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21 November 2006

The Fading Horizon

Science and Technology in Bangladesh

Zia Uddin Ahmed

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Jahangirnagar University

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Table of Contents

Preface i

One Introduction

Two Science and Our Time

Three Science and Socio-Economic Development

Four Shadows of the Past

Five Our Uniqueness: the Density Factor

Six Biological Realism: The Context Neglected

Seven Science and Technology Policy

Eight Scientific Publications

Nine Professionalism in Science

Ten Science and Industry Interface

Eleven S&T in New World Order

Twelve Exploiting Advantages: Biomedical Research

Thirteen University: Sliding Pivot of Learning

Fourteen Premises of New Vision

Fifteen Beyond the Fading Horizon

Sixteen Concluding Words

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Preface

This book is an academic discussion on the nation’s

science and technology issue. The discussion does not dwell much

upon why our S&T has been of little productivity, but rather on

how to infuse some level of productivity. Why things happen the

way they do, belongs to philosophy. How things happen the way

they do, is admittedly more relevant to us. This is the central

theme around which the issues discussed here have revolved,

contexts analysed, and course for action drawn.

The core issue is the science and technology vision of the

nation – not the science and technology policy or action of the

government. It is necessary to emphasize here that mention of the

government that has been made in the book is done strictly in

general terms. Both the custodians of science and the bona fide

managers of the society must share the overall lapses in the

nation’s scientific panorama. But this evaluation is certainly not

an issue in this book. An appreciation of the contexts that have

been highlighted in this book are more important than the laurels

and lapses of one or the other. We should, however, bear in mind

that our errors would not be overlooked in the changed world,

and someday these would be corrected but in a manner that

might not be without any pain to us.

Some important aspects of science and technology in our

country have been highlighted in a blend of personal opinion

buttressed by facts. Some of the opinions expressed may trigger

criticism, which I will accept with an open mind, although I

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would maintain as one might notice in pages of this book that

many of these views may indeed have escaped the attention of

our scientists, science educators, planners and politicians, perhaps

not by design, but by indifference. The aim of the book is to bring

into focus some of these omissions in the hope of stimulating

dispassionate debate on the important matter of the nation’s

science and technology planning.

I have procrastinated with this book for a long time but it

has not been without benefit. During the intervening period many

changes have occurred in our socio-economic panorama, some in

a rather fast pace, that have further reinforced to myself some of

the views that I have held for long.

Publication of this book has not been without difficulties.

As the book is one of debate on some serious issues, the points

raised would necessarily be either for or against existing views, if

they were to be of any use at all. Publishers quite understandably

are concerned about the potential market, which in this case,

seemed to bear little promise. I wish to acknowledge my sincere

gratitude to my former student M. A. Hassan who came to the

rescue, not for the first time, I should mention. I thank him for his

goodwill and courage. I should mention that views and opinions

expressed in this book are entirely mine, and these do not reflect

those of the publisher or the institution where I work,

Jahangirnagar University.

Zia Uddin Ahmed

Jahangirnagar University

September 2006

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One

Introduction

Facts of science are fascinating. Different people would

admire the giants of wisdom from different perspectives. I have

admired Darwin, Freud and Einstein for their incomprehensible

depth of vision. These are the three giants who revealed to

humankind what it really means to be human. They gave one

precious gift to humankind – the realisation of the nature of

human being, and the place it occupies in the universe. Darwin

spoke about the biological nature of the humankind, Freud gave a

new dimension of the human existence that is real yet largely non-

biological, and Einstein showed perhaps the limits of the

abstractive capacity of the human brain. They offered a plain

truth – a human being is both biological entity, and at the same

time a super-entity in the vast expanse of the universe. Facts of

biology are important in the context of both the individuals, and

of the society.

Appreciation of the importance of biology in the social

dynamics of species is as much important today as it was in past.

This is focused in the context of Bangladesh, a country quite

unique in many ways. In different sections of the book, certain

facts of commonsense biology have been discussed that we have

ignored for long. This is not due to any intellectual inadequacy in

the science of biology but rather it relates to the manner of our

treatment of the subject. Biology contains the contentious subject

of organic evolution, which conflicts with the idea that scientific

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knowledge cannot fully explain the natural world and therefore

brings forth the hand of God in drawing up the course of organic

evolution. The issue of evolution has always been a matter of

belief rather than one of hard-core science in the sense that despite

overwhelming evidence in its favour, it cannot be proved by

conventional methods of science since the process is bound by

cosmic time scale. But an appreciation of the simple facts of

biology as they influence our life is becoming increasingly critical

for our survival in a meaningful manner.

The chapters of this book have been organised in a

general manner. In the context of science and technology

planning, which involves many disciplines and complex

interactions, it is important to appreciate certain attributes of the

time and the place in which the process unfolds. The beginning of

the book is marked by a cursory glance at science as it relates to

our life today, and how the disciplines of natural science are now

linked with the newer disciplines in the socio-economic sectors far

more closely than it was in the past. A sharp focus on one unique

aspect of our country has been made. This is described as the

density factor1, which emphasises the population density rather

than population size (although both are important and closely

connected) as the critical determinant of many aspects of our life

and the socio-economic profile of the country. The issue of social

entropy, which will inevitably increase under the circumstances

that we live in – large population, high population density and

severe resource constraints – have been highlighted

1. Ahmed, Z. U. 2002. Biomedical Research in Bangladesh: Silent Frontiers of Opportunity. J. Asiat. Soc. Bangladesh – Sci. 28: 63-80

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not to spell doom, but for possible avoidance of it’s coming in the

fierce form that is feared by many. An appreciation of the above

facts is pivotal for our existence and this appreciation would

constitute what I call biological realism, an important issue for us

than it is for any other country of the world.

One would note that on all these issues some dismay has

been overtly expressed. I might have highlightd these issues far

more strongly than they actually deserve, but this has been done

because their omission has cost us dearly in all our activities,

particularly in the important sector of science and technology.

Biologists are generally apathetic to counting; the science of

biology began with a descriptive tone, which has persisted to a

large extent to date. But one should not ignore the fact that in the

history of biology the act of simple counting produced wonders; it

generated a highly revealing piece of knowledge on which nearly

the whole of modern biology rests.

Gregor Mendel counted the peas grown in the garden of

the Austrian monastery and kept records of the number of

different types of peas that appeared in his experiments. When he

looked back into these numbers a pattern slowly emerged, the bits

and pieces slowly began to fit into an order, which led to the

foundation of modern biology’s wonder, the science of genetics.

Thus, if we are willing to do some simple calculations, these

would reveal many important facts about, for instance, the limits

of social forestry or of agro-forestry in our unique setting, or about

how much of prime land would we require to harvest a million

kilograms of plant biomass to produce a commercially successful

herbal product. Our position ought to be clear in terms of the

biological perspectives of the country. The zeal of the ‘supercow’ of

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the 1970s is much diminished now. Cow needs grass, grass needs

prime land as rice. If cows are to be fed on the available land, we

ourselves must be condemned to starvation unless milk and meat can

be produced in large enough quantities and sold in the international

market at high enough price to allow us buy the necessary rice at

international price. If, in such simple matters we do some

calculations, we would perhaps avoid costly mistakes, and

certainly this would help us align our efforts in more productive

directions.

The fast changing world order requires us to think fresh

as to how we can fit into the changing circumstances in a

profitable manner. But many predictions, I frankly admit, that

would surface through the book in more than a fair share may

give one the painful feeling of a horizon that is doomed to be

obliterated shortly. But this is certainly not the message that I

wish to advance. We should look ahead with hope, and dedicate

our efforts to conquest of the fading horizon. In this task history

may be on our side, and in its achievement our faith in our ability

must be called upon to play the lead role. I have tried to replenish

this hope in the end.

A course of action has been hinted, which may be

worthwhile to consider in developing a strategic route for our

science and technology planning. We might for the time being put

relatively less emphasis on high level basic research in science,

because it is far too expensive than our wealth might permit at

this time. This is, however, not a blanket denouncement of basic

research; instead it is to highlight the fact that basic research

should be supported in a certain manner. That is, it must be both

highly selective, and be given the best financial support so that

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the attainments are of international standard. This is a serious

matter and needs careful study in its planning. From practical

point of view we should at this point of time search for our

relative advantage in a globalised world, with an open mind as to

the fact that our benefits would also be relative, and these would

come in a simple equation of practicality which we must carefully

weigh and try to maximise our benefit. This course of action

would not be entirely novel and without any precedence in

history. The human subjects that the Mayflower delivered in 1636

in the continent of American comprised a collection of highly

enterprising talents who saw in their ‘New World’ a new hope of

life, a hope that Europe could not offer them over its long history.

They found in their new land enough natural resources for which

they had ready scientific knowledge derived from the European

Renaissance. This gave them the opportunity to make the best use

of the resources. Their journey thus began with inventions that are

practical and useful, and channelling those into trade and wealth-

building process of the nation. It took a long time but only after

they had acquired sufficient wealth did they turn their attention

towards the difficult terrains of basic science.

If we prefer this route – that is, if we decide to make a

start with the technology readily available or technology that can

be readily developed to facilitate nation’s wealth-building

process, and then look towards basic science with the seriousness

it deserves – then one immediate question would arise. Who will

do it? Can the government do it well under the prevailing

circumstances in the country, or we should subject the process to

the forces of free market? On this, perhaps, the answer would be

as difficult as the question.

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**Human civilisation began with the discovery of fire

some 50,000 years ago. It was heralded through harnessing energy

that nature produces in the form of hydrocarbon bonds by the

process of photosynthesis. Fire was created initially by igniting

plant material, and much later by burning fossil fuel to produce

heat, the kit for survival, and the tool for both war and pleasure.

Then came in succession waterpower, wind power, steam, the

internal combustion engine, and finally, nuclear power. Energy

increased comfort, raised longevity of humankind but at the same

time, it caused vast increases in their numbers particularly in

areas with warmer climate and fertile land. Biologically, these two

are often bad signals, which the world faces today with agony,

but is inadequately prepared to confront. Also, we have been

producing far too much heat from the hydrocarbon bonds than

the planet can bear, and for this the posterity is destined to pay a

heavy price.

Standing on the threshold of the twenty first century,

Bangladesh presents some remarkable contradictions that are

discussed passionately but often with their meaning masked by

unrestrained zeal and occasionally outright superfluity. We are

deeply confused about what we have in terms of wealth and

resource, and how to harness whatever we have in our hands. The

confusion has its genesis in our past. The fertile land, mild climate

and very high mortality of its people created a fatalistic mindset,

sprayed with a mood of melody and rhythm but little of challenge

and struggle. Then came a time when we had to traverse through

the long and tumultuous time under the British Raj and its

successor, the Pakistan rule. Our birth as the new nation of

Bangladesh thus could not have been without problems, some of

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which are unfathomable, but for the most part, we decided to

leave them unattended.

As a severely resource-constrained country with a

projected population of some 400 million by the end of the

century living in a landmass of 148,000 square kilometres, which

possibly represents the highest population density that any land

mammal ever attained in the history of the planet, and the lowest

per capita land and income, Bangladesh presents a nightmare.

The large population is of course a resource, a capital that we

have not yet seen in the right perspective. True, we know some

facts with cocksure certainty. Our population is a potential

wealth representing a huge market and very significant

management advantages that come from the high population

density in a very small landmass. Labour is cheap and will

continue to be so in the foreseeable future so the country could be

readily transformed into a manufacturing country, highly

competitive in the global market. There will be great interest in

the industrialised world in such a transformation of Bangladesh.

This would cause rapid relocation of their industrial units in our

country where these units would operate on low wages. From

such relocation, the industrialised countries will derive three

important benefits – the venture will be highly cost-effective,

their home country will stay free from the industrial pollution,

and more importantly in the changed world today, it will reduce

pressure of migration.

But scarcely do we see the darker sides of these cocksure

certainties. Business community is not prepared to see these with

any measure of seriousness because these lie outside their

immediate concerns of business and profit. Politicians are not

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sufficiently well oriented to appreciate their meaning. The

intellectuals are far too busy in drawing the difficult line between

vision and reality. The scientific community is stupefied by the

conflict between high ideals in their world and the cruel realities

on ground, with a fraction rapidly turning into triumphant

tradesmen of some sort at a cost to the nation that they are unable

to see.

The scientists for their part like to live secluded in their

own world and seldom like to venture into other fields. This

makes them incomplete in one important way – their knowledge

on matters outside the narrow confines of their interest is no

better than that of an educated layman. They can thus offer no

real help to the nation in finding the right track. This deficiency on

the part of the scientists is a serious problem in many developing

countries of the world. Only a few of them have been able to come

out of the conflict between high ideals and on-ground realities,

and this has actually been made possible by the vision of non-

scientists – those few gifted politicians who could clearly see the

role that science would play in shaping the destiny of the nation,

and were able to mobilise nation’s scientific programme in fruitful

directions. Sadly, we failed to reap any such benefits from our

politicians perhaps for historical reasons, and partly due to our

indifference. At any rate, it brought great misfortune for the

nation.

Creating wealth is complex. The prevailing notion that

quantity of energy used and the amount of material progress

achieved follow a simple relationship is now being questioned.

The relationship between the quantity of energy used and the

quantity of wealth created is fast becoming increasingly non-

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linear. Major revolutions – the French Revolution, the Industrial

Revolution – are all based on human labour, manual labour for

the most part. Modern science offers us labour-saving devices at

an accelerating pace. The next social revolution would be one of a

different kind, which is difficult to predict now, but it will not be

based on human manual labour as its raw material. Energy of the

muscle has been greatly replaced by energy of the machine, and

vast improvements will be made on these machines in more

energy-saving directions.

Indeed, there are suggestions that substantial decoupling

of energy and progress, not ‘energy’ and ‘work’. Scientifically,

energy and work are related, a certain amount of work requires a

certain amount of energy. This relationship is universal. But

progress has an element of subjectivity in it. Miniaturisation

technology called nanotechnology is an example where machines

operate on scales of a billionth of a metre, nanometre, allowing

microscopic moving parts to do the work. With better scientific

knowledge humankind may attain higher levels of progress with

relatively less energy expenditure and less work done.

This decoupling of energy and progress may be

advantageous for some countries of the world provided that they

own the knowledge and skill of the right kind. This is where we

may have an advantage, but for this we need to orient our vision

in our unique socio-biological contexts. This aspect has been

highlighted in this book, often with unpleasant repetitions, as it

seems that these contexts continue to be buried in a mess of chaos

both within the intellectual community and the general public.

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The future offers us opportunities, and these would

emanate from an important biological phenomenon – the

population density. No nation on Earth, for instance, will have to

accommodate by the year 2050, as the trends in population

growth suggest, close to 300 million people in an area just over

148,000 square kilometres! This huge population, and the high

density might have some brighter sides that are yet not fully

appreciated. There is also a unique physical-economic context.

Bangladesh has a very low per capita income, but income

generated per square kilometre of area is perhaps the highest in

the developing world. This is a consequence of very high man-

land ratio, which inevitably leads to ‘high physical density of

economic activity’1. However, the potential benefits of this

phenomenon are not well understood at this time. Similarly, we

have attained the highest ‘cropping intensity’ in our land due to

small land area and high demand for foodgrain. Sadly, perhaps

we will also rank very high in the ‘density of pollution’ of our

land, water and air, measured as pollution level per unit area.

Are we making correct investments for the distant future

instead of making the most of the present, and hoping that gains

made today will give us a better tomorrow as a natural

consequence? Apathy towards long-term thinking is

understandable, but a clear vision of the long uncharted terrain of

the future should not be sacrificed at the altar of the dancing

present. This will amount to courting with disaster. How are we

going to chart the course along that long and difficult track? The

questions that have been highlighted here are also the questions

that are frequently debated in public forums, but with much

superfluity. With no land for farming and cropping, and a huge

population waiting in agony for food and shelter, have we

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correctly looked beyond the narrow confines of just the next few

years, about how to capitalize our human resources?

