Stressing on the need for India to have a “proactive and pragmatic” strategy to deal with climate change, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday exhorted the scientific community to develop environment-friendly and efficient technologies that are “affordable and also scalable”. Speaking after inaugurating the 95th Science Congress here, the Prime Minister said India must take steps to stop further environmental degradation even though the major responsibility lay with the developed countries. “They (the developed world) bear the biggest responsibility for what has happened and must bear the greatest responsibility for correcting the damage. But we too have to take action. I believe our response must be proactive and based on our finding feasible and practical solutions to the real and potential threats we face,” the Prime Minister said. Towards this end, he said, the scientists must also tap into traditional knowledge base. The Prime Minister identified five areas where such clean technologies needed to be applied on a “war footing”, among them food production and energy security. Mass transport systems, construction industry and manufacturing sector were the other areas where such technologies needed to developed, he said. “The most important area for the application of knowledge for sustainable development is in energy conservation and the development of renewable energy sources,” Manmohan Singh said while advocating greater dependence on solar and atomic energy. “I would like to see a concerted effort being made in the development of solar energy by our scientific, technological and business communities. “In the longer run, atomic energy can also make an important contribution to energy security. It is this perspective which has led us to seek removal of restrictive regimes which prevent India from participation in international trade in civilian nuclear materials, equipment and technologies,” he said. This year’s Science Congress—an annual jamboree of Indian scientists which has attracted close to 4,000 delegates to Vizag—has its theme as “Knowledge Base Society Using Environmentally Sustainable Science and Technology”. Manmohan Singh said the Government was ready to invest in and strengthen the infrastructure required to develop the scientific capability in this new area. “We need a quantum jump in science education and research. This agenda can no longer wait. I am aware that we need policy reform, we need institutional reform, we need organisational reform, and above all, we need more investment in science education. Let us work together and transform science education and research in India,” he said.
