Giving more than zero to the world

Be that as it may, the scientist administrator who loves "science and the affairs of science" and scoffs at those who reverse-engineer, laments the fact that India has given nothing to the world in the 20th century -- no Xerox, no Transistor, no Polaroid.

"In the 21st century, we have to change that," he says. So forward engineering, as opposed to reverse engineering, needs to be undertaken. Risks need to be taken. And failure needs to be accepted. "In science, if you don't fail, you have failed," he says.

So his seven-year-old New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative -- which has 50 projects under its belt -- has a healthy failure rate of 40 per cent. The project, with an annual budget of Rs 50 crore (Rs 500 million) per year, aims at bringing together public institutions and private enterprise. The count today of those working together -- 71 private sector companies and 220 institutions across the country.

Has the risk-taking paid off? "Absolutely," says Dr Yogeswar Rao, who manages the initiative. Twelve projects have been completed and another 10 will be completed by March. There is the new drug "Sudoterb" for the treatment of tuberculosis -- phase I trials are on -- in partnership with Lupin. It has cleared TB in two months in animal trials against the conventional 6-8 months.

Mobilis, a Rs 10,000 personal computer, is also on the cards -- 3,000 sets are getting beta tested at the moment. It does everything -- web browsing, word processing, spreadsheets et al -- apart from video games and high-end computing. But we are hearing of a computing machine at half that price ($100-150) from MIT's Nicholas Negroponte who is the founder of the One Laptop Per Child project?

"We entered this area when Negroponte had not even thought about it," says Mashelkar, "and we are ahead of him. Take my word for it," he says, adding that CSIR has also got its eye on the $100 price mark. The two entities are, in fact, competing for a bid in Brazil to supply low-cost computers.

But there are questions. Why should government money head to a cash-rich company like TCS so that a "biosuite" can be developed which marries biology and software? "I call it seduction money," quips Mashelkar. And it is the government which invests and supports industries around the world, whether it is in aerospace or supercomputing.

"The supercomputer in the US would not have been there if government had not invested in it." CSIR's biology labs could never have managed to make a product on their own. And yes, there are commercial disputes in such public-private partnerships. "But there is nothing that cannot be resolved...by Mashelkar," he says.

Innovative India is young