Our long-term planning must include significant

investments in creating the right kind of human skills – that is,

right kind of skilled hands through science and technology

development, not just the skills of needle and thread, or of pulling

the levers in industrial units. The skill must successfully compete

globally; its competitive price and high quality should be a matter

of envy for our competitors. The right skill will lead to sustainable

wealth building capacity, a capacity that will operate with little or

no dependence on land. Land is our scarcest commodity. It is

fixed in area, its interior is yet largely unknown, and its exterior,

and vertical space above is void. Our current level of prospecting

does not show us any great promise. Trade and industrialisation,

our primary preoccupation at present, is important for GDP

growth. The manufacturing sector will unavoidably be our

primary focus of growth as it was the case with Japan, which had

in the past a nearly parallel scenario as ours with respect to

people, land, energy and natural resources. But in Japan the

powerful Samurai lords mobilized the people in highly

productive directions. After the World War II, Japan owned a

workforce that was a manufacturing miracle. Industrial

productivity rose to unprecedented levels under Western

managerial and technological inputs.

We must think of our future in these directions. It is

through S&T that we can hope to achieve lasting benefits, by

producing hands and brains capable of trading with skill and

knowledge in the art of manufacturing. If this is not done, if only

unskilled hands are our main offering to the manufacturing

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sector, we may have to pay a penalty, a modern enactment of the

classic saga of Uncle Tom’s Cabin – workers with little salary but

otherwise reasonably well-fed, the comfort of a good place to

sleep, good entertainment and medical care – all on the premises

of the factory! Raising a family will be as a matter of course

greatly discouraged, and a moving regiment of human beings will

be created comprising human hands to do the work, but no

human touch anywhere in life.

Unfortunately, in a poor country perhaps the first

casualty of the free market is the brain. To steer the nation out of

this painful dilemma of the basket and brain scenario, it is

necessary to stretch our vision far beyond what is most obvious;

we need to create vision of a superior kind. I certainly do not

imply that we should heavily invest in basic science to simply

increase the reservoir of knowledge, but on science relevant to our

specific purpose. Admittedly, today science is so heavily

dependent on advanced technologies that we cannot hope to

compete with the industrialised countries in grand schemes of

basic research. We have to see what exactly is needed to reach the

set goal by the middle of the century, and pursue it through with

focus and force. Simply by making investments in S&T in terms of

a certain portion of the GDP cannot bring the desired results.

Radical changes in our mindset is essential – we must

dispassionately and with clear understanding ask the question:

whether we want skill and product-creating science, or we want

to pursue flambuoyant high-tone-high-ideal science with

prospects for little immediate gain for the nation?

As said before, experts believe that the world is gradually

moving towards a separation of energy and progress, which is

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variously defined, but for us production of goods and services is

of special significance in this context. Computer revolution and

the emerging nanotechnology are some of the manifestations of

this potential decoupling. All activities of humankind on this

planet, both exploitative and competitive, are centred around the

humankind itself, due to our possession of a superior brain, and

on physical movement of mass on the planet such as movement of

goods and people for pleasure and profit. Movement is work that

requires energy to change position of mass against the

gravitational force of the Earth. A fixed quantity of energy is

needed to change position of a fixed quantity of mass to a certain

distance in a certain dimension. Human ingenuity can only

manipulate the efficiency of the energy use and diversify the work

performed. Science is in effect a story of energy conversion

techniques towards better efficiency, and of course, the story is yet

incomplete. Humankind has not yet found the minimum energy

by which an object can be moved to the greatest distance in the

shortest time with the least energy. One can approach towards

this minimum by more efficient use of energy. For instance, an

aeroplane can be flown today from point A to B using a certain

quantity of fuel. Better design of the craft and other manoeuvres,

however, may cause considerable reduction in the quantity of fuel

requirement, but the minimum energy by which the aeroplane

could be moved from point A to B may remain illusive to

humankind in operations within the Earth’s gravitational field.

The flight of migratory birds across oceans for thousands of

kilometres at a stretch, in some cases without much of food intake

during the flight, may suggest the existence of highly efficient

molecular motors in the birds and an energy utilization strategy

that is extremely efficient. The best man-made machines perhaps

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are still too inferior to those nanoscale motors of the living cells.

Whatever are the advancements made in the efficiency of energy

use, labour would still be needed to operate even the nanoscale

machines, where our advantage is expected to sustain.

Progress in the past could be accurately measured by the

quantity of energy used as Henry Adams described in his Law of

Acceleration. The law predicted that progress would come to an

end in the near future because of the very nature of progress,

which is characterised by accelerating kinetics. The laws of

physics clearly define the relationship between energy and work.

Improving the energy efficiency parameters in any work would

thus allow greater progress with lesser energy expenditure. If

indeed this occurs, what will be our advantage as a country and a

people in a socio-economic setting with many unique aspects? It is

for us to see through it with a penetrating vision and chart the

course of our life and living – whether to live by the energy of a

few individuals that is derived from the sweat and blood of the

vast majority, or from superior skills of the vast majority for the

fruits to be shared by all? It is not an easy task but it is both

possible, and perhaps indispensable for us.

We the background of a cultural heritage of which we can

be genuinely proud. Our history bears testimony to our

successfully creating and nurturing superior intellects, and many

of us rightly think that we do possess people who could excel in

science if conditions are right. In this honest zeal to excel, we often

hear about centres of excellence for the talents to tread freely in

their world of freethinking. No doubt centres for excellence are

desirable but the difficult issue is how to attain the expected state

of excellence? In the past, centres were created some of which are

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described as centres for excellence, but none could attain the

expected lustre. One possible answer for this failure could

perhaps be looked for at the backdrop of the generally poor level

of scientific activity in the country, which created a situation in

which these centres did not face enough challenge from within to

attain a high scientific stature.

Lack of challenge is a sure recipe for decay, which

unfortunately might have happened in all of our scientific

institutions. But the question is, how to inject the needed

challenge? Internationalisation of institution through some

mechanism may be one possible route but this must be properly

done, not in the manner by which we have created the country’s

first and lone Parliament-mandated international research centre

in the biomedical field – the International Centre for Diarrhoeal

Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B). The ICDDR,B was

perhaps too hastily created where Bangladesh government

retained little financial control over the operation of the centre

that resulted in many operational problems later. Many who had

been associated with this organisation, Bangladeshi scientists in

particular, believe that a centre for excellence created by the

government should also be adequately and effectively funded by

the government and its operation entrusted with an international

body as to its scientific programme and administrative

management. If we are unable to do this at this time and in this

manner, infusing the necessary challenge within it, we ought to

pause and find out first the mechanism of how to operate it before

spending much energy and resources. A centre for excellence

ought to be one for excellence of knowledge, not of ordinary

skills.

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Three

Science and Our Time

SCIENCE AND THE PAST

If one takes the liberty of changing the term of the tense,

the familiar sentence would read like “ It is the best of times, it

is the worst of times, it is the epoch of belief, it is the epoch of

incredulity, it is the season of Light, it is the season of Darkness, it

is the spring of hope, it is the winter of despair …….”, and this

would quite accurately describe today’s world. All of these

attributes, said in the superlative, are the contributions of science

– a transformed world with a strange blend of hope and despair,

the like of which humankind never experienced in recorded

history.

Science began with accidental observations of natural

phenomena that led to empirical generalisations. The

methodology applied was non-scientific comprising magic and

incantations linked with the institution of priesthood.

Consequently, science was both traditional and esoteric. The

former rendered scientific progress slow and difficult, while the

latter turned it into an exclusive privilege of a few. It was the

Greek who first pronounced that secrecy and traditionalism is evil

in civilised existence of man. They proclaimed inherent freedom

of the human mind and did not view man simply as an

instrument representing the power of the gods, but as one with an

intrinsic power to think freely and thus possessing the power to

be creative. This was the beginning of modern science in which

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the Greeks excelled and reached lofty heights and thereby made

the realm of free inquiry of mankind greatly expand.

Over a period of several centuries that followed, free

inquiry successfully created a large reservoir of scientific

knowledge but it was different from today’s science in two

important respects. It was esoteric being devoid of any practical

application because it was not necessary then for science to

assume such a role. During the seventeenth century, profound

metamorphosis took place in the application of science towards

enhancing human comfort. Validation of scientific observations by

established methods replaced authority of the state and

priesthood, and the esoteric element was gradually removed by

making provision for full revelation of scientific facts and open

discussion.

Often search for the unknown leads to a point where

nothing seems coherent to the ordinary man. The universe

appears incomprehensible with no beginning and no end; the

place and purpose of man in the universe seems unclear; reality

and imagination overlap to create a face of science that makes

little sense to the common man. To this category of science the

terminology basic science was applied, perhaps to suggest the

lack of a better expression rather than to imply any uniqueness in

its intrinsic quality. Parts of basic science invariably results in its

application in day to day life of human beings, in the

establishment humankind’s mastery over nature, and in the

illusive quest for conquest of destiny. This is commonly called

applied science. The issue, however, is not one of basic science or

applied science, but rather one of science that can be applied now

and science that may have to wait longer for its application. The

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faster a piece of scientific knowledge becomes applied, the more

applied is the knowledge; conversely, the longer is the time

between acquisition of the knowledge and its application, the

more basic is the knowledge. To most scientists this distinction is

not meaningful because nearly all of what they do invariably

begin with its potential application in mind. No science can be

totally devoid of its potential application at some future date. The

terms are, nevertheless, used frequently in the context of socio-

economic development concepts where scientific research that

directly relates to achieving development targets is said to be

applied research, while those lacking this attribute are classified

as basic research. So, to the common people also, the image of

science is one that is presented by the applied face of science, and

image of the scientist is that of an individual in perpetual journey

of making good things for human comfort.

In the past, science was also a restricted activity involving

only a small number of people who rarely produced things that

were of any interest to the ordinary man. An element of

amateurism was engrained in the quest for knowledge in the past.

Love for doing the work was the major driving force in the

undertaking. But science has now transformed itself into the

engine that moves society – it generates technology, shapes

industry, reforms the marketplace, nurtures politics, determines

how war is to be waged and neighbours killed. All of these are the

marvels of science standing ever ready with solutions to

problems, from the most trivial to the most profound. Science that

had begun as a discipline of plain curiosity and love for

acquisition of mastery over nature, has now also become a

discipline of many ends – material, commercial, political and

cultural. With time scientific pursuits also became more

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professional, and with this the expectations of the society from the

scientist also changed considerably. Today more is demanded of

the scientist than simply curiosity and creativity. Society supports

the scientist and the work done by the scientist; in return, it wants

the scientist to descend from the ivory tower of creative curiosity

to the practical problems that confront society.

SCIENTIFIC DECADENCE

Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the

progress of science has been one of accelerating kinetics. Use of

energy is a parameter believed to be a reasonable indicator of

progress. In the early 1920s, Henry Adams made some important

observations in his Law of Acceleration, which suggest that like

many other natural phenomena, the rate of progress cannot be

limitless. Furthermore, a period of decadence may follow the

decline leading to intellectual stagnation. Taken the length of time

covered by the three classical periods of history – the ancient

period, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance – the progress of

science would appear to be fairly slow. A person with a life span

of 100 years for instance living a few centuries back would have

seen little change in his surroundings during his lifetime. To that

individual the world would appear to be stagnant with no

perceptible changes. On the contrary, in today’s world every

decade literally transforms the world beyond recognition.

These dramatic changes followed an interesting kinetics.

Many thinkers and philosophers who follow scientific

developments believe that fundamental discoveries in science will

slowly loose the accelerating kinetics that characterized the past.

An example may be illuminating. If we look back to history, we

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find that fire was discovered some 50,000 years ago. Then a long

period of 45,000 years passed to discover waterpower. Wind-

power was discovered another 3,500 years after water-power,

steam-power only years 300 after water power, and nuclear

energy came only about 150 years after steam power! These

developments, which took place with the time interval between

successive events reduced in a geometric scale, led to progress

that can be measured by various indices – energy consumption,

per capita income, speed of travel, etc. Extrapolation of a curve

relating index of progress using world energy consumption

figures plotted in a geometric scale with time, leads to the

depressing conclusion that in just over a hundred years from now

progress will come to a halt as shown in the figure below. The

index curve and the time axis will meet at a point of time along

the vertical line signalling one of the most catastrophic events that

can be imagined for the modern humankind.

Progress is self-limiting, as the Law of Acceleration seems

to indicate. Factors responsible for this are varied and not well

understood; the human nature, the make and mode of working of

the human brain admittedly play a role in the matter. The human

brain seems to think in a circular manner, or perhaps it can only

do so in this manner. From the tiniest matter such as the atom or

subatomic particles to the vast universe, the fundamental

structure appears to be circular with no free ends. As knowledge

widens the circles rise up in spirals to form a tower of self-

gratification; its weight then at some point of time triggers its

collapse.

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1000

1000

10

1.0

0.1

0.01

0.001

0.0001

0.00001

1000 500 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500

BC AD

Henry Adams’ law of acceleration of progress based on

world’s energy consumption figures as index of progress1.

Index of progress

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Materialism, the unrestrained lust for consumption of the

planet’s resources in a hedonistic passion, has its counterpart in

what is called in modern times consumerism. Consumerism is

infectious. The American think tank Worldwatch predicts serious

negative effects of consumerism on the planet’s physical

conditions, or indeed its existence in a habitable state. Today the

tides of consumerism are affecting people almost throughout the

world, in the past it affected only a few countries and a few

hundred million people. It has now transited into what is called

global consumerism with more than a quarter of the world’s

population that now belong to the consumer class. Many

developing countries are moving fast to join the caravan of

consumerism. Global consumerism is ecologically unsustainable.

Every barrel of oil burnt, every extra car a person owns, every

extra mobile telephone one owns leaves an indelible mark on the

well being of the planet. The consumer class will increase in size

as the world population increases. When world population

doubles in about 50 years, one may look back at Henry Adam’s

projection. The index of progress will then stand at 500 from

today’s 1.0, and by then the curve will rise independent of the

time axis, perhaps signalling the end of progress. At the present

trends of growth of consumerism throughout the globe,

Worldwatch predicts, the planet will face an ecological

catastrophe. Such consumerism cannot be sustained, so the

unforeseen doomsday scenario may be inevitable. Unless realistic

ideals emerge, the predictions of Henry Adams may prove to be

correct.

In the plot the vertical axis represents in the logarithmic

scale, the index of progress based on energy use and the

horizontal scale is the time axis. The 1960 level of the index is

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arbitrarily given 1.0, representing 100,000-fold increase over the

baseline of 0.00001 at 1000 B.C. When the line is extrapolated into

the future it presents the unbelievable prospect that even if the

1960 level of progress represents only one-thousandth of the

ultimate limit, that limit would be reached around 2160. If energy

consumption and progress loose their traditional relationship and

are uncoupled (discussed in the last chapter), the intrinsic

character of the line would not change, only the time to reach the

limit would be less or more depending on the rate of acceleration

of the parameter, that is, the index of progress.

Many analysts believe that over the recent past mankind

has failed to make any significant fundamental discoveries.

Despite this dismal display of mankind’s seemingly lost

ingenuity, we will see unprecedented rise in the application of the

hitherto earned fundamental knowledge in the form of inventions

and discoveries derived by combinatorial mix and match of

existing knowledge. This will again follow a geometric pattern

leading to increasingly rapid change in the world’s materialistic

contours. Today’s progress in information technology, which

seems phenomenal, is but a small outcome of the basic discoveries

that were made only a few decades ago on the structure of the

atom and quantum mechanics. The diversion of human energy

towards refining the matter-market equation, which characterizes

the social dynamics of the world today, means that the era of

fundamental knowledge will probably be at ebb over the

foreseeable future. The very fast accelerating kinetics of progress

would virtually ensure that it ceases to be a lasting phenomenon.

Even if the rate of acceleration of the index of progress falls, the

predicted limit would still be reached within a couple of decades.

