Scientific Research and Social Impact- What if the Visionaries had a lounge conversation today !

Venu has been on a long flight from Boston to New Delhi and he did not like the idea of having to wait  for more hours at the airport. He cursed the Corona Virus for the (n+1)th time and proceeded to the lounge and wait for his chance to be tested and cleared. All that he could think was getting back to Chennai and lay his hands on his favorite thayir saadam (ts - rice and curds). By force of habit, he checked his mailbox and found an email from a sender he could not recognize – it was quite cryptic – dg-csir – whatever it means! He has to represent his company in a meeting called by the Director General of CSIR – which means one more day at Delhi and away from his home-made ts. The meeting was about brainstorming on how to create social impact through scientific research in India and build a roadmap. He was eager to share his industry insights and was also excited about meeting other experts on the Committee.

He saw that he was not alone – there were a few other tired travelers at the lounge seeking solace in their cups of hot beverages. On the TV, the Prime Minister was addressing the Nation on the occasion of National Science Day – he stressed the importance of innovation and indigenization. His booming voice made everybody turn their attention to his inspiring speech. At that precise moment, the power went off and the TV went dead. Vivek was the first to break the silence – “What science and technology leadership can we brag about if we cannot even ensure continuous power? “ – Venu wanted to respond to Vivek but thought of involving others in this discussion. With two hours of waiting ahead of them and uncertain of when the power will be restored, he thought it would be good to get to know others. He looked at the quite, be-spectacled gentleman who was glued to his book. Venkat spoke in a slow manner, carefully selecting his words, “its not true that great innovation happens in a constraint-free world where there is no power cut, water shortage or polluted air – many a time, these constraints inspire innovative solutions. When I returned to India and joined a CSIR lab, after my PhD at Harvard (where I had worked on a low-cost lab-on-a-chip concept), I was surprised that the low cost for India was three orders of magnitude lower as compared to my silicon chip design. I had no clue how to bring the cost down any further. I had tried all my ideas and hit a roadblock every time. Meanwhile, my parents were keen to get me married and they took me to Kancheepuram to buy some silk sarees from the local weavers. I reluctantly accompanied them, but I was still thinking about my research problem. We had reached the Weaver’s place and he was busy working with the threads of different colors and Zari to create his magical patterns – that was when the idea hit me like a bolt out of the blue – my chip should be a piece of cloth ! I should weave my lab-on-a-chip if has to be affordable. That idea gave birth to my innovation of woven “lab on chip” that cost a few paisa. I believe what enables world-class innovation with social impact is exposure to multiple domains and the willingness to seek solutions beyond our domain.”

Vivek, “I see your point Venkat – but is such innovation scalable? What will happen if that Eureka moment does not come at all ? let me share my perspective on this..” he stopped as he saw a young lady across the room desperately trying to say something. She looked a bit lost and reminded me of somebody I have seen – but I was unable to place her. She went on say, “Hello friends – I am Vidya Bagchi – did you happen to see my husband Arnab ? we were on the same flight but got separated at the Customs queue – he went to the Men’s line that was longer. We were at Boston for the annual Virology conference and he was feeling a bit feverish during the flight. He is tall, wears a black-rimmed spectacle and badly needs a haircut. Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt your discussion.”

“Hi Vidya – I am not sure I saw Arnab in our Queue. But he should come here sometime soon. Don’t worry, they don’t let anybody leave the airport without the health scan. Vivek, we are eager to hear your views, please continue.”

Vivek, “ I was on the same flight from Boston and I had an interesting conversation with the person sitting next to me – he called himself Jam Tata. He seems to be active in tech venture funding. He was passionately talking about clean energy and clean mobility - he wants to bring electric cars to India. He had visited many EV startups to scout for technology and EV experts. I felt that he is doing the right thing by quickly importing the technology and the people to kickstart EV in India – but I also was worried that his approach may not be scalable. We got into a serious debate of indigenous technology development versus importing the next available global technology. After many hours of intense debating, we agreed that it would make economic sense only if we make EVs in India – we need indigenous technology and we need to leverage homegrown companies and startups. At this stage our conversation took a new turn and we wondered how we could quickly build research capability and technical competency for our young engineers. Jam promised to create a new venture fund to support re-skilling of our engineers in EV technologies and fund industry research programs. We quickly worked out the business opportunity and decided to seek partnership with the Government. I feel that scientific research can make a social impact only when we take up to solve large, complex problems and adopt a consortium approach that brings together multiple industry, government and academic partners. Research programs that happen in silos will have very minimal impact. Look at how Singapore drives National research programs through long term technology road maps - we should get into that mode asap.”