Let146;s plan nano-towns

It is said that an engineer is a specialist who can do for one dollar what others will do for two dollars.

It is said that an engineer is a specialist who can do for one dollar what others will do for two dollars. On that basis, in producing their new car Nano, Tata Motors have definitely demonstrated that they have specialist engineers. This launch is arguably the greatest triumph of Indian engineering since Independence.

No doubt we have had other outstanding engineering achievements 8212; in atomic energy and space, for instance. In both cases, in spite of functioning under severe restrictions of international sanctions, our engineers have been producing large, complex systems of international quality. However, they repeated what others had done before. They never attempted what had not been done before, let alone anything described as impossible.

C-DoT, sadly forgotten these days, is another achievement that comes to mind in this connection. At one stage, over 80 per cent of Indian telephones operated with C-DoT technology. Like Nano, it was small; it was economical. However, it did not have to contend with the kind of complexity, the safety and environmental restrictions Nano has had to. C-DoT deserves a better place in the history of Indian technology than it has but not on par with Nano. Nano is the greatest not so much because it is a complex piece of engineering, but because it has achieved what others, even the greatest manufacturers of the world, have not dared.

Nano has been criticised on the ground that it will choke our cities. That brings to mind a similar issue that cropped up when jet engines came into vogue and needed very long runways for their operation. The British, the pioneers of jet engine design, produced the VC-10 specifically designed to operate from the small runways of India and Africa. Boeing thought otherwise. It made the 707 the most efficient aircraft of the time and insisted that airports expand and redesign their runways. The rest is history: VC-10 vanished and the 707 dominated the skies.

Likewise, we have two choices: restrict our vehicles to fit existing roads or expand our roads and redesign our towns and cities to accommodate the vehicles our people want. Unfortunately, our town planning is way behind international norms. At best, it develops gated colonies for the rich; in general it forces the emerging middle class to huddle in slums. Therefore, there is every risk, we will go the way of the British and their VC-10 and choke out a daring innovation like the Nano.

Here is a new challenge for Ratan Tata, who is talking of retiring. Obviously, he cannot sit idle. He has to take up new challenges. As of now, there cannot be a better challenge for him than that of modernising our cities and towns to match the prowess of the Nano. Tata has been trained as an architect. Hence, this kind of challenge must be right up his sleeve.

There is one more reason why Tata should consider investing his talent and energy in the engineering of nano-towns. His unit in

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Singur has been in trouble and continues to be mired in controversy. Admittedly, the critics are technophobes who have opposed every kind of progress without producing workable, let alone superior, alternatives. At the same time, we should acknowledge that they are able to influence large numbers of people and create mayhem.

Engrossed in intricacies of technology, engineers tend to overlook related social issues. For instance, in Singur, Tatas gave an opening to the likes of Medha Patkar by so designing their exercise that it increased intra-village disparity. The Rs 8 lakh compensation they offered to displaced farmers was generous. That generosity itself became the root of local discontent, because the nextdoor neighbours got nothing. Though it was the state government and not the Tatas that was responsible for not giving relief to casual labourers who used to get occasional jobs on the land taken over, they too developed a grievance against the Tatas. For this reason too, Tata should devote attention to the issue of designing habitats to fit large modern technology projects.

8216;Inclusion, Expansion, Excellence8217; is the three-part motto of the XI Five Year Plan. It is a good way too to define the social engineering issues of modernisation and globalisation. Unfortunately, it is not possible to maximise all these three simultaneously: Inclusion of everyone will not lead to excellence; it will retard expansion too. Rapid expansion will necessarily place a premium on the competent, exclude the less able and increase disparities. Due to paucity of skilled manpower, rapid expansion will have to sacrifice excellence too. Likewise, maximising excellence will adversely affect both inclusion and rapid expansion.

The challenge of social engineering lies in putting together the mutually incompatible inclusion, expansion and excellence in such a manner that it causes least offence. The solution is not easy. Compromises will be necessary, and no compromise will satisfy everyone.

The writer is a former director of IIT, Chennai

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