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Lack of any fundamental discoveries, however, sharply

contrasts the ever-accelerating kinetics of the application of

science. To add momentum to the pace of application, joint

venture projects are undertaken in science similar to what one

sees in business. Examples of such projects include projects on

space research in the physical sciences, and in the biomedical

frontier, the Human Genome Project. These so-called ‘mega-

projects’ are not projects of just scientific curiosity; these have

enormous economic potential because these will give greater

control over deep space and perhaps in the manipulation of

human destiny.

SHIFTING IMAGE OF SCIENTIST

This shifting image of the scientist from the creator of

knowledge to an enhancer of material comfort is a significant

change that should be understood by the scientists. The scientist is

expected to give the society products of comfort without which

the scientist will be deemed unsuccessful in obligation to the

society, therefore, and unworthy of the resources spent on the

work done. Both the public and those who shape public opinion,

the politicians, are closing the gaps between themselves on this

issue, thereby lifting the utilitarian face of science to a higher level

of public expectation. This often gives the impression that

academic science has nearly been abandoned, restricting it to only

a gifted few who can potentially give more to society in the longer

term and thus from them the society demands less in the short

term.

Experiments of sound scientific merit would obviously go

to the credit of the scientist but this would by no means ensure

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sustainability of science. The work must match with the ordinary

expectations of the society. Thus scientists today cannot afford to

be afraid of discourses with politicians and the government on the

plea that the politicians do not understand the language of

science. If indeed politicians do not understand science, which

unfortunately is true to a large extent in our country, they have to

be trained to understand the basics of science for meaningful

dialogue with the scientist. Effective communication between the

scientist and the government is far more important today in this

era of globalisation, than it was ever before. Our inherent

attributes as a nation have to be understood by the scientists as

well as by the public. Our future depends on the precision with

which we see the future.

With population density already the highest in the world,

what sort of country will it be – how to serve this population after

fifty or a hundred years from now? What ought to be the role of

the scientist in the new millennium and what should be the

platform on which we should base our science and technology

activities? Can we, or should we work at this time to develop our

own technology or we should adopt existing technology, adapt it

to our needs and then, after the lift-off of our own S&T craft,

undertake innovative S&T? Every country has to exploit its

relative advantages. How much do we really know about what is

our relative advantage today, and what will it be a many decades

later?

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Three

Science and Socio-Economic Development

BASIC AND APPLIED RESEARCH

The relationship between science, technology and socio-

economic development often appears unclear to the scientist.

Many scientists are stern defenders of academic freedom and are

thus reluctant to recognise that basic research and applied

research represent a legitimate division in science. Indeed, the role

of basic research that enriches the reservoir of human knowledge

and that of applied research, which leads to the development of

technology, has often been the subject of passionate debate within

the scientific circles and between scientists and development

economists.

Throughout human history hardly there has been any

knowledge that was not put to practical application, or had not

contributed to the development of applied knowledge. The form

of chemical science practised under the system alchemy in Hindu,

Chinese and Islamic civilisations, which later led to the

understanding of chemical reactions was entirely driven by

curiosity, and thus would be classified as basic research in our

terminology. Although practised by many people, the system of

alchemy was mainly located in the Nile delta. The article Al is

from Arabic and Khem was a word associated with the black soil

of the region. This primitive system bears testimony to Muslim

contributions made to the more precise scientific methods

developed later, and it is believed that the science of alchemy led

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to elucidation of the structure of atom, establishment of the

relationship between matter and energy, and to the discovery of

many other fundamental laws of nature.

Science has given us the power to probe into the vast

quantity of energy that resides within matter, which we have

harnessed to promote our comfort, and also kill compatriots. It is

in the very nature of knowledge that some knowledge finds

immediate application, some takes a longer time. It is the time

interval between a scientific discovery and its application, which

differentiates how basic or how applied is the discovery. The

shorter is this time span, the more applied is the discovery; the

longer it is, the more basic is the knowledge. No scientific

discovery is truly divorced from its potential application at some

point of time. Yet there has been the necessity of making a

distinction between basic science and applied science, but the

context has not always been clear to the scientists.

There are three views among the scientists with respect to

the relationship between science and technology on one hand, and

socio-economic development on the other. The hard-core liberal

scientists are of the view that science should be granted complete

freedom to explore into the realms of the unknown without

regard to the utilitarian value of the discoveries made, and

consequently therefore freedom from any interference from the

considerations of socio-economic development. In support of this

notion they often cite examples from the past history of science

when such freedom was inherent in the work of the scientist, and

yet the knowledge gained had profoundly influenced socio-

economic development. Science, when allowed to develop in this

manner, will in their view automatically lead to the development

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of technology as a natural consequence. They argue that the

natural history of the scientific process itself virtually ensures this

transformation. These hard core liberal scientists maintain a

strong stand on the freedom of science and are seen to use

expressions such as science is universal, it has no boundaries, and

that the priority in scientific research which is required by the

development planners must come from the evolution of science

itself, not from the development needs. As such, they do not

appreciate any intervention in scientific freedom.

There is a second category of scientists relatively

moderate than the classic liberals. They take a less strong stand on

this issue of total scientific freedom and favour the position that

while scientists should have freedom of inquiry, in the practical

world it is often necessary that the government support the

scientists with necessary funds in their quest for knowledge. It is

the government who has the primary responsibility of generating

economic resources through development activities and the

scientists need this resource for their scientific pursuit. The

scientist thus bears both a moral obligation and a partnership

liaison with the nation’s economic wealth-building process.

Therefore, in order to secure proper funding for scientific

research, the scientists must convince the government that a part

of their activity closely relates to development needs of the nation.

Thus this category of scientists would accept a moderate degree of

regulation in their activity, but they still do not believe that

science should be turned into a fully planned social activity. They

think that such planned science can be potentially harmful

because it would subdue the faculty of free inquiry inherent to the

human mind, and would thus limit the progress of science.

Freedom of scientific thinking must not, therefore, be

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compromised radically in order to ensure full exploitation of

science for human welfare.

The third category of scientists is represented by what is

called techno-economists, a blend of technologist with the zeal of

a development economist. Techno-economists believe that all

scientific activities must closely relate to technological

development, and these must be fully integrated with

development planning as essential part of socio-economic

development. They do not give any special status to science and

technology, but hold the view that it as an integral part of

development. Their view is that socio-economic development will

determine the course of science and technology development,

including basic research. Basic research, according to this

hypothesis, will draw strength from the socio-economic

development scenario, not as a distinct activity of the scientist

carried out in isolation and often in unrivalled freedom. Today,

this is the system, which largely characterises the world’s leading

economies and is essentially based on the market forces, not

controlled by the machinery of the state. Admittedly, market

forces have successfully driven the course of both basic research

and technology development in many developed countries, and

the techno-economists therefore argue strongly in favour of this

strategy as one of proven productivity, and thus of inherent merit.

The hard-core liberal scientist may prefer to see scientific

planning as a distinct activity form technological planning, and

hence a separate policy for basic research, which will be distinct

from that of applied research. This distinction, however, carries

the risk of blurring the important fact that a scientist has often

some qualities of a technologist, as much as a technologist has

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some qualities of a scientist. Many scientists, therefore, do not

favour this view, although a separate basic research policy in a

developing country may be a worthwhile issue to consider under

some circumstances. The kind of research, which is highly basic, is

not possible for the developing countries to pursue due to

technical and financial constraints. So it may be desirable that

some guidelines are adopted as to the scope of basic research in

the specific country situation, a guideline that one would expect

to emanate from the national science and technology policy of the

country. About this subject more will be discussed later.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

In contrast to the relatively accommodating distinction

between basic science and applied science, scientists are more

bewildered by such terms as research and development, which

they often encounter while aligning their discoveries with

national development. Overall, the relationship is not all that

complex although differences in interpretation might exist.

Science is the parent, technology its offspring. Only a small

fraction of all that scientific research produces is useful in terms of

material comfort, to which we give the attribute of technology. To

identify which technology has the desirable property of

usefulness, and the ability to enhance socio-economic

development, a certain type of research (R) is required that is

specifically targeted at socio-economic development (D); hence

the expression Research and Development, in short R&D.

Scientists appear to be confused why should science have

a special relationship with any particular societal activity. To

many of them the logic that all inventions of science would lead to

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development in due course seems quite obvious. They wonder

about the special quality that renders science particularly relevant

to development, and ask what sort of research represents

development research?

Although difficult to appreciate by the scientist, the role

of science has been increasingly emphasized in development and

economic planning over the past few decades. Unfortunately,

however, the context in which this has come to the forefront of

planning remained largely beyond the purview of the scientific

community. A combination of two facts could be responsible for

this lapse. First, no serious efforts are made by the economic

planners to create an interest among the scientists in this

particular subject. Second, the scientists themselves are refractive

to the issue, which they think belong largely to the planners.

Admittedly, these two classes – scientists and

development experts – are distinctively different in outlook,

which made the task of bringing them together on a common

platform difficult. For this, it is necessary to introduce some

fundamental changes in the mental picture of the scientist, a task

neither the development experts found opportune to address, nor

the scientists showed any interest to understand. This caused

considerable harm to both the communities, and needlessly led to

much of scientific and development efforts to be misdirected.

The concept of Research and Development may not

always be easy for the scientist to comprehend. Economic

development requires that proper research be conducted on

economic planning, which should enable a nation to chart the

most productive course. The vast majority of the scientists would

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readily acknowledge the significance of this type of research,

which to them is entirely related to socio-economic issues. They

would agree that information generated through such research is

important so that the research is correctly integrated into the

development process. Similar to socio-economic research, it

becomes necessary at some stage of development to also integrate

science and technology research into the development process. In

the developing countries, economic planners and development

experts felt the need of creating of specialised institutions with the

primary objective of carrying out scientific research whose

relevance to the development process is immediate, for example,

research that will immediately help the industrial sector either in

better operation of existing industries, or in creating new

industries. Generally, this type of institution is called R&D

institution, which form an important part of the nation’s science

and technology (S&T) sector. There are similar development-

related institutions in the socio-economic sector as well such as

institutions dedicated to studies on economic development,

market research, biomedical research, and socio-anthropological

research, etc.

Historically, basic research in various disciplines of

science is restricted to the universities. However, some specialised

R&D institutions in the developed countries also carry out

significant amount of basic research. Many of these institutions

became, in the course of time, not only the centres of excellence

for cultivation of basic science, but have also made great

contributions towards its application to socio-economic

development. Some such institutions are even operated by

industrial organisations. For instance, the Bell Laboratory in the

USA is operated by the Bell Telecommunications Company, a

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global corporate giant. Many scientists who worked here carried

out highly significant basic research that earned them the Nobel

Prize in their respective fields. The discovery of the transistor was

made in the Bell Laboratory, so also many other fundamental

discoveries bearing on such highly theoretical issues as the origin

of the universe and the Big Bang. Such institutions in which basic

research is as much important as research on making products of

commercial value, are supported by the society in some countries

as an economic investment into the future towards enriching the

repertoire of knowledge.

In developing countries, the R&D program has various

versions. Also, the notion of S&T and R&D varies with confusing

overlaps. It is not always clear to the laboratory scientist what

precisely is the relationship between these two. But in many

instances, these are dealt with together in the economic planning

process of the country, and often used interchangeably. This

phenomenon is particularly noticeable in the developing

economies. In developed economies, these terms are less pertinent

presumably because the expressions S&T and R&D relate the

development process, that is, to raise the socio-economic level of

the country above a critical level, a task that has already been

achieved by the developed economies long time back.

In the developing countries, the process of planning has

to be carried out under various constraints, which inevitably

requires very stringent prioritisation of development activities. In

this context, S&T is the fuel that provides the necessary energy to

the prioritisation process and R&D is the vehicle that moves

forward the various priority sectors to productivity. Science and

technology is a bifunctional activity; it includes, on the one hand,

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scientific research of both basic and applied nature and, on the

other hand, creation of scientific and technological manpower

through universities and technical institutions in order to provide

the driving force to the development process.

DEVELOPING COUNTRY SCENARIO

In the developing countries there is an operational

problem confronted by the basic research institutions such as the

universities. Some of the knowledge that these institutions

produce bears immediate potentials for application, but these

institutions are ill prepared as to their capability, or their

willingness to carry the knowledge beyond the perimeters of the

laboratory. Thus, the knowledge gained by them faces an

immediate hurdle in application since the discoverer usually does

not understand the market, and the mechanism by which the

invention is to be placed into this unfamiliar world. Scientific

curriculum consistently lacks exposure of the scientists to this

strange world.

In the industrialised countries, government funding is

usually restricted to studies of very fundamental nature that carry

high potentials for application. Examples of such fundamental

research include projects such as sequencing the human genome

that contains over three billion genetic letters arranged in defined

sequence, or projects in areas of high-energy elementary particle

physics, or deep-space research. Once the basic research is

completed under government funding, the knowledge acquired in

the process is transferred to the private sector where the necessary

pre-industrial research is carried out, often through generous tax

incentives granted by the government. Following this, the

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industry comes forward, and only after the needed R&D work

carried out by the industry, the product is commercialised. All

major industries in developed economies spend large sums of

money in R&D activity, and all of these companies maintain a

full-fledged research laboratory with the most modern facilities

and are staffed with the most enterprising scientists. The cost of

R&D activities that the industries incur is quite substantial for

which generous tax benefits are again offered by the government.

Usually, government spends about one-tenth for the basic work,

while the rest is picked up by the industry in a strongly

competitive free market in order to turn the basic work to

commercial products. Thus, in a developed country setting, the

linkage between institutions of basic research and those in the

industry is direct. Government’s responsibility is restricted to

initiation of the research and to giving an early momentum to it.

Industry then assumes the responsibility of moving it ahead in

practical directions, making substantial investments to transform

the basic research into products of value. Competition within the

industry leads to the development of newer products that are

offered at competitive prices, so that government’s tax incentives

ultimately come to the benefit of the consumer.

The development scenario in third world countries, on the

contrary, is different. Here the industrial sector is primarily

concerned with manufacturing the goods for which production

technology is already established, and readily available. Thus,

availability of the technology along with the necessary raw

materials, allows the industry to operate satisfactorily. The

industrial sector in developing countries is thus essentially a

manufacturing sector with no pressing need, or scope, for

investments on research for developing new products. Since an

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industry in a developing country can be quite viable simply by

making products under license from foreign partners, it is not

interested to invest in R&D because of the inherent risk involved

in the venture and slow return on the investment. In this setting,

which is characteristic of the industrial sector in most developing

countries, the R&D activity becomes an important mandatory

function of the government. The government does this task of

transferring basic research into technology through a special type

of institution, which is widely perceived by development experts

as a worthwhile step in the process. These specialised institutions

became the R&D institutions to serve as a link between basic

research on one hand, and technology development on the other.

Traditionally, the laboratory scientists more readily

understand R&D institutions as organisations dedicated to the

development of useful products. But many R&D institutions,

particularly in the agriculture sector, do not generate industrial

products but crop varieties that are then field-tested by these

institutions for performance. These institutions also undertake

farmer-training programs through extension services in order to

promote the product, and ensure its widespread use. Similarly, in

the health sector, many institutions classified as R&D institution,

do not carry out any product development research, but

undertake a type of field research called operations research

which addresses, for instance, such issues as how to ensure

optimal use of biomedical products and services to maximise

health benefits in a cost-effective manner. Since these activities are

part of the nation’s development process, the operations research

carried out by these institutions is also considered as R&D work.

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In the industrialisation process of a developing economy,

it is necessary for the industry to participate in some R&D

activity. The government with various incentives, quite modest in

most cases, supports the industries to carry out R&D work. A

small part of this R&D work is directed to new product

development, but most of it is employed in increasing the product

diversity. Here, some basic research is necessary in order to

maintain a competitive edge in a free market, but the research is

primarily targeted at already commercialised products, such as

making improved versions of a product with better consumer

acceptability. Thus, the characteristics of R&D work carried out by

the formal state sponsored R&D institutions in developing

countries, and the R&D work carried out by the industry are

somewhat different. The former may be called institutional R&D

work, and the latter industrial R&D work.

