Technology a pawn in game of sanctions, says Kalam

“Technology should not become a pawn in the hands of geopolitics,” Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister, A P J Kalam told scientists gathered at the conference organised by the Technology Information and Forecasting Council (TIFAC).

Kalam’s statement follows the blacklisting on Friday of 40 entities and some 200 Indian subsidiaries, including parastatal institutions and private companies by the United States on the grounds that they werecontributing to India’s nuclear and missile programmes.

“In today’s world of politics, unfortunately, technology and commerce have become tools in the name of sanctions, embargoes and technology denials,” Kalam said, adding that “in an environment of sanctions, the concept of a global village is a myth”. The scientific community here has reacted with customary nonchalance, stressing that denials have only prompted them to strive harder and overcome the handicap with innovative alternatives.

Soon after the Pokharan II tests, both the US and Britain had struck out at Indian scientists, denying them visas to even attend international conferences, a move which had evoke strong protests from scientific associations in these countries itself.

The opinion of the Indian scientific community on the latest umbrella hitlist is that anyway India has been subjected to a virtual technology embargo for the last 24 years, ever since it conducted its first nuclear explosion in 1974.

“This is a formal listing of atacit technology denial that has been in existence against the Indian scientific establishment all these years,” said a top scientist in the Department of Science and Technology. Noted nuclear scientist and Rajya Sabha MP, Raja Ramanna’s reaction is that while the sanctions against institutions connected with nuclear programmes were expected, the others were surprising. The US would lose a lot of goodwill with the move, Ramanna told scientists in Chandigarh yesterday.

But the feeling that such technology denials only served to beef up Indian determination to overcome the odds finds expression across the board in the scientific community. “There really is no big difference between before the listing and after the listing: except that it makes us work harder,” said V S Ramamurthy, Secretary, DST.