Roundtable on Indo-US Public-Private Partnership in R & D and Technology Endeavors: The Road Ahead
December 2, 2004, New Delhi

Inaugural Address by Mr Kapil Sibal, Hon'ble Minister of State for Science & Technology and Ocean Development

The scientific and technological cooperation between India and the USA is five decades old, largely unfettered by the cold war and by the then prevailing geopolitical situation. The rich legacy of this cooperation was driven substantially by personal contacts. Both governments, however, played a pivotal role in envisioning and supporting some major science and technology initiatives. The Green Revolution in India ushered by the PL 480 grants, the establishment of the Indian Institute of Technology, (IIT) Kanpur, eventually providing the gene pool for the Silicon Valley and the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) providing for the first time the concept of tele-education reaching the remotest corners of India are some of the few classic examples of this enduring cooperation.

Our relationship over the years has matured. We stand together shoulder-to-shoulder, as equal partners and proud of our nuanced role in shaping human destiny. The establishment of the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum in the new millennium, is a manifestation of mutual respect and belief in the legacy of scientific and technological cooperation for the common good. This forum will further strengthen the bond between the two scientific communities by focusing on frontier and topical areas of scientific innovation for mutual benefit.

The recent declaration of the 'Next Step in Strategic Partnership' by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Bush has further reaffirmed our desire to co-operate in strategic matters. This has not only expanded the horizon of co-operation but opened up the possibility of putting in place an altogether new regime of mutual trust and confidence by venturing into the domain of High Technology Cooperation in areas of civilian application, Space, use of Nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, Defence and Knowledge Based Industries, like Biotechnology, Information technology and Nanotechnology.

In this new paradigm, the existence of the Indo-US Science Forum provides the S&T communities of the two countries a unique platform to foster the new spirit of a partnership based on equality. The Forum has been taken out of the pale of being an enterprise between two Governments but has been given an identity of its own with the ability to outlive Governments. The creation of a corpus fund, even though modest, ensures self-reliance and operational autonomy. In many ways, it represents a new measure of confidence in each other's strengths. Sometimes modest beginnings can have significance far beyond the apparent.

The Forum in its few years of existence has already made a remarkable beginning in catalyzing S&T interactions. As many as 30 bilateral workshops in diverse frontier areas have been conducted under the aegis of the Forum. As a first step towards strategic partnership the 'Indo-US Conference on Space Science, Applications & Commerce' held at Bangalore was supported with the participation of 140 U.S. & 360 Indians from R&D labs, academia & industry. This has fostered a strong element of public-private partnership in civilian space cooperation through the announcement of a vision document. This event has catapulted the visibility of the Forum as a prime vehicle of bilateral interaction. These events have facilitated the mobility of more than 400 American scientists to India and about 60 Indian scientists to the USA over the last two years.
Several joint Indo-US R&D projects have also emanated out of these interactions.

The social context in which we live today is dominated by the phenomenon of globalization. Globalization, of course, means many things to many people. To many it is a threat to an insular, protectionist existence - a juggernaut that must be resisted as long as possible. To many others, it is the inevitable march of modern Science and Technology, led by giant trans-national corporations into new markets and the subjugation of diverse economies into a homogenized common economic order. Some, however few, see in it a rare opportunity for rediscovering and reinventing the inter-dependence of various elements of the universe, of man and man and of man and nature. The challenge is to see how globalization is made a part of a new global 'commonsense' and how we employ Science and Technology to produce this result.

It is commonly accepted that innovative mechanisms are necessary to address global issues in science and technology. The 2002 United Nations Johannesburg Summit brought a relatively new mechanism - the public-private partnership - to international attention. While sharing common goals these partners, do not however act in unison. An examination of each partnership effort offers a glimpse of the necessary conditions to make future partnerships succeed.

The Indo-US S&T Forum - having a mandate to involve researchers from government, academia and particularly industry - should now explore through this roundtable the 'public-private partnership' mechanism in an effort to guide its own program initiatives. The Forum should capitalize on the scientific and technological synergies available in both countries and pave the way towards an active partnership aimed towards generating innovative, products and ideas. In particular, the Forum should endeavor to tailor such programs, which have a
distinct societal impact translated through a high impact factor benefiting the people and polity at large in both countries.

The intellectual capital in India should be best leveraged by the Forum through an effective mechanism of equal partnership with USA where `one' and `one' does not remain two but translates into `eleven'! Hence the Indo-US relationship fostered and nurtured through the Forum should create a win-win situation for both the scientific communities driven by the spirit of cooperation and collaboration and un-hindered by the desire to compete.

Undeniably, both India and USA have a vast and strong intellectual tradition coupled with large, varied and competent scientific establishments. I am confident that the Forum can certainly synthesize and harness these inherent strengths already available in the two great democracies of the world in order to nurture a sense of excitement for the young and old alike in developing scientific entrepreneurship and leadership for sustaining peace, human values and happiness. I am sure that this roundtable will provide some of the guiding philosophies for embarking upon initiatives by the Indo-US S&T Forum thus, adding a new dimension in our S&T cooperation portfolio of public private partnership.