THE BEWILDERED SCIENTIST

To the vast majority of the scientists and to those in

scientific administration and policy formulation, and also to the

young scientists in their studies, the relationship between science,

technology and development is not easily understood for reasons

mentioned. In the university, the science curricula do not address

these issues. Students with their natural inquisitiveness only get

an exposure to the sublime face of science. While the role of

applied science for the society is widely emphasised in seminars,

meetings and workshops, and there the students are inevitably

reminded of their obligations to the society. Sadly though, almost

nothing is taught in the formal curricula about how to fulfil these

obligations. Thus when they leave the university, they fail to

align themselves with the complexities of the situation, and with

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the high expectations that the society places on their talent. They

suffer a shock of adjustment and are bewildered at the very

beginning of their career. Correct alignment of the scientist with

the needs of the society is essential for turning the wheels of socio-

economic development, but for this task, the scientist must

acquire the correct vision early in the career This is supremely

important in poor countries in particular, because bright young

scientists need a worthwhile platform to relieve the load of their

energy, which if lacking, would inevitably lead to their exodus. A

worthwhile programme, which is sufficiently stimulating to these

young scientists, will be able to retain at least some of them, and

this small fraction may make significant contributions to the

nation.

No worthwhile attempt has so far been made to impart

this sense of obligation in an effective manner to our young

scientists. There is production of trained professionals in different

disciplines – agriculture, medicine, forestry, industry, education –

but these professionals are led to work in a stereotypic structure.

Except in a small number of research institutions, which had a

sharp focus in its scientific objectives aided by the institution’s

external linkages, in most R&D institutions there is a noticeable

vacuum in pragmatic research direction, although the institution-

building process never stops.

Today some basic knowledge of different subjects has to

be acquired by any serious professional in any discipline.

Students of business studies will be in a better position to adjust

themselves to the demands of their profession if they have a

background of science. This is notion is highly appreciated by

schools of business all over the world with the result that in most

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institutions, foundation courses are offered in subjects such as

physics, chemistry, biology, and interestingly but admittedly

highly justifiably, courses on psychology and philosophy.

Scientists, who have traditionally preferred to work in isolation in

their world, ought to have similar sojourn through the terrains

outside their laboratory. This will enrich their thinking, and

impart an element of practicality in their work, an ability to plan

and execute science that will match with expectations.

Much of the disappointing performance of our R&D

institutions, however, could have been averted by one simple

contingency – that is, if the R&D scientists were exposed to the

world of business, to the concept of feasibility study, cost-benefit

analysis, and resource management from the very beginning. For

this purpose, specialised training is needed that would allow

asking the right question and finding the right course of action, an

analysis which in the world of business and economic planning, is

a routine affair. Scientific projects in the R&D area must also be

subjected to such analysis, because business begins where R&D

ends. Suitable training on these issues is essential during early

years of scientific education, particularly for those scientists who

will be working in R&D organisations.

Such planning exercises are usually associated with

expressions such as feasibility study, techno-economic feasibility

study, cost-benefit analysis, marketing issues pertaining to

demand, and product competitiveness, is quite foreign to our

scientists because they have never been exposed to these issues. A

scientist may be quite happy if calculations show that a product

made through the method he or she has developed will cost half

the international price, but to a pragmatic feasibility analyst, this

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margin would be entirely unsatisfactory because of the

knowledge that complex forces of the market can fast erode this

small margin, and thus the analyst would not be satisfied unless

the margin of profit is several times higher.

In the absence any exposure to these issues, the scientist

can nevertheless climb up the career ladder, and at some point

quite late in the career, these issues slowly begin to creep up in the

mind of the scientist. But by then many years have already passed

in only scientific curiosity, wrapped up by the honest belief that

the work being done was prudent, and perhaps well intended. A

thick cloud of frustration covers the mental horizon of the parting

scientist. The long years of work done raises in his mind the very

same questions that ought to have been asked at the beginning,

but now time is no more in favour. The successor of the parting

scientist begins the unfinished work to repeat the blunders of his

predecessor. The cycle continues in this shocking pattern.

Preparation of the scientist along the lines indicated above could

possibly reduce the pain significantly, if not eliminate it

altogether, and much of the tragedy of errors could have been

averted. This subject pertains to professionalism in scientific

pursuits, which will be discussed in a later chapter.

Four

Shadows of the Past

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THE TROUBLED TIMES

In 1958 the Indian Parliament witnessed an act of far-

reaching consequence for the nation. It was the Parliament’s

endorsement of a resolution moved by the Prime Minister of India

Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru. This resolution, a scientific policy

statement, indicated firm intention of the government of India to

support S&T to “secure for the people of India all the benefits that

can accrue from the acquisition and application of scientific

knowledge”. The resolution in later years became almost a

constitutional obligation to Indian politicians, and the promised

benefits are today obvious to the world. Sadly, we accomplished

very little in this regard, and as one goes through the pages of this

book one would not miss the bitter taste of this failure in the

important sector of science and technology.

It is to be admitted that from the very outset we failed to

correctly perceive, as a people during the Pakistan time, and as a

nation after we achieved independence, the important matter of

what ought to be the nature of our science and technology efforts

in the context of our country. We failed to appreciate our unique

attributes – socio-economic, geo-political and cultural. It is

obvious that our scientific efforts over the past decades beginning

from the Pakistan time were led by some highly inappropriate

models, based on faulty perception of facts often under

predetermined purposes. This eclipsed from our vision the

realities and contexts that are unique to us, which thus

contributed towards much of our efforts being misdirected. Sadly,

we failed to appreciate these lapses at that time, and there is little

sign that we are today doing any better in this regard.

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Debates on the subject of science and technology in

Bangladesh have so far been a monotonous narrative, devoid of

incisive analysis. Serious books on the subject have been

practically non-existent. Recently, in 2002 and 2003, the

Bangladesh Academy of Sciences organised two national

symposia on science and technology. Its proceedings were

published under the title “Bangladesh Vision-2021”. Many top

scientists of the country, and speakers from abroad took part in

the conference and deliberated upon a broad spectrum of topics

that covered all important national issues on science and

technology. The stated purpose of the symposia was to ‘evaluate

and assess the progress of the scientific activities in R&D

institutions including universities, with a view to formulating an

action plan for Science and Technology Vision 2021’. The two

proceedings contain over twenty papers, and as it is conventional

for most scientific meetings, the proceedings carry a long list of

recommendations for the government to implement. In these

proceedings, there are some papers with very critical analysis of

some problems of the country – problems of industrial research

particularly highlighting the country’s premier state-funded

research organisation, the Bangladesh Council for Scientific and

Industrial Research (BCSIR), a very critical and substantive

analysis of the country’s tertiary education, and some worthwhile

analysis and visions on the future of Bangladesh. But there were

also many papers that said things in a stereotypic tone containing

little novelty. Many of the discussions made repeated references

to the constraints that have impeded science and technology

development in the country, constraints that are almost routine

incantations in most of our public and private discussions, and in

the numerous seminars, symposia and workshops that are held

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every year. Many of the papers give the feeling that the problems

were examined rather superficially, and the solutions suggested

were much too general. Many of the suggestions are far too

ambitious and, of course, beyond our capacity to implement in the

time and on the scale envisioned in the vision 2021. No

discussions were held or even reference made to the most critical

and unique contexts of the country. The impressive list of

suggestions and recommendations had also failed to chart a

focused strategic vision based on a balanced understanding of the

inherent characteristics and constraints of the country.

The geographic region that comprises Bangladesh and the

adjoining Indian state of West Bengal had been the cradle of a rich

culture. Science, fine arts, literature, poetry, music and sculpture,

all flourished in this region due to some opportune circumstances.

The area represented a relatively affluent part of the sub-continent

because of a mild climate and fertile alluvial land. The region also

enjoyed the advantage of geographical isolation, being located far

away from the north-eastern part of the Indian sub-continent, the

traditional route of foreign invasion of the sub-continent. These

provided an atmosphere of social tranquillity and nourished the

creative faculty of its people. The winds of creative work blew

throughout the British colonial period up until the World War II,

when waves of great socio-political changes swept through the

continent. The Asian region saw a rapid redrawing of its political

map, and was compelled to brace for many far-reaching social

changes – China became a communist state, India and Pakistan

earned independence to be followed soon by Burma. A period of

turmoil followed that threatened to engulf the entire region. Then

the cold war spread its ominous wings over the region. Bloody

battles raged through the greater parts of South East Asia.

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Pakistan ignited the flames of its own split within decades after

independence by poor political management of the country,

which thus ensured the addition of a new country to the map of

the region – Bangladesh.

Muslims of this subcontinent systematically treaded along a

wrong track with respect to liberal education ever since the fall of

the Mughal Empire, perhaps due to a sense of vanity, or due to a

sense of guilt that sprang from the emotional aberrations of an

eclipsed power. Gradually, the East India Company tightened its

grip of administrative power in India as the semi-official agency

of the British Crown, a power given to the Company in 1773. The

Company retained this honour until the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857,

led by the weak Mughal ruler Bahadur Shah II. The mutiny was

crushed within a year, and the British Government felt that it was

now time to rule India directly from England. The British

Parliament enacted legislation in 1858 under the title “Act for the

Better Government of India” that transferred full administrative

authority of India from the East India Company to the British

Crown.

Muslims of Bengal had long maintained a protracted

isolation from the majority people of the subcontinent, the

Hindus, perhaps for some measure of social distinctiveness.

However, this led them to choose a defeating path. They

developed an apathy towards modern education, including

learning English, possibly due to overt zeal in the newly acquired

religion mixed with an inappropriate appreciation of the reality.

The Hindu community, on the other hand, accepted English soon

after the British established their authority in India, and thus

reaped rich benefits from rapid exposure to western scientific and

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technological developments of the post-renaissance period.

Unfortunately, the Muslims of Bengal lived with this costly

mistake throughout the first half of the British rule, until about

1850, when a liberal Muslim thinker Sir Syed Ahmed initiated a

movement of Muslim reawakening that came to be known as the

Aligarh Movement. He established the Aligarh Muslim University

where Muslim students from all over India came to study arts and

science. This slowly propelled the Muslims towards learning

English, and helped to break the damaging shield of isolation. But

by then much damage had already been done, and the resulting

cultural isolation drew the Muslims far away from the

mainstream of scientific and technological developments of the

time.

The gloomy picture of S&T and R&D in the country today

may have some of those sad historical reasons behind its genesis.

But now the issue deserves serious and dispassionate thinking. A

pragmatic S&T policy together with a sound S&T workplan and a

mechanism to implement the plan, should be adopted and

pursued with full vigour in the context of both the changing

world economic order and the unique socio-economic contexts of

the country, and the contexts of emerging realities that the

country will confront within the next few decades.

At the time of independence, the two wings of Pakistan,

East Pakistan and West Pakistan, were perhaps fairly balanced in

terms of their respective intellectual wealth. Pakistan had two

universities. The University of the Punjab in West Pakistan, which

was established in 1882, and the University of Dhaka established

a few decades later in 1921. The University of Dhaka, modelled

after the University of Oxford and often referred to as the Oxford

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of the East, produced celebrated personalities in science and

literature and came to be regarded as the pivot of Muslim culture

in this part of the subcontinent.

No doubt, as a nation we have experienced exploitation

and subjugation during much of our tormented past. The painful

stings of subjugation stuck deep into the arena of science and

technology, and consequently these made significant negative

impact on the economic arena of the country. These effects were

invasive enough to profoundly debilitate the future course of

development. We had to witness with agony the changing

shadows of two political masters in a relatively short span of time.

The long two hundred years of British rule ended in 1947, but for

us the transition was not pleasant. The British rule was replaced

by an equally exploitative Pakistan rule. This fortunately lasted

for only 25 years, but sadly its demise exacted a heavy toll on life

and property, and more importantly, the retreating Pakistan army

took to the brutal path of systematically destroying the country’s

intellectual backbone by indiscriminate killing of top intellectuals

of the nation.

Pakistan had undertaken its scientific planning on the basis

of certain premises that were perhaps relevant at that time.

Creation of Pakistan as one state with its two wings separated by

a vast stretch of Indian territory, was seen at its very inception as

a sign of doom for the new nation. Even the most profound

visionaries could not believe that the links of religion that catered

to the carving of this new split-type political entity, were not

enough to hold the two peoples together. The only reasonable

path was the path of strict adherence to democracy, and

cultivation of mutual respect between the people of the two

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wings. Unfortunately, democracy in Pakistan became the first

casualty of two evil forces – the connivance of Pakistan army with

a brand of short-sighted politicians who were determined only to

dominate over the eastern wing of the country, and the callous

negligence of the people of West Pakistan in offering resistance to

this plan. This sad state of affairs luckily ended in less than

twenty-five years, somewhat sooner than expected, but the legacy

lingered.

Our scientific planning, particularly that pertaining to East

Pakistan, had drawn its driving force from sources that were

external to us. In the process, unfortunately, we lost sight of

certain factors that are uniquely relevant to our conditions. At the

time of creation of Pakistan, the western wing, that is West

Pakistan, had a relatively large land area compared to its

population. Thus land to man ratio in West Pakistan was much

higher compared to East Pakistan, and it will remain so for quite

sometime in the future. Even when population of Pakistan

increases several folds, there will still be high per capita land. In

addition, Pakistan has a good reserve of different types of

industrial raw materials, energy source, a sizeable forest cover

and a long coastline along the Arabian Sea – all of these together

would provide strong support to the development of a viable

industrial infrastructure.

Conditions in East Pakistan, in contrast, were quite

different. When the first scientific planning was undertaken by

Pakistan in the 1950s, the planners failed to correctly perceive

even the AD 2000 scenario of the country: the scenario of having

to accommodate 140 million people in 148,000 square kilometre

area, a burgeoning population of urban slum, steadily receding

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arable land, increasing number of landless people, no substantial

mineral resources, a meagre forest cover, and many other

constraints. These are serious matters, that would make one

wonder whether we will have enough life support ingredients in

our land, air and water at the time when our population would be

twice as much in just fifty years.

Agricultural research strategy that was designed by

Pakistan was meant to be wholly exploitative. It was targeted to

our jute, tea, and newsprint. Rice research was, however, better

streamlined in this part of the country because rice research

activity in this part of the sub-continent historically dates back

from the British time, since 1908, when an agricultural research

centre was established at what is now the Farmgate area of Dhaka

city, for conducting research on breeding of rice. Industrial

research policy of Pakistan was based on a number of mistaken

notions. The policy rested on the assumption that because

agriculture is the main pre-occupation of the people of East

Pakistan, it would be possible to draw upon the products of its

fertile agricultural land for economic gains. The trends of

population growth were ignored, either purposely or due to

negligence. Increased population and the stress that this would

put on the small land area of the country were important issues

left unattended. The fact that agricultural land will deplete

rapidly, much faster than most people realized at that time, due to

human activities such as building houses, roads, schools,

hospitals, markets, etc., was almost outside the agenda of the

planning process.

The energy policy was targeted, but difficult to implement

in East Pakistan. Nuclear energy was considered as a viable

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energy option for this part of the country, but without taking into

account the fact that there will be no place in the country to set up

a nuclear reactor without putting several million people living in

surrounding areas at high risk. The option did not properly weigh

the problems of radioactive waste disposal, and storage of spent

nuclear fuel. It overlooked the political reality that nuclear

technology will not be readily given to us by the owners of the

technology in fear of creating another nuclear power in the region.

For West Pakistan, however, nuclear option was a necessity, and

conditions for this were better suited, which West Pakistan readily

exploited to advantage and finally turned itself into a nuclear

power. For us the nuclear energy option remained as a hung

agenda soon after it was developed, and it has continued to be so

to date that has certainly levied on us a measure of intellectual

and emotional cost.

