Monday, August 08, 2005

The Next Knowledge Superpower:

Few years ago, Stories and News began to appear in the international media suggesting that China and India were "stealing" jobs from wealthy nations- not only industrial jobs even white collar jobs of well educated people, like those that had migrated to south-east Asia and China.Today we know that the trickle of jobs turned into a flood. China and India are now back office of many banks, a magnet for labour intensive, tedious programming, and the customer services voice of everything from British Airways to Microsoft.
In real life,the changes in India and China have been more profound than this suggests.Over the past few years alone, more than 100 IT and science based firms have located R&D labs in India. These are not drudge jobs: high-tech companies are coming to India to find innovators whose ideas will take the world by storm. Their recruits are young graduates, straight from India's universities and elite technology institutes, or expats who are streaming back because they see India as the place to be- better than Europe and the US. This knowlodge revoluation has begun.
This is the great opportunity for Nepal being situated between two future Superpower countries. Nepal's foreign policy is also good between both countries. There is more influence of India than China because of open border, culture, climate and so on. Today,In India high-tech is not the sole perserve of the rich. Autorickshaw drivers began using mobile phone so that customers can call for a ride. Technology companies are extending internet connections to the remostest locations. Small,renewable electricity generators are appearing in villages, and the government is using home- grown space technology to improve literatecy skills and education in far flung areas.
These all efforts are often piecemeal and progress is slow in Nepal.Today, Illiteracy is reducing only at the rate of 1.3 percent per annuam.At this rate, Nepal will need another 25 years to attain a literacy rate of 95 percent. Hopefully,Development in India and China's technologies can speed up in this progress in Nepal. Science too has its role to play. We cannot be industrially andeconomically advanced and we cannot be technologically advanced unless we are scientifically advanced. One of the critical issues facing Nepal is the gulf between the academic world and industry. The notion that scientific ideas lead to technology and from there to wealth is not widespread.Nepal needs economic liberalisation and competation between Nepalese comapnies which is being tamed, so they are under no pressure to come up with new ideas, nor did academics promote their ideas to industry.
Nepal's attitude to patents are a product of that mindset.The country has no tradition of patenting, and only recently have institutes and academics started spinning off companies and failing for patents in earnest. Most applications filed in Nepal still come from foreign companies. Until now, the country did not recognise international patent rules, a failure that hampered interactions with foreign compaines.The suspecion remains that Nepalese comapanies are out to steal ideas. Nepalese companies and people are not not yet able to wipe away that image. While Nepal has adopted those international rules on paper, there is still concerns about strictly they will be enforced.
Bringing research round to a more commercial way of thinking is not the only issue that academia must face uo to.Another cultural problem, according to some scientist and researchers, is that too often instituations have an ethos of playing safe. Researchers who devise and test daring theories are criticised if they fail, discouraging the kind of ground breaking research that Nepal needs.
In recent years, IT and outsourcing has improved the economy and quality of life of people but negative effect on science in Nepal even in India as well. IT and Management are increasing numbers because that's where money is to be made. Nepal and India should encourage to grow science based companies which can help to demand for fresh blood increases, salaries will rise and more students will opt for science.
While process of development in Nepal and current situation about Moist war. Now we Nepalese has good choice whether we want democracy or communist government? We can take example from our neighbour countries India and China. India is democratic country where government spends only $6 billion a year on research and it still has fewer scientists per head of population than China and South Korea. While IT and services are helping India log 6 percent year on year increases in GDP, China's vast manufacturing base is raising its GDP by around 9 percent a year. Even in India's strong suit of knowledge based industries, China could steal the march on it, not least because its Communist government can command change, while in the democratic government can only guide national development.
By 2050, China is going to be the second largest economy in the world and India is going to be third largest economy in the world after USA.We Nepalese have suitable time to utilise this time with our future Superpower neighbours.This communist war will black age (time) in our Nepali history and will be blamed by future generation.

No comments: