WHAT BRANCH of engineering would be the most crucial for the 21st century?  Electrical Engineering? Aeronautical Engineering?  Computer Engineering? Electronics Engineering?  No.  None of these.  It will be ‘Gandhian engineering’. Dr RA Mashelkar, Chairman, National Innovation Foundation and President of Global Research Alliance in his lecture highlighted the emergence of Innovation and focus on Gandhian Engineering to a large gathering of NIT-W Alumni and students at the Golden Jubilee and Foundation Day of NIT-W Alumni meet at the campus.Dr Mashelkar started the address at 11:45 am exactly at the same time and day 50 years ago Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation stone for the Institute. Dr. Mashelkar, Chairman of National Innovation said it gave him immense pleasure to be part of the NIT-W Golden Jubilee Celebration as it was a Mashelkar Committee in 1998/99 that had reviewed RECs and recommended that they be converted to National Institute of Technology (NIT).

Earlier during the day on the eve of the NIT-W foundation day Dr. Y V Rao, Director of NIT-W unveiled the newly designed Institute flag that represents the glorious 50 years of the Institute from REC to NIT-W. The institute also organised a run for excellence which saw the participation from 1000’s of alumni and students of the institute.In his address Dr. Rao said going forward the institute will offer many industry and future relevant academic programmes with emphasis on research and innovation. The institute also seeks private and industry participation in a far more broader manner to enable student’s gain strong understanding of industry needs.

 

Expanding the thought of Gandhian Engineering Dr. Mashelkar continued Gandhian Engineering stems from two of the profound statements that Mahatma Gandhi made.

 

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed”.

 

This means getting “more from less”!

 

“I would prize every invention of science made for the benefit for all”

 

This means getting it for “more and more people”!

 

Expanding the theory about Gandhian Engineering and the significant role it would play in the 21st Century Dr. Mashelkar said Gandhian Engineering is simply “getting more from less for more”.  This means the design and development of products and services with more performance,  from less material, less cost, less time, less environmental pollution and for benefit of not just a privileged few but for more and more people on this planet; in fact all four billion people, whose income levels are less than two dollars a day.Corporates so far worked hard to get more (productivity) from less resource (human, physical, financial capital) for more (profit, share holder value).  But now they must also embrace Gandhian Engineering by getting more (performance) for less (cost) for more and more (people).

 

When it came to products and services, “high price – high performance” was reserved for the rich.  Low price – low performance was, of course, for the resource-poor.   Can we change this price-performance envelope to say that we will build “low price – high performance” for the resource poor?  Yes, we can.  But for this, we require Gandhian engineering.  Here is an example.There was a time, when a mainframe computer occupied the size of the room.  Today a laptop sits in our lap and has a power that is far more than those old computers.   However, the laptop costs $ 2000.  Can we make it for $ 100?  May be in the spirit of Negroponte’s ‘one laptop for every child’?  Indeed it can be done.  As Encore’s Vinay Deshpande has demonstrated in CSIR’s New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative.  He has designed Mobilis, a mobile PC, which costs around $ 100 and which is getting shortly commercialised. 

 

Yet another example of Gandhian engineering is the Indian car ‘Nano’.  Tata’s people’s car – Nano is the most inexpensive car ($ 2000) in the world with an exceptional fuel efficiency and emission standards and yet a vehicle with amazing comfort.  This means ‘more from less’ – but its affordable price also means ‘for more and more people’.And Indian examples of ‘Gandhian Engineering’ abound – whether it is the international quality hepatitis-B vaccine at one tenth of the international price or a highly super-absorbing two cent diaper that a housemaid can afford.

 

Gandhian Engineering - Achieves ‘sustainability in the changing climate. 

 

Global economic meltdown:  Here extreme efficiency, war on waste and value maximization is the solution.  That means getting ‘more from less for more’.Climate change:   The answer is again getting more (performance) from less (carbon dioxide emissions and therefore global warming) so that we can save the planet for more (generations to come).

 

The lecture by Dr. Mashelkar provided several examples of Gandhian Engineering for different sectors, strata, scale and scope.  It will also describe innovative approaches of organization and funding of research to achieve ‘more from less for more’.The lecture highlighted as to how the survival of the civilian society in the twenty first century will depend on how creatively ‘Gandhian Engineering’ is used in shaping our lives, both in the developing part of the world as well as the developed part of the world.