NEW BEGINNING

Institutions

The period 1971 - 1975 being the very first years of the

new nation stricken with a war ravaged economy, severe shortage

of food and a shattered infrastructure, we were not in a position

to pay much attention to science and technology. Despite this,

about half a dozen R&D institutions, which were obviously

conceived, and their final plans approved during the Pakistan

time, came into existence during this period. This was followed by

the establishment of about ten more institutions during the period

1976 – 1980, and eleven more during 1981 – 1990. These brought

the total number of R&D institutions in the country to 55. The

years following 1990 saw a period of relative lull in the

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institution-building process; no new institutions were created

during the period 1991-1998.

The calm in institution building zeal coincided with the

winds of economic change blowing across the globe. Bangladesh

adopted the free market economy driven by the philosophy that

enhancing the nation’s wealth is the major economic target that is

measured by rise in GDP. This is rapidly attained through

investments made by the wealthy and technologically advanced

nations of the world in the free markets of the developing

countries. The strategy, however, comes with an unpleasant

attachment to science and technology. Growth in GDP is as a

matter of routine, delinked from nation’s science and

technological activities. This is done on the plea that science is

slow and costly; the free market is dynamic and cannot afford to

tread along any slow moving component. The advocates of the

market are not willing to compromise with the speed of economic

growth by linking it to slower sectors such as S&T. The near

complete cessation of building new R&D institutions during the

1990s is perhaps a reflection of this transition.

The new nation of Bangladesh inherited these laboratories

together with a number of scientific institutes operating under the

six Research Councils. Together these constituted the R&D

network of the new nation. The councils inherited from Pakistan

were renamed as: Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council

(BARC), Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC),

Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR),

Council for Works and Housing (CWH), Irrigation, Drainage and

Flood Control Research Council (IDFCRC) and Bangladesh

Medical Research Council (BMRC). Under these councils, which

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were administered by different Ministries, there were about 19

research institutions in the country, which included two pre-

Pakistan period institutes, the Tobacco Research Institute

established in 1908, and the Agricultural Research Institute

established in 1938. Important among the institutes that were

created during Pakistan are: Atomic Energy Centre established in

1965, Forest Research Institute (1955), the BCSIR Dhaka laboratory

(1955), Bangladesh Tea Research Institute (1957), Institute of

Public Health, Sericulture Research and Training Institute (1962),

Institute of Post-graduate Medicine and Research (1965), BCSIR

Chittagong Laboratory (1965), BCSIR Rajshahi Laboratory (1967),

and Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (1971).

S&T Expenditure

In contrast with the establishment of many R&D

institutions during the 1980s in important sectors such as

agriculture and health, actual S&T expenditure showed only a

modest rise during this period. Routine S&T expenditure includes

two main components: the operating cost of the R&D institutions,

and scientific manpower development, which includes the

teaching of science in the universities. In addition, there is the

development expenditure in the sector. The S&T expenditure of

the nation therefore entails a very large sum of money. Defined in

this manner, R&D activity, which involves scientific research, both

in the laboratory and in the field bearing direct and immediate

relevance to the nation’s socio-economic development, would

constitute only a small part of total S&T activity. For example,

during the 1994-95 financial year, according to a survey carried

out by Bangladesh National Scientific and Technical

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Documentation Centre (BANSDOC), the R&D expenditure was

about 6% of total S&T expenditure.

The new S&T institutions that were built after the birth of

Bangladesh were poorly conceived with respect to purpose and

mode of operation, and were created ad hoc without serious

feasibility study. Most of those institutions had laudable

objectives in their foundation books, but lacked a sound short-

term and long-term action plan, and a strategic vision for the

future. Many research programmes undertaken by these

institutions were in fact duplications of already existing programs

and the scientific community at the helm of these institutions were

refractile to any changes. This resulted in the creation of

institutions that were obviously tailored to group or even

individual interests, and carried little scientific merit. By an

unfortunate default, the older institutions that had been created

during the Pakistan time rapidly contracted the bad winds

scientific decline and entered into the phase of a decimating

debility.

The unpleasant necessity to keep alive the R&D

institutions in existence, with little productive work done,

gradually pushed these institutions into a state of chronic

incapacity – a vicious cycle of non-productivity and economic

drainage began to erode the fabric of nation’s S&T base. The

maladies that consequently muddled the S&T horizon of the

country are too many and too diverse.

Expenditures under different heads of budget during the

period covering the decade of 1985-95 as compiled by BANSDOC

are presented in the following Table mainly to show how

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featureless has been our S&T spending over the past decade. The

figures have been compiled from reports prepared by BANSDOC

on the basis of information obtained from different R&D

institutions, including the country’s state run general and

technical universities, in a specified format. Although the

universities do not carry out any significant R&D work, many

university departments that had responded to the survey had

shown as R&D expenditure what appears to be their regular

operating budget. Reports from many of the responding

institutions were incomplete, and in many cases difficult to

comprehend. Despite these inadequacies, it is possible to discern a

pattern that would give a common sense picture of the country’s

R&D scenario in terms of cost. The figures would roughly indicate

the major trends in R&D expenditure over the decade that

represents an important transition.

One sees in the prototype data presented above, a

tendency towards a steady increase in both revenue and

development expenditure in the R&D institutions over the decade

1986 – 1996. The proportion of expenditure in the two budget

heads is approximately 60:40. This proportion is apparently

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Figures in lakh Taka

Year Rev. Exp. Dev. Exp. R&D

Exp.

R&D as

% Dev.

Exp.

R&D as

% GNP

1986-87 9928 3929 - - -

1987-88 13996 8915 - - -

1988-89 15522 9560 9560 30.0 -

1989-90 17230 13556 - - -

1990-91 720700 528990 7819 1.47 0.09

1991-92 799820 602400 7533 1.25 0.08

1992-93 864300 654040 3535 0.54 0.23

1993-94 921240 898300 4722 0.52 0.26

1995-95 995430 1030300 1759 0.17 0.08

1995-96 114544 956300 1997 0.20 0.18

Survey of Research and Development (R&D) Activities in Bangladesh. BANSDOC

1997.

dynamic R&D program. However, R&D expenditure as a fraction

of the nation’s development expenditure declined during the

suggestive of a period – from 1.47% in 1990-91 to a meagre 0.20%

during 1995-96, coinciding with a cessation of new institution-

building during the period, which as a consequence allowed more

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investments could be made on expansion of research facilities in

the existing institutions, their staff development, and enhanced

salaries and allowances.

Although accurate figures of R&D expenditure during the

1980s are not available, those available for the year 1988-89 show

a remarkable difference from the corresponding figures covering

the following five years, that is, 1990-1995. In the year 1988-89,

one sees that 30% of development expenditure in the R&D

institutions was spent on R&D research. The corresponding

figures over the period 1990-1995 would thus suggest a shift – that

is, expenditure in actual R&D research as direct research cost

gradually decreased relative to development cost in the R&D

sector during this period. The nature of this shift is interesting as

it coincides with the country’s transit to market economy and its

concomitant negative effects on indigenous S&T activities. The

shift probably implies costly expansion of physical facilities and

capacity enhancement projects through acquisition of new and

costly equipment and service gadgets in the existing R&D

institutions primarily in sectors such as agriculture and health.

Thus, development expenditure climbed up, research expenditure

plummeted. This is the story to date of the government-financed

R&D institutions of the country.

Towards the late 1990s, the nation’s R&D profile took a

new colour with the appearance of a class of establishments,

particularly in the biomedical sector, wearing titles of ‘Institute’ or

‘Foundation’ in different areas of medicine such as cardiac care,

cancer, etc. These institutes also carry out ‘research’, operate

hospitals offering treatment at cost, any profit made spent on

research or in welfare programs. The institutions are operationally

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covered by the Society’s Act and Trust rules, which mean they

enjoy tax benefits. The operating cost of this category of

institutions is not added to the R&D expenditure in the Table

above, because these institutions represent a distinct type of

activity sometimes called social R&D that would in effect liken

them in some respects with NGOs.

Prior to the 1990s, funds available to meet direct research

cost accounted for a sizeable fraction of total R&D expenditure.

This allowed more money for reagents, chemicals and supplies for

research projects. Although the total amount of money available

was not large, the fact that it was a fair portion of total R&D

expenditure relative to the earlier periods naturally infused into

the scientific community a measure of optimism about the future

of science and technology in the country. This was reflected in

scientific seminars, symposia, international conferences and

publications of the work of the scientists in reasonably reputed

international journals. The overall scientific climate had a positive

tone, and it also received a greater measure of interest from the

government. Quite often very high profile international scientific

meetings would receive strong patronage of the government, and

such events would involve top scientists of the country without

any discriminatory tone being evident, and the meetings were

participated by a number of very distinguished scientists from

reputed institutions abroad. The younger generation of scientists

would also find due place in such activities, which added to a

vibrant spirit.

Bangladesh invested during the first two decades after

independence an average of a meagre 0.5% of GNP in science and

technology primarily supporting the R&D institutions, the

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number of which stood at over 80 by the year 2000. This small

fraction of GNP had to be cut into too numerous parcels. The most

pronounced negative effect of this was seen in the science

departments of the universities. The university is seen as the pivot

of basic science and S&T research. With so little money for

research, the universities produced very little, which created an

image problem for the university. Poor science at the universities

produced poor scientists poised to support the nation’s R&D

institutions. The universities retained the best students; the next

tier of students went to the few top R&D institutions, while most

of the R&D institutions received the bulk that was qualitatively

homogeneous and certainly not the best. Prolonged intellectual

stagnation produced a sense of complacency to the effect that the

sufficient reason for existence is simply to exist. This precipitated

an intellectual crisis; when nothing had been found, nearly

everything assumed a meaning. Almost any project proposal that

had some experimental work in it could be passed for good

science.

This poor situation with our universities and the R&D

institutions, however, served certain activities quite well, activities

that the free market presented to the scientific community covered

with a fancy costume of science. That is, many test tube mixing

type of scientific activities relevant to consumer products, from

common salt to potent life saving drugs came to be identified as

scientific activities to which many scientists dedicated their efforts

because of the associated financial reward. The sectors that

offered the best opportunities for this type of scientific research

are, as expected, the biomedical sector, and the agriculture sector.

In these areas, a blend of activity was designed that involved both

use of the product, and experiments with the product. Examples

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are new drugs and service gadgets in the biomedical sector and in

agriculture sector, use of new pesticides, fertiliser, and genetically

modified organisms (GMOs).

OMISSIONS IN VISION

The Burden of Institutions

Analysis of the underlying causes behind the sad state of

affairs with our science and technology has generally proved

refractile to most scientists and policy makers, and of course, to

the politicians. Most of our R&D institutions have failed to make

any worthwhile contribution towards the development of

products and services that had been commercialised with any

significant share of even the domestic market. Export of our R&D

generated products is a distant prospect. The reasons for this poor

performance are as usual, said to be lack of funding, shortage of

trained scientific personnel, poor motivation of the scientific staff,

too much bureaucratic bottlenecks in securing essential chemicals,

reagents and literature, and so on. Seldom, however, do one

realises that these are the inherent problems of science in all poor

countries of the world, but despite that some countries have

produced good science under these constraints. This admittedly

happened because of the inherent interest that the scientific

community maintains in science; we lacked this, and so we

achieved little.

This is not to say that the problems that our scientists face

are untenable, but only to highlight the fact that beyond these

thick lines perhaps we might also look for things that might

account for this condition. Great works of science have not always

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been dependent on the availability of the most ideal

circumstances. To the contrary, the history of science is replete

with instances where scientific pursuits had received extreme

hostility by both the state and the society, but despite these

profound discoveries had also been made.

Reflecting back, one cannot escape the conclusion that

Bangladesh created the new S&T institutions rather hastily, and

without any proper study and vision. Once created, however,

these institutions could not be dismantled despite their poor

productivity. The heavy burden of over 80 government supported

R&D institutions slowly pushed the research activity of the

country into a limbo – a vicious cycle of non-productivity, and

economic drainage ensued. The maladies that resulted were far

too many and none with even the most profound optimism could

see any cure. Today, many of our S&T institutions are in such a

poor state that even the capacity to properly utilize even a modest

research grant has been lost.

Looking Ahead with Objectivity

The planners during the Pakistan time, and most of them

were from West Pakistan with the controlling hand in the

planning process, chose a workplan that was based on a short

time frame. This probably happened because of the gathering

apprehension of the separation of East Pakistan. The separation,

by then, was a question of whether or not it will occur, but one of

how soon will it occur? So a short-term science and technology

policy was orchestrated that would maximise the objectives –

exploitation of the resources of East Pakistan in the shortest

possible time.

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An objective appraisal of our unique circumstances is

critical for proper scientific planning. It is our collective

responsibility to undertake this exercise in the most dispassionate

manner. An appreciation of our needs and of our limitations

ought to provide the driving force for the formulation of our

science and technology policy. However, mistakes of the past

must not be forgotten; these should rather help us to re-focus our

vision in a more pragmatic manner. We have to recast the

foundation of our science and technology in our own format, and

see things in our own context, not through the eyes of others that

view things externally, and often miss the critical contexts. The

policy makers of the Pakistan time had the vision of an atomic

bomb to target neighbours, nuclear energy to illuminate their

villages, and the western wing of the country had enough natural

resources to support a viable industrial base. West Pakistan had

also large landmass to sustain productive agriculture.

Unfortunately, we mistook the short-term policy decisions made

by the Pakistani planners for the correct and final ones, without

giving even a cursory look at the profile that the eastern wing

presented with respect these issues. This critical lapse took a cruel

revenge on us.

Bangladesh is a country beset with manifold constraints, a

country where negative superlatives can too freely be used. It is a

country that represents, so to say, a unique experimentation

ground for sociological studies as to the limit of population

density in an urban setting, or the upper limits of population

density in a country state. The whole country will slowly transit

into a city-state, a mega-city state of architecture new to the

world. We will poison the air, and deplete the land and water for

a purpose that is most humble, yet most disastrous. We will do

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this for the very basic amenities of life – that is, to grow just

enough food-grains using intensive cultivation technologies

available, and raising enough factories to provide jobs to our

people. This we will do to feed the nearly 300 million people that

the country will carry on its landscape by the middle of the

century. These and other factors that emanate largely from the

extremely high population density, which we will experience in

the near future in a largely rural setting, present a measure of

distinctiveness that cannot be found in any other country of the

world. At the same time, these attributes thrust on us the

imperative of a long-term planning in all sectors. This is not to say

that short-term planning is not important, but to emphasise that

these two are quite distinct in our context, and hence these must

not be confused. An objective appreciation of the distinction

between these two as they relate specifically to our situation is

extremely important. Although many countries frequently miss

this and still can be seen to have encountered no serious

problems, for us it will be a costly mistake because of our special

circumstances. We cannot afford to follow other countries in this

regard because no other country in the world have the

circumstances in which we live and breathe – a huge population

to live in a small land of largely rural make-up, for which the

expression ‘density factor’ has been chosen that gives us

distinctiveness unique in many ways.

We have not yet been able to free ourselves from the

torments of the turbulent past. But our survival depends on a re-

focused vision of ourselves as a people, as a country and a nation,

and in our ability to correctly identify our strengths and the

constraints, and in our readiness to properly respond to the

demands of the circumstances. Our science and technology policy

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and indeed our commitment to the nation’s socio-economic

development must have this renewed vision as the driving force.

The important imperative here is to acknowledge that we have

treaded through a truncated track, albeit because of circumstances

created by others. At the same time, however, we must not fail to

accept the fact that in this misfortune we had our share of lapses

as well. Unless we can accept this historic shortcoming with

courage, a new beginning will be difficult for us to make, and our

fading hopes might vanish altogether.

