future oriented policy, you
need to create the intellectual environment
for it. This then means better and
more funding for research, in both the
social sciences and natural sciences, especially
in our universities. It is commendable
that the 11th plan visualizes a
massive investment in a whole new generation
of advanced higher education
institutions but existing universities do
not adequately figure in the plan. The
Finance Minister allocating sums in his
annual budget to Universities is also a
good and welcome sign.
The second theme that I would like to
pick up and highlight from Sukhamoy
Chakravarty’s prodigious output of his
intellectual labour for economics and the
country, is that relating to social learning,
social innovation and questions regarding
when do societies really become
‘learning societies’. To a certain extent,
in my view, it relates to the larger noninstitutional
aspects of knowledge, unlike
above where I partly referred to the
institutional conditions for ‘knowledge’
and ‘learning’. There is also the other
aspect of our ability to learn from other
societies. In referring to the question of
‘learning society’, we are dealing with
broader questions of Human Resources
Development and which are critical and
particularly relevant where we stand today
in our nation’s history. Knowledge in
the perspective of Chakravarty needs to
be seen as a public good. One could say,
that in spite of all the middle class parlour
talk and fashion for criticizing Nehruvian
– Mahalanobis (N-M) strategy,
it did give us a higher initial level of
knowledge to start with. Chakravarty
while objective and critical of the N-M
strategy shows its validity and contribution
also. On the second aspect, that of
knowledge being widely shared, this is
where we as a highly caste-ridden and
hierarchical society, have had our problems
and also by and large inherited so-
There is an extra-ordinarily rich harvest of ideas from
Sukhamoy Chakravarty’s writings and how we can go
beyond the dichotomies of market and state, to address
urgent and needed tasks of creating ‘a learning society’
cially serious failures also.
Other than these broad based requirements
and aspects related to creating a
dynamic learning society, that can be
self-sustaining and sustainable, in an
economic, ecological and social sense,
there are other related aspects. Some of
this is related to problems such as technology,
its adaptation, innovation, use
and dissemination. Chakravarty is of the
view that while TNCs do bring technology,
we have to seriously consider whether
it will in fact “lead to a significant
accretion of technical knowledge appropriate
to Indian conditions”. So the creation
and promotion of the conditions for
a learning society, is not just to import
and imitate but also to adapt and contextualize.
Chakravarty with reference to
technology adaptation says how it is,
“more appropriate to the factor endowments
of developing countries deserve
very close considerations”; then adds a
very important qualifier, “it would be
most inappropriate to leave questions of
adaptation to technologists alone” and
the overall macro-economic framework
must be also made conducive to the process
of adaptation. Finally, his other related
and important point, that “given
the contemporary trends in technology,
it is important to allow for a theory of
‘knowledge’ production and dissemination”.
There is an extra-ordinarily rich
harvest of ideas and practical policy options
from Sukhamoy Chakravarty’s writings
and how we can go beyond the dichotomies
of market and state, to address
urgent and needed tasks of creating ‘a
learning society’. Time and space does
not allow us to go, into further discussion
and elaboration in this area. In sum, one
can only say that we need to see how to
bring ‘knowledge’ and ‘learning’, as two
very critical aspects of not just economic
growth, but for economic, social and cultural
progress in large and complex developing
societies as ours. It would be a
mockery and travesty to reduce such
unique, rich and diverse societies as ours,
to narrow and limited frameworks of
‘state versus market’.
Comparative Development And
Governance
The renowned, ecological and environ-
20 THE IIPM THINK TANK