A Country Specific Development Model for India: An Appeal for Research and Education Support from the Association of Engineers, India

The entire world is now focusing on the Emerging Economy of India. With 1/6^th of population of the world (over 100 million) India reached a GDP growth rate of 9% in 2007-08 and even after the economic downturn following the sub-prime crisis in USA, the growth rate continued to remain 6% in 2008-09 and is likely to be 8.5% in 2010-11. However despite of the above success story, the quality of life is not showing any sign of improvement and the relative position of the country in the Human Development Index (HDI) remains unchanged being 127^th out of 177 countries. The development model that the country is following is leading to two great disasters, the first is an alarming contribution to global warming and environmental pollution due to fossil fuel based energy guzzling growth and the second being the abject poverty for nearly 1/3^rd of the population due to unacceptable maldistribution of wealth.

India is a densely populated country with 4 times the population of USA and 1/3^rd of her surface area. India is the youngest nation of the world with over 50% of its population being under the age of 25 years. Roughly 1/3^rd of her population is in the middle class and above with high purchasing power, but another 1/3^rd is below the poverty line being unable to afford two square meals a day. While India is self sufficient in low-grade coal, it imports 75% of crude oil requirement resulting in a highly negative balance of trade. It is therefore imperative that the current model of economic development based on emphasis on core competencies of organizations, adoption of unbridled automation to fuel a market economy under global competition is unlikely to be sustainable in the long run. It is unfortunate that most of the dirty manufacture of the developed world, like castings, forgings, chemicals etc, is now finding its base in India and China. If the emerging economies of India and China, with 40% population of the world, follow a development model that strives towards the same per-capita fossil fuel consumption as that of USA, will the world survive?

The main challenge of India is to provide gainful occupation to its burgeoning workforce in a global and highly competitive economy without damaging the ecology to the point of no return. This requires a change of focus to harness the strength of the country, which involves skill and knowledge development of the young workforce to serve the global economy along with cashing on her unmatched bio-diversity to meet the increasing shortfall in India and abroad of value added products. It is argued that the growth model for a populous country like India should not only be globally competitive but should simultaneously be eco-friendly, sustainable, employment oriented and relatively less capital Intensive. Such an Indian Model should concentrate on Agriculture and Agro-based Industries; Tourism; Information Technology; Biotechnology, Gems, jewellery. Cut-diamond and Handicrafts; Entertainment; Pharmaceuticals, Health Services, Higher Education, Alternative Energy, Precision Equipment etc. Policy support from the Govt, of India in these areas can make India an important global player, as displayed in the recent past in the area of Information Technology. The infrastructure developmental effort should concentrate on giving support to all such areas. Simultaneously we should focus on compulsory primary education, improved basic health services and protection of environment for better quality of life for the present and the future generations.

The challenge for the next generation of Engineers should be to support sustainable growth with improved quality of life. The Associations of Engineers, India need to do serious brain storming on their research and training activities to provide a thrust towards achieving the above objective. Should we not accept this challenge?