Biological effect of a very high population density with its

antecedent high-level social entropy on the economic productivity

of the country is, a difficult subject, and has to-date drawn only

cursory academic interest. It is in these unique circumstances that

we will have to grow our cereal (food) requirement, evidently on

the much-diminished quantity of arable land. How much land

will there be left for any other food crop, not to speak of any other

activities such a robust livestock industry, or vibrant firms of

flowers, fruits and vegetables? Should we then plan

diversification of our land-based activities by creating better

breeds of cow that would admittedly need superior type of grass,

which, like rice or wheat, needs prime land, and plenty of

sunshine? Will we ever have the needed land in high enough

quantity to support economic activities on the basis of popular

models? The limits of vertical increase of food production under

our conditions are unknown to us, and examples from other

countries cannot be readily applied in our case because no

country on Earth would come close to the critical conditions that

may affect productivity in our country, and that we will have to

endure. Even if we dedicate all our land to only food (rice and

wheat) production, and simultaneously maximise productivity,

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the accelerating pace of population increase and the alarming rate

of depletion of arable land would still require us to buy large

quantities of foodgrain every year, probably at much higher prices

than we do now. What would we have to sell to the world in

order to buy the food?

Some people think that political leaders who hold

important position in the government and provide direction to

nation’s planning and development have no particular reason to

be scientific visionaries. This is a wrong notion. True, they need

not be experts in scientific technicalities, but in a world where

science is increasingly becoming a dominant factor in shaping the

world order, there is a need to understand the basics of science, its

course, its promises and limitations. India offers an excellent

example of how scientific vision of politicians can transform a

nation. The realisation on the part of the political leaders that no

nation can prosper without science and technology development

is crucial. However, in many countries it is lacking and, we are

among the least fortunate in this regard. Our political culture is

based on voice, which has the intrinsic trait that the louder it is,

the more destitute it tends to be in substance. Sadly, however,

loud noise creates a better impact on the people, particularly in

moving the people for a rebellion, or to the ballot box. Many of

our politicians understand well the power of this face of politics,

but seldom do they appreciate the power that science holds for

the people.

And, in this context, the scientists also failed in two

important ways. First, we failed to convince the politicians that

science needs political support, and secondly, we perhaps

unknowingly or out of neglect, offered the necessary arsenal to

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the politicians that enabled them to show their side of the coin. It

took little effort on their part to show that scientific activity, which

the scientists often claim to their credit, really contributed little to

enhance the quality of life of the common people for whom the

politician is obliged to work. Needless to say, neither side is

wholly correct on these issues, but these crosscurrents held

science the helpless hostage. During the Pakistan time, East

Pakistan had only 0.01% of GNP spent on science and technology.

Today, thirty-five years after the birth of Bangladesh, the figure

has not changed significantly. Our yearly spending on science and

technology still averages no better than that dismal figure, 0.01%

of GNP! And, there is no indication that government is prepared

to spend anywhere close to the minimum of 1% GNP for science

and technology which is needed for productive development of

the sector.

A very large and in many ways biologically unique

human population that inhabits the world’s second largest delta

(next to the Amazon delta in Brazil) in highest ever density

known in recorded history in a resource-scarce situation, may

generate high social entropy characterised by pathological

aggressiveness and breakdown of civil order. Most alarmingly,

these would lead to a failing judicial system, the custodian of

order and liberty. New economic changes will require new

definition of value systems, and new dimensions in the image of

the civil society. Environmental pollution, the extent of which is a

direct function of population density, particularly in a very large

population, would reach an intolerable level. Overgrowth of

insects and pests would require use of high levels of insecticides

and pesticides that would destroy the environment, high-density

industrialization would be unavoidable, and intensive

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agricultural activity on declining arable has to be practised. The

plant cover would diminish because it will be impossible to grow

trees due to interference from human activity. In the course of a

few years, trees will be largely restricted to roads and highways

until such time when these too would make road maintenance

costly due to the adverse effect of differential heating and cooling,

and would turn out to be sufficiently hazardous to high-speed

high-volume automobile traffic.

Wealth generation in a global market would require,

among other things, the important aspect of earning from external

sources. What resource do we have to create wealth? Available

arable land will only support subsistence, as continuing and

inevitable decline in the growth rate of agricultural GDP

indicates. Wealth underneath our land is still poorly prospected

and quite beyond our immediate reach. With population that will

be close to 400 million by the end of the century, what vision do

we have for our S&T sector to ensure our existence in a tolerable

state?

From biological contexts, the only wealth-earning

resource that we have at present is our people. This notion is quite

a favourite part of political speeches, but most often used in

misunderstood contexts. No country can survive in today’s

fiercely competitive world without the best use of comparative

advantage. How clear is our vision on our short-term and long-

term advantages? Do our advantages comprise land, livestock,

fisheries, farm products, forestry, and minerals? Or our advantage

comprises the millions of working human hands, hands of those

people who live today in painful agony, but can nevertheless be

turned into productive forces? We have to turn these hands into a

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viable economic. Resources spent on this pursuit will give us far

better return, and, indeed, we have no other sector in which we

can claim significant advantage at the present time.

But then how many of us – scientists, politicians,

businessmen – appreciate the true significance of the vast

potential of our people, a potential that resides not only in hands

that are skilled in various trades, but also as a source of human

genetic biodiversity? This is as yet an unconventional treasure.

Genes are tradable resource today, and we have accumulated this

resource through the natural course. Although burdensome at

present, it can be gainfully exploited. How much do we know of

our other advantages? We have an advantage of large population

in activities that can be done in the non-physical cyberspace, such

as the one provided by information and communication

technology, but do we know the methods to maximise benefits

from this sector?

Five

Our Uniqueness: The Density Factor

Bangladesh is destined to attain a unique distinction in

the density of its human population. We are fast approaching a

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human population density that will perhaps represent the highest

density that any land mammal ever attained in natural setting in

the history of the planet. The landmass that makes Bangladesh

bears a historic reputation; it has been the land of very high

human population density since long past. A small stretch of land

measuring approximately 80 miles east-west and 120 miles north-

south can be delineated by drawing two straight lines running

north-south, one line joining Sherpur and Satkhira, and the other

joining Sunamganj and Bhola. This tiny strip of land measuring

about 12,000 square kilometres in area and forming the bulk of the

Meghna basin, can be clearly distinguished as the most densely

populated area in the in Indian subcontinent1. This remarkable

fertile strip may be assumed with a fair degree of confidence to

represent the most densely populated area in the whole world.

The map presents data that were available about half a century

back, but the relative position of the area in this respect perhaps

has not changed much since most areas of the subcontinent also

has attained much higher population density over the past few

decades.

Burgdorfer, F. 1957. The World Atlas of Population. Heidelberg Akademie der

Wissenschaften, Heidelberg, Germany.

Three rivers and their numerous tributaries, whose

number will run into the thousands, criss-cross this small

landmass in all conceivable directions and forming the world’s

second largest delta system next to the Amazon basin in Brazil.

But the contrasts between these two systems are striking. Brazil is

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8.5 million sq km in area, Bangladesh is less than 0.15 million sq

km; the Amazon system drains 6 million sq km area into the

North Atlantic Ocean, ours does only 0.12 million sq km area into

the Bay of Bengal; population density in the Amazon basin is

approximately 25 persons per sq km while is over 800 people per

sq km. So huge is the quantity of muddy discharge from the

Amazon basin into the Atlantic that a 200 km stretch of the

Atlantic Ocean from the shore remains perpetually grey. Our

system is estimated to drain only small fraction of that into the

Bay of Bengal, about 10 billion tonnes annually.

POPULATION DENSITY IN THE DELTA

The three major rivers and numerous tributaries and

canals supported in this region a vibrant agriculture and a

thriving fishery. These in association with a mild climate caused

tremendous over-breeding of the human population inhabiting

this area area. Projected population characteristics of Bangladesh

would follow simple and fairly accurately predictable

demographic pattern. The population density that will be reached

towards the end of the century in a country of largely rural

character with scarce economic resources, presents an economic

and demographic nightmare. The present population of 140

million will double in about 40 years. Not only that, it will

continue to increase, although at a slower rate, until the end the

present century even if replacement level fertility – that is, one

couple leaving behind on average no more than a pair of offspring

– is achieved in the near future. The figure below roughly

illustrates this pattern of population growth in Bangladesh.

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This is an established demographic phenomenon in a

large population of sexually reproducing organisms (requiring

two partners) with high fertility and relatively low mortality, and

is related to average longevity and generation time of the

population. In demography this is called population momentum,

which results from the fact that a couple producing two

generation 1 children will continue to live for many more years

after these children were each married and had produced two

generation 2 children who will each marry and produce their

offspring while their parents will still be alive. Thus in three

generations there will be, even under replacement level fertility,

an accumulation of individuals at various stages of life. This will

create in a very large population a rolling-over effect resulting in

population momentum. This effect cannot be easily contained.

Only very high level of mortality or very drastic decline in birth

rate below replacement fertility level may offset this effect. In a

very large freely interbreeding population such as ours and under

the prevailing conditions of low mortality and relatively high

longevity (at present 60 years), this momentum effect will keep

the population growth curve on the increase for about two

generations after replacement fertility has been achieved. In

demography fertility is measured by what is called total fertility

rate (TFR), which measures the total number of live births during

a woman’s childbearing years. This rate now is 1.4 in Europe and

2.1 in USA. In Bangladesh TFR was 5.6 in 1975, which fell to 3.5 in

2000. It is expected that the population would stabilise in the long

term, when TFR matches with the replacement fertility of around

2.1. We have not yet attained the replacement fertility, and after

we attain this, the population growth curve will still stay on the

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increase, although with a reduced slope, until in about 75 years

population reaches the calculated 400 million mark!

Would this population then defy the carrying capacity of

the land? Only conjectures are possible in this regard. The

‘carrying capacity’ is a concept with various connotations. One

generally acceptable definition is ‘the maximum population that

can be sustained indefinitely into the future’. The definition, of

course, has an unconscious bias because in some cases indefinite

sustenance is not always determined by maximum population; a

minimum population also can critically limit indefinite

sustenance. Many animal species suffer extinction if their number

falls below a certain minimum. For the human population in

Bangladesh, obviously, we need to worry about the maximum

population aspect only and that also under the adverse context of

very critically high density in a largely rural setting. The very high

density in today’s globalised world would bring about certain

consequences as inevitable consequence.

UNIQUE CONSEQUENCES

High-Density Economic Activity

This fact – a very large population distributed uniformly

in an unprecedented density – bears profound biological and

socio-economic significance. The noted economist Wahiduddin

Mahmud has incisively hinted on the possible implications of

such a population in the unique physical-economic contexts of

Bangladesh. About this, the reader is referred to an article written

by the author that appears in the book entitled ‘Bangladesh on the

Threshold of the Twenty-First Century’ published by the Asiatic

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Society of Bangladesh in 2002. Bangladesh has a very low per

capita income, but income generated per unit landmass, per

square kilometre for instance, is perhaps the highest in the world.

This is the consequence of very high man-land ratio, which

inevitably leads to what the author, describes as ‘high physical

density of economic activities’ caused by a massive participating

human population, and which would thus constitute an important

biological component of the ‘physical-economic configuration of

an entire country, not of urban areas of a country’.

Wahiduddin Mahmud1 draws attention to this unique

density factor to another important aspect pertaining to the issue

of our relative advantage in world context. In Bangladesh it is

land, not capital, that is perhaps the scarcest factor of production.

This indicates that our comparative advantage in export will shift

to activities that are not only ‘labour-intensive’ but also ‘land-

saving’.

1. Mahmud, Wahiduddin. 2002. Bangladesh Economy: Performance, Prospects and Challenges. In: ‘Bangladesh on the Threshold of the Twenty-First Century, Ed. A. M. Chowdhury and F. Alam, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh, pp. 598.

Fast Exit of Cropland from Tillage

Depletion of arable land, which hitherto received little

attention, is now being studied with increased seriousness.

Available facts vary widely in different source materials and

study reports. Some estimates put the figures to be 72,000 sq km

(7.2 million hectares). Population pressure now is causing an

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estimated 800 sq km arable land being lost per year. Thus, in the

next 30 years loss of arable land will be 24,000 sq km, by 2150 total

loss will be 40,000 sq km leaving 36,000 sq km for tillage to feed a

population close to 300 million. This dismal scenario of the loss of

cultivable land demands dispassionate analysis. Serious note

should be taken of the fact that time in our hand to introduce

stringent land use measures is rapidly being lost; after 50 years

there will be very little land left to regulate. If we can maintain the

area of arable land to about 50,000 sq km by immediate halt of

any more of its exit and some success in land reclamation, and we

may increase cereal production to twice the present level. But

even after this doubling, after 50 years we may still have to import

substantial quantity of foodgrain, perhaps more than a quarter of

country’s total food requirement, at competitive world prices. Are

we prepared to regulate land use? This is going to be difficult,

and almost certainly will be strongly disfavoured by the

pressure of industrialisation. In 1999-2000 Bangladesh attained

self-sufficiency in food and there was no food import in that year,

but two years later in 2002 - 2003 the country had to import 3

million tonnes of food grain. This was due to increased demand

by the additional 2 million people that is added to the population

each year.

How much vertical increase in crop production can be

achieved, and can this compensate for the effects of population

increase and loss of cultivable land? Given the current trends in

population growth and depletion of arable land it is fair to

assume that by the middle of this century population will be

double the present size and arable land would be reduced to half.

Thus, to maintain the present per capita cereal production, it

would be necessary to increase vertical productivity about four

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times, which may not be technically feasible. How should we then

plan our land use strategy?

The issue of land-saving is admittedly critical and is

suggested from two important perspectives; saving the quantity

of land for optimal use in all economic activities, and saving the

quality of land from the consequences of high density use. In our

situation where land is the critically limiting factor of production,

land-saving must be a serious national issue, and it must receive

due attention in the nation’s science and technology profile. The

scientific community does not seem to appreciate this issue yet,

which has resulted in much confusion to our collective disservice.

The S&T policy of the nation must be open to both practical

scientists, and the free-thinking academic scientists, but the need

for differential emphasis is to be accepted.

A summary of our land use picture in agriculture, forestry and

plant cover produces an interesting profile that is presented in the profile

that follows.

Land use profile of Bangladesh – AD 2050 Scenario

• Area of Bangladesh : 148,393 sq. km 14.8 million hectares

• Land Distribution : Arable land ~ 63% of total land area

(as of 2004) that is, 7.2 million hectare = 72,000 sq km1. Forest ~ 7% of total land area1.3 million hectare = 10,300 sq Km [Some estimates give this value to be 14,000 sq Km]

Wetland [Haors, Beels, Ditches, ~ 20% of total land area, 2.9 million hectare = 29,000 sq km] Housing ~ 4.4% of total land area, 0.15 million hectare = 7,500 sq km

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• By 2050 when population will be 300 million, cultivable land will fall to about 3.6 million hectare = 36,000 sq km

• Arable land as of 2004 is depleting by 221 hectares/day, 800 sq km per year. By 2050, according to this rate of depletion, we will loose 40,000 sq km arable land leaving available, as stated above, about 36,000 sq km cultivable land.

• In 1999 – 2000 foodgrain self-sufficiency was established with production of 25 million tons of cereal for 140 million people.

• Foodgrain requirement in 2010 is estimated to be 28 million tons, 32 million tons in year 2020, 53 million tons in 2050. Present yield is ~ 4 tons/hectare. At the present rate of depletion of arable land (800 sq km/year), in 45 years we will loose ~ 36,000 sq km arable land, leaving us only 36,000 sq km or 3.6 million hectares available for cultivation.

• The 2050 scenario will be: Population 300 million Cultivable land 3.6 million h

Cereal requirement 53 million tons This will require us to produce 15 t/hectare from the present 4 t/hectare, about four-time increase! Is this vertical increase possible through biotechnology and management?

• Annually 2 million people are added to the population.

• Land : Man ratio in 1951 0.80 acre 1998 0.28 acre

• Declining growth rate of agricultural GDP2 During the First 5-year plan 4.90% During the Fourth 5-year plan 0.86%

• Percentage of landless people (2004) ~ 56%

1. Karim, Zahurul. 2002. Progress of Agricultural Develioment in Bangladesh. In ‘ Vision-2021, Ed. A. M. Harun ar Rashid, Bangladesh Academy of Sciences, pp. 324. 2. Akash, M. M. 2002. Agriculture Sector: on the Threshold of the Twenty-First

Century. In ‘Bangladesh on the Threshold of the Twenty-First Century’,

Ed. A. M. Chowdhury and Fakrul Alam, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh,

pp. 598.

High-Density Environmental Pollution

The high physical density of agricultural activity and a

robust labour-intensive manufacturing sector producing mainly

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consumer goods in large volumes, will as a consequence result in

very high density of environmental pollution. This will also be on

a panoramic scale affecting the entire country, not just areas

around factories. So high will be the pollution level due to high

level discharge of pollutants in a small landmass it is feared that

we may earn may in this regard as well the unique distinction of

representing the world’s highest pollution level per square

kilometre land area.

The scientific community, the politicians and planners,

must understand certain key contexts. For instance, within the

next 50 years or perhaps less than that, the entire country may

turn into one ‘mega-city’ well connected with roads and

highways, and industrial units spread all over the country, as

there are no physical constraints to impede the process, and there

will likely be no effective process of law to do anything in this

regard. Our advantageous carbon quota, that is, amount of carbon

dioxide emission that is acceptable under international treaties

based on our large population, may provide incentive to foreign

investors to relocate their industrial units in the country, which

will provide also the tempting advantage of very cheap industrial

labour. The impending panoramic prospect of pollution can

perhaps be halted if the industrial units are located along the

geographical slopes of the country – edges along the Bay of

Bengal in the south and slopes of Cox’s Bazaar district – for easy

drainage of industrial effluents into the sea. Or, a system of

underground tunnels is laid to drain the industrial effluent into

the sea. Neither of these, unfortunately, is of any immediate

concern to us for obvious practical contingencies.

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Dilution rate of toxic substances in the soil is determined

by, among other things, total input and total surface area available

to absorb the toxic residues, which admittedly, will always be

against us. Furthermore, decreasing flow-rate of monsoon water

due to silting and blocks created in the flow path of monsoon

water due to habitation, roads and dams, etc. would augment the

deposition rate of such wastes to levels that may be considerably

higher than it is at present. It is very likely that with siltation of

the rivers and canals would someday cause the monsoon rain up

in the northern mountains to be discharged into the Bay of Bengal

using the entire country as the discharge board, a panoramic

flooding. An alternative scenario can also be imagined that might

be of benefit to us. As a result of the rising of riverbanks due to

human settlement activities, and construction of flood

embankments and roads, there will be an increase in the rate of

flow of water through these rivers during the monsoon, which

might automatically dredge the rivers. The rivers would be

narrower, and navigable throughout the year, yet there may not

be extensive flooding.

Routine human activities of a very large population

would lead to accumulation of organic matter in soil in proportion

to the population size. Surface water in lakes and closed water

bodies is also enriched, which thereby supports overgrowth of

aquatic vegetation and other organisms. As they die the water is

further enriched with organic matter leading to more growth of

aquatic biota in successive years, and the cycle repeats in an

accelerating pace causing deposition of organic waste as humus,

and rapid drying up of the water body. This is a common

biological phenomenon, but in our case, this process is

characterised by two highly active biological cycles – nitrogen

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cycle and carbon cycle – that cannot be easily controlled in our

situation and this phenomenon now spells doom to many of our

inland water bodies. The Chalan Beel dried up relatively fast over

the last couple of decades compared to previous years, by this

active cycle; other water bodies will face similar fate rapidly. It is

the consequence of an unbalanced equation between our planning

and nature’s wisdom. Lakes and water bodies in large cities will

inevitably face such ‘biological death’ despite much worry of the

activists. The number of people living in close distances from a

city lake and people using the lakeside everyday, create a

pressure on the lake that far exceeds its biological carrying

capacity, that is, its ability to hold the biota in indefinitely. Loss of

carrying capacity of a lake means death of lake, and emergence of

dryland.

Honest intentions alone are inadequate to undo the reality

that biology presents. One could, of course, cite examples of lakes

in other cities of the world, but the contexts of nation’s wealth and

wealth spent on keeping these lakes biologically fit, are seldom

mentioned. To keep a city lake in good order under the present

circumstances (heavy population pressure, drainage of rainwater

into the lake, household discharge) the very minimum that has to

be done is to change the water of the lake frequently to maintain

the organic matter content of the water under proper biotic

balance. Biology is quite precise; the greater the population

pressure the more frequent has to be this washing of the lake. This

is the least expensive route to keep the lake in its lake-like outfit,

but more desirable but difficult implement under a city-centric

model of economic development, would be substantial reduction

of city population.

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High-Level Social Entropy

Biology of an extremely high population density with its

antecedent high-level social entropy, and its possible socio-

economic impact, is an important subject that has to-date drawn

only cursory academic interest with only some generalisations

made on the subject1. The behavioural consequences of over-

crowding, a phenomenon that will affect many developing

countries in the future is fast becoming a subject of critical study

by social scientists. Over the years certain generalizations have

been made, mainly based on studies with animals. For example,

it is seen that increased crowding in experimental animals

inevitably produces pathological symptoms and deviant

behavioural patterns as suggested by experimental psychologist

John Calhoun in a seminal paper published in 1962. Calhoun’s

experiment involved raising an expanding rat population in a

crammed room where he observed that soon the rats set to killing

one another, to assaulting, and even cannibalising. Crowding, no

matter how it is caused, does not result in this behavioural

aberration in many animals. How much this phenomenon is

applicable to human population is a matter of debate. Some

studies show that population density and per capita homicide are

not correlated, nor is homicide correlated with per capita income

or higher relative size of city population. These studies lead some

1. de Waal, F. B. M., F. Aureli and P. G. Judge. Coping with Crowding. Scientific American. May 2000, p. 54-59.

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experts to believe that the human species has an innate capacity to

adjust to crowding without expressing overt aggressive

behaviour. But other views also prevail. Some prefer to believe

that facts of biology are perhaps much more complex than such

statistics obtained from studies in restricted settings may reveal.

Many social scientists and biologists believe that increased density

of human population is likely to create an increased level of social

entropy particularly in a situation where resource scarcity is the

survival-limiting factor, and also where resource symbolises

power5. Over the past decades, we have witnessed many

instances of perverse crimes too gross to describe in words, we

have seen with agony and helplessness the collapse of two of the

most important institutions of a civilised society, such as the

judiciary and education, particularly higher education. These

rapidly influenced other important areas – rule of law,

governance, politics, and corrupt behaviour and demise of values.

Whether or not these aberrations reflect just a higher order

manifestation of aggressive behaviour in the making, the potential

level of the resulting social entropy would be very high that may

have no precedence in human history in quantitative terms at

least. It may be destined to disappear with economic

advancement, or it may be a protracted phenomenon with

different manifestations in different times.

When population would stabilize about 75 years from

now, Bangladesh will be a vastly different country. How much

different will it be, and in which way, is not easy to predict, but

the posterity would certainly endure one fearful burden – that of a

huge population living in extremely high density and struggling

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to survive on scarce economic resources. Combination of these

factors presents a scenario the parallel of which cannot be found

at present anywhere in the world, nor perhaps in recorded human

history.

While one wonders how this high population density will

shape this land a hundred years from now, one may also note

with some satisfaction the potential positive aspects of high

population density. In a rural setting as exemplified by our

country, high population density makes productive mobilization

of people relatively easy and the delivery of essential services less

costly on a per capita basis. Economic and social benefits of this

are already obvious in several sectors in Bangladesh such as

family planning, primary healthcare, primary education and

lately, in information and communication sector, and recurrent

flooding of a delta with poor waste disposal system may naturally

augment soil fertility reducing chemical fertiliser use.

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Six

Biological Realism: Context Neglected

Nature’s laws are logical, although the hidden wisdom is

not often obvious. We know that land, its surface and underneath,

and a small distance up in the air, are vital to our survival on this

planet. These resources are apparently plentiful, and these are still

achievable by most people of the world with no serious effort.

Land on this planet is fixed in quantity, so also the quantity of

living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) matter. Matter undergoes

transformation, the biotic component more perceptibly than the

abiotic component, but the two are in a balance so that there is no

net gain or loss of energy by the planet in the ordinary time scale

relevant to humankind’s existence in the future. Although huge

quantities of solar radiation falls on Earth daily, only a small

fraction of it, about 1%, is trapped by the green plants, which is

recycled into the total biota (sum total of all living organisms of

the planet) of the planet.

Land is the commodity on which all human activities rest.

Agriculture, the oldest and the most significant discovery of

humankind and all other activities that were subsequently

discovered, are all based on land. Its ownership has evolved

according to the notion of sovereignty that offer an operationally

satisfactory platform for the present, but in the future land will

become more and more limiting to humankind’s survival. Today,

those countries that have plenty of this commodity may have little

to worry, but those who have very meagre amounts of it must

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understand certain facts of biology to make the best possible

assessment of its worth and chart the most productive path for its

use.

For us, living on the least amount of land would vital for

survival. This aspect should be understood as a core issue of what

may be termed as biological realism. There are principles in

biology that are important in determining the structure and

function of social life of organisms. Certain important lessons of

biology that are read in textbooks may appear unfashionable to

some, but they are significant and would merit renewed respect in

our context.

STRUGGLE IN BIOLOGY

Malthus, nearly a century before Darwin, applied a

remarkable fact of biology to human society. It was what Darwin

described as prodigality of reproduction – that is, the propensity

of living organisms to reproduce in numbers far more than what

is necessary, or in other words, what the resources would support.

This phenomenon is universal and occurs across the living world.

The significance of this phenomenon, according to Darwin, is that

survival is a matter of struggle where number is critically

important, and this attribute would thus be conserved in organic

evolution. Malthus noted that in the human species overbreeding

is the rule, and number increases of individuals in geometric

progression, while the cumulative energy of humankind can

cause an increase in food production only in a linear progression.

This, inevitably, leads to hunger, disease and death.

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Critics of Malthus point out that the theory under-

estimates human ingenuity, advances in medical science, and the

power of scientific knowledge, which can balance the increase in

number with comparable increase in food production. This

optimism appears to be well founded, as progress made in science

over the past centuries would justify. Yet one cannot disregard the

fact that despite great progress that has been achieved by

humankind over the past several millennia, the fears of Malthus

did not disappear. There is still struggle for food, and there is still

poverty and disease.

Concomitant to human hunger, Malthus also noted there

is a sad diversion of human energy towards making war, which

like overbreeding, seems to have a biological component in its

genesis. The capacity of the human being to increase the

destructive skills is almost limitless, and perhaps is a deeply

engrained biological trait. War is an overt and the most robust

expression of a fundamental element in nature, the struggle for

survival. War is an organized physical conflict between

individuals and groups belonging to the same species. Thus,

domestication of animals was not war waged by humans against

animals, it was competition between two species in which humans

won due to a superior brain.

The large population living in poverty and in high density

would entail a level of biological competition that would have

many of the precepts of Darwinian competition. Today the world

firmly holds the drums of war. War is a special form of

competition or an outcome of a more subtle form of competition

with the human species, an intra-specific competition. This

instrument has, for reasons not well understood is most

pronounced in two species such as the ants and humans1 among

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the millions known to biology. The Homo sapiens preferred to

convert the power of superior social and group organization that

is admittedly the product of a superior brain and hence vast

potentials for storage, combinatorial amplification, and retrieval

of information into organized conflict, which is war. War is a

social phenomenon, as opposed to individual conflicts that is

prevalent in other species organisms as well. Warfare in ants is

interesting. Not all species of ants are engaged in war, only a few

species are skilled in the art. War in the ants as it is in humans is

centered on one subject—that of food and its accumulation, which

is the basic notion associated with wealth. Ants go to war on the

wealth of others. In arid regions of the world, harvester ants

gather during the dry months seeds of various grasses as food

reserve. This reserve is the target of rival groups, the attackers,

who raid the supplies, and they win they remove grains one by

one to their nest. We are quite familiar to such scenes where ants

move with large cargo of food in their mouth along a track, the

victors with the bounty. Ant wars do not last long, about three

weeks; the longest one on record by ant specialists called

myrmecologists, is six and a half weeks. War in pre-historic

humans is not known; their flint implements were used for

hunting and digging. It is only when settled civilization

developed and property became an identified matter for pursuit

that war began.

1. Huxley, J. 1944. War as a Biological Phenomenon. In: ‘Man in the Modern World’. A Mentor Book, Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc., New York. pp 191-199.

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Darwin’s principle of natural selection based on

competition and struggle for survival have provided lead to

important doctrines that in the past years have dominated human

thoughts and social policies—the principles of free enterprise and

competition in business and economic affairs. All of these are

activities within the same species or intra-specific. Intra-specific

competition is not regarded as biologically useful for the species.

But, there is in human nature a certain level of aggressiveness. We

have in our situation nearly all the ingredients that would

potentially aggravate this aggressiveness adding to the social

entropy. Moulding this into milder forms is a challenge that we

cannot ignore, but this would require hard thinking. Conditions

for aggressiveness are created fast, those for its containment

would demand hard work and firm belief that war need not be a

natural constituent of human nature.

Strangely, the art of war is most well developed only in

two species of animals among the hundreds of thousands known.

Biologists have recognised that only humans and ants are the two

species that habitually engage in war! Struggle for existence that is

universally present in all forms of life is not synonymous with

war. In an environment of nutrient stress, for example, different

bacteria will use different tricks to outwit others. Those that are

slow to grow will survive longer than the fast-growing types since

the fast-growing type would grow and die faster and, would

provide nutrients to the slow growers. Most manifestations of

struggle for existence in the biological world are generally subtle.

In human society, such struggle is further modulated to very

considerable extents by education, instinct and culture. A

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situation of extreme scarcity of food encountered by a group of

well-educated people would be met in a manner different from

that of the savages. Both of these groups will be engaged in a

struggle, but the struggle will be qualitatively different. What we

characterize as natural biological phenomenon is but an

expression of different forms of competition between different

forms of life sharing a common habitat. Admittedly, the

productive potentials of humans have not been maximized and

perhaps it has been done so on purpose – to maintain control of

one group over the others using actual war or the threat of war as

weapon.

VANISHING EDGES OF LAND

Gregor Mendel conducted simple experiments in plant

hybridisation, but he did what his contemporaries neglected. He

counted his experimental peas and kept records in books. When

the numbers were carefully looked at, he immediately found a

pattern that matched with the rules of more exact sciences such as

of mathematics and probability. This led to the development of

the science of genetics, and it also laid the foundations of

quantitative biology, the springboard of modern day biological

sciences. It is the quantity of molecules produced in a certain

pattern, different quantities at different times, and in different

places, that essentially give the enormous molecular and

functional diversity in the cell’s internal universe. This

phenomenon eventually translates into the planet’s vast

biodiversity. Biologists are usually refractory to quantitative

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sciences. Calculations never attracted the naturalists in earlier

times, and biology thus developed as a descriptive discipline.

Small bits of calculations on little things in our day to life and

living may help us better understand the simple implications of

Darwinian biology in our contexts.

Plantation and Forestry

Over the past few decades the tree plantation movement

has been fostered with apparently good reasons. Afforestation

schemes have been developed, social forestry and agro-forestry

schemes have been undertaken. However, the tree plantation

movement has been pursued with the notion, among other

considerations that trees are necessary to remove carbon dioxide

from the air, and replenish the air with oxygen. In addition, other

stated purposes are production of timber, fruits and vegetables,

herbal medicine, etc. These are, of course, laudable objectives, but

these do also reveal a measure of miscalculation. The consequence

of the miscalculation has been that most of these efforts failed to

produce little of the desired results.

To most people the arguments given in support of

massive tree plantation seem to be valid. However, there are other

aspects to the issue that the biologists would see in a different

perspective. In our country the arable land remains under dense

cover of rice plants nearly throughout the year, except the short

winter. Overall, most of the year presents us with a lush green

terrestrial plant cover on land, and aquatic plants in closed water

bodies such as haors and beels. Under these conditions the natural

oxygen and carbon dioxide balance in the air would be

undisturbed. One cannot reasonably assume that we will be in

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short supply of oxygen or under threat of carbon dioxide

poisoning. The notion of reducing carbon dioxide content of the

air by growing plants in large numbers carries little scientific

merit. The carbon dioxide that green plants use is converted into

carbohydrates. A part of that hydrocarbon biomass is burnt as

firewood that again produces carbon dioxide directly. Some part

of the biomass is also converted to carbon dioxide, but a little

later. In this case, the microorganisms decompose dead plants as

they feed on them for their growth, and in the process, much of

the carbohydrate is again turned into carbon dioxide. When a

crop of microorganisms dies microorganisms die other

microorganisms use their remains for their own growth. This is

the remarkable carbon cycle that keeps the carbon dioxide balance

on Earth’s biota.

The main cause of carbon dioxide build-up in the Earth’s

atmosphere lies outside the biological carbon cycle. It is caused by

the burning of fossil fuel. The fossil fuel hidden harmless

underneath the Earth is lifted by us and burnt in quantities that

defy comprehension. This produces huge quantities of carbon

dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, which causes the greatest harm

to the planet. The planet gets hotter with the consequence that

natural calamities strike us in greater frequency and stronger

intensity. The idea that by planting trees in homesteads and along

roadsides, it would be possible to mitigate the effect of massive

carbon dioxide build-up in the atmosphere carries little merit. In a

severe land constrained country like ours, the amount of carbon

dioxide sucked up by a tree would be trivial compared to the

value of the land that the tree would consume.

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But, by planting trees in a scale that we do every year, six

crore saplings in the year 2005, we are admittedly doing some

social service that is not insignificant. Sapling trade and their

planting can be a poverty alleviation tool, and indeed it is so to a

very considerable extent as most of the total cost involved in the

project goes almost entirely to the very poor. But the intended

plant cover increase outside the natural forest area, does not

match with what the expectation.

Experts have highlighted the issue of social forestry for

the past several years. Every year the plantation campaign is

carried out with zeal and its success highlighted in terms of

number of saplings planted and peoples’ acceptance of the drive

as a ‘social movement’ the scientific meaning and implications of

which is of course rarely explained. The movement, however, has

a virtue. The virtue of the movement lies in the fact that the

activity generates small income for people in acute poverty. They

can grow saplings on borrowed land and without any investment,

except the personal labour of planting and caring. The return is

some money. The plantation process supported by government

and NGOs allows some money to percolate into the different

levels of people associated with actual planting. Other than this

marginal benefit, it is difficult to imagine that we will succeed in

creating through such social forestry movement, great quantities

of timber, fuel wood or fruit. To grow a timber tree to maturity on

a time scale lying between thirty to fifty years, on a piece of land

that is under severe human pressure, the cost will inevitably

outweigh potential benefit that can be accrued from the tree.

It is tempting in this connection to take a look into a small

bit of calculation! Theoretically, if a medium-size tree has a

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canopy of 10 m x 10 m occupying an area of 100 square metres,

one can plant about 10,000 such trees in one square kilometre

area. Every year for the last 25 years we have been planting crores

of tree saplings (in the year 2004, the claimed number by the

relevant authority was 6 crores), which means we must have

planted at least 100 crore saplings over the past 25 years. In a

steady-state situation, attained after 25 years and assuming only 1

in 10 saplings standing after normal felling and replacement, we

ought to have now a standing population of 10 crore trees

covering an area 10,000 sq km. This area would be the same as the

present estimated closed forest area of the country.

The actual picture is, however, different. In 1987, an aerial

survey was carried out to measure the extra-forest tree cover of

the country. It was found that the tree cover was only 2,700 sq km,

about one-quarter of the expected area. To a biologist this would

immediately suggest the existence of a strong biotic interference

in the process, which in this case is human activity. With time, the

magnitude of this interference would increase; in 2050, perhaps

even 1 in 100 saplings planted will not reach maturity! This is a

fact of Darwinian competition, an inescapable reality. In a high-

density human population, all other forms of life that require land

to grow and multiply, will loose in struggle.

Raising saplings and their plantation in huge numbers has

been a successful social movement as claimed, but raising trees

out of those saplings to create social forest has faced the expected

Darwinian challenge, and it probably stands to loose. Country’s

tree cover that can be assigned to social forestry activities is

largely estimates of guesswork. The expected number, however,

would only be achieved under certain conditions. That is, if trees

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were left undisturbed in proper balance with population, land

availability, soil nutrition and biological competition. Under these

conditions, one would the see large stretches of social forests in

the country, but biological realism is quite different in the context

of our country and hence we meet many of the failures.

It is fair to assume that by the year 2050 almost all of our

agricultural land will have to be dedicated to cereal production,

and yet much cereal has to be imported, including everything else

– other food items such as fish, meat, fruits, spices, etc., items for

housing, shelter, clothing, medicine, home furnishing,

entertainment and clothing. In short, everything needed for

survival and comfort will have to be imported. Although we have

not yet made any careful calculation as to the limit of agricultural

productivity of the land under the confounding pressures from

population increase, decline of arable land and rise in land

toxicity, it is fair to assume that agricultural productivity of the

land will perhaps not reach the expected level, as trends in other

countries would suggest. In the absence of valid indicator about

tree plantation campaigns and social forestry programmes that

have been going on for the past few decades, little is known about

the gains made, such as relative reduction in the quantity of

imported timber, or enhanced contribution of this activity to

domestic timber requirements over the years.

This is limiting biology. Human population density

determines the competing capacity of other forms of life in a

particular landmass. This deserves proper appreciation if serious

blunders in planning are to be avoided. Why is this so? The

answer to biologists is clear; it is biological competition. We plant

tree saplings without regard to the competition factor –

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competition between plants themselves, and between plants and

human activity. We do understand the phenomenon of

competition, but we do not try to measure its extent.

Despite depleting forest cover and less than expected

success of social forestry, we undertook costly projects such as on

on rubber plantation, cotton cultivation etc., with stories of

gloomy outcomes after decades of effort. Rubber plantation is a

highly land-intensive undertaking so that in Bangladesh only the

land, which is not used for production of food, can be given to

rubber cultivation. An attempt was made during the Pakistan

time, early in the 1960s, to examine whether rubber plants would

grow in the hilly regions of Chittagong district. Encouraged by the

initial success of the trial, a more systematic project was

undertaken as a pilot programme during the 1980s with

experimental plantations established in Chittagong and Sylhet

districts, and in the Modhupur forest, for producing rubber as

‘import substitute’ for which the Asian Development Bank came

forward with substantial financial support. At this time there

were already about 5100 hectares of rubber plantation in the

country and the new programme created another 5048 hectares of

rubber estate. The state-owned Bangladesh Forest Industries

Development Corporation (BFIDC) managed these rubber

plantations. The operation of the project continued for about a

decade largely as a pilot project to examine the commercial

feasibility of rubber production in Bangladesh. Results of this

study have been evaluated and indications are that the project has

failed to perform as per expectations. In the Modhupur forest

area, out of a total plantation of 2.5 million saplings planted in

1987, only about 1.5 million survived as of 1999. The plants

reached the tapping stage subsequently, but the entire plantation

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area by then became barren because of poor management and

intensive human interference. There was little incentive for the

authority to go for tapping because very little output was

expected. So the project is formally closed with little to say about

its success.

It was estimated that from well-managed rubber

plantations comprising 11,000 hectares of marginal land, about 1

ton of dry rubber per hectare (total 11,000 metric tonnes) could be

produced per year in the country under optimum conditions. But

the financial cost of good management of the rubber estates, price

of product relative to international market price, and little

prospect of increasing the acreage for rubber to the minimum

sustainable level appeared to negate any bright future for rubber,

and yet many of our planners dream about rubber plantation in

Bangladesh! Cotton cultivation has a similar story because of

similar constraints. And, when one examines many of the projects

on development of plant products that the BCSIR is currently

working on, one ought to analyse the issue that if successful

whether the project would be so very land-intensive that its

commercial viability would be in jeopardy due to land

availability.

Inland Fishery

Inland fisheries offered good prospects at one time, but

slowly this is also loosing. Inland fisheries are based on water

bodies such as ponds, haors and beels. These are increasingly

coming under what is called eutrophication – the process of

increased nutrient levels in a closed water body. This is

particularly an important phenomenon in countries with warm

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climate and large human population living around these water

bodies, which causes the release of large quantities of organic

matter into the water. Build-up of high levels of organic matter,

which causes aquatic vegetation to overgrow, creates as a

consequence an overgrowth of zooplankton. A situation fast biotic

turnover ensues as organisms die and add to further rise in

organic matter in the pond making the pond suitable for even

greater biotic load. High levels of humus are formed from dead

vegetation and organisms that settle at the bottom of the pond

and speeds up the drying process of the pond. Every year the

nutrient level increases due to increased organic matter build-up

and the, volume of biomass production rises as a consequence.

The biomass when settles adds further to humus accumulation.

Slowly the water body becomes shallow and will be eventually

lost. The smaller is the water body, the faster will it be lost. Of

course if it is in the meantime turned into a dumping basin for

toxic industrial waste it will never be lost in this manner because

nothing will grow there to set the natural process in motion. The

larger water bodies such as the hoars and beels are slowly falling

into the claws of the eutrophication process

Fish culture in ponds is intricately linked with infectious

disease hazard, and in shrimp aquaculture, vast tracts of costal

land and human communities have been devastated in China and

many developing countries1. This has been a well-recognised

problem in many parts of the world. Because nutrient level in

fishponds is very high it makes the ponds ideal for bacterial

growth including pathogenic bacteria, turning ponds into

recognized focal points for outbreaks of many bacterial infectious

diseases in countries with a mild climate and high population

density.

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We had begun inland fish culture with great enthusiasm with

some early success but this is unlikely to sustain because demand

of fish will increase for the growing population and water bodies

would consequently disappear is faster rate. It is indeed a matter

of conjecture as to how long our inland fisheries will be profitable

in the present circumstances without costly and frequent pond

excavation and institution of safety measures to ensure that fish

ponds do not easily turn into focal point for infectious disease

outbreaks.

Agro-Based Economy

We may pause to recapitulate our relative advantage.

With population density rapidly approaching 1000 persons per

square kilometre, it is a fair conclusion that we should be

prepared to accept agriculture as only a subsistence activity, not a

growing enterprise since we would have no advantage of

economy of scale in production in this sector due to land scarcity.

1. Daniel Pauly et al. 2002. Towards Sustainability in World Fisheries. Nature 418, 689- 694.

The fact that 80% of the population still relies for their livelihood,

directly or indirectly, on the work that do on land, is important

factor to consider at the present time, but it may not be so in the

future. At present, the vast majority of the adult population of the

country live on agriculture. Their roots are in the vanishing land.

The land where they work represents their legal existence. If one

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casually asks any farmer about what he thinks about the future of

his agriculture, he will emphatically say that it is bleak and

worsening day by day. This is the farmer’s wisdom, and it is not

to be discounted.

Even if we dedicate all the available land to mainly rice

and wheat cultivation, it will still be inadequate for self-

sufficiency in cereal production. It is imperative that we

understand critically our position in this regard. We are

traditionally fixed to the notion that ours is an agricultural

country. It was certainly so at one time, but we failed to

appreciate that it will cease to be so due to pressure of growing

population.

The growth rate in agricultural GDP1 during the First Five

Year Plan (1973-1978) was 4.9%, during the Fourth Five Year Plan

(1990-1995) it declined to 0.86%. This is so despite intensive

resource mobilisation in the agriculture sector. No doubt, our

agriculture sector still represents the largest producer of the

1. Akash, M. M. 2002. Agriculture Sector: on the Threshold of the Twenty-First Century. In ‘Bangladesh on the Threshold of the Twenty-First Century’, Ed. A. M. Chowdhury and Fakrul Alam, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh, pp. 598.

nation’s goods and services, but it is partly a function of the large

population attached to the land for survival. With the agricultural

land that may recede to barely 90,000 sq km by 2030, and the

population rising to twice its present size to approximately 300

million, it is difficult to imagine good growth of the agriculture

sector.

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To think of a robust agro-based economy in Bangladesh

with its receding land to man ratio is, of course, overly optimistic.

Although our planners, politicians, development experts and

NGOs currently support this sector, it is done for a different

reason. It is not difficult to see that livestock will be limited by

grass availability and poor animal health care facilities, and will

be largely restricted to short-term low gain poverty alleviation

schemes targeted to the very poor since in this activity the

owner’s labour is the only investment needed to bring a cow to a

level of economic worthiness in a short time. This is a low-risk

venture. The cost of keeping a cow in our country is not high,

even on the meagre roadside grasses and a modest ration of

straw, a cow still would give milk and produce calves that can be

sold for a profit within three to four years. This low gain

enterprise suits those who have no capacity to gain from any

other formal activity. In the longer term, however, this gain will

also disappear because cows will die faster due to severe

malnutrition and vulnerability to disease, making this a risky and

unworthy investment. Under the WTO agreement developing

countries must reduce their trade barriers by 2004, and experts

believe that one likely consequence of this shift in the low-income

agriculture-dependent countries will be that since international

price of cereals will increase, many countries will have to reduce

their dependence on cereal import. This will require raising cereal

production, which we will have to double by the year 2040 when

the population will double. The question will then be where will

we have the land to support livestock as a long-term viable

activity?

Catch 22

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Thus, with no advantage of land, shall we give our land

to subsistence farming to grow rice, and meet as much of the

domestic need as possible? Or, use the land to grow value added

crops for export (selected fruits, vegetables, medicinal herbs,

ornamental plants, flowers, etc.) and the income earned is then

used to buy rice and other essential agricultural items at

international price? In effect, this will mean turning the rice-fields

into higher cash-value crops for external consumption, and in

return, buying rice at high price for internal needs. This is an

important matter deserves serious study. Future research in the

plant sciences should not loose sight of this important

consideration. If contract farming, farming that will be

undertaken by landowners to sell produce for the specific purpose

of export, can earn ten times more profit from the same acre of

land than the value of rice produced in it, the issue would

certainly merit serious consideration. And, farming is better than

seeding the entire country with industrial units under investors’

interest from abroad due to our advantageous carbon quota

margin and cheap labour. On a population-size basis, Bangladesh

is entitled to emit far more carbon into the atmosphere than we

are doing at present. But farming is better than what this carbon

emission quota advantage will bring for us because the latter

would cause pollution of land, air and water much faster, and

with far more toxic substances than farming will do in its most

intensive form. But there is a contingency here – industrialization

spreads fast, farming is slow. The biologists are obliged to offer

the needed speed to farming to successfully compete with

industrialization. But the aim would be highly specific – only to

attain self-sufficiency in cereal production.

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Biodiversity Preservation: a Daunting Task

Depletion of biodiversity is recognised as a global

problem. Despite sincere efforts it is a matter of doubt how much

our efforts on biodiversity conservation in Bangladesh will

succeed. World population increase, which is projected to rise to 9

billion from the present 6 billion, and the expected increase in

human activity, would threaten the biotic balance on earth, with

the consequent risk of many plant and animal species facing

extinction. Biological material provides the basis for many

industrial raw materials and drugs. In 1992 the Biodiversity

Convention was adopted at the Earth Summit held in Rio de

Janeiro, which granted sovereignty on biological resources to all

nations to stimulate conservation efforts. The WTO, which went

further in this respect. It granted patentability of genetic material.

Individual genes including human genes and its many variants

are now patentable. In other words, there is enormous genetic

diversity within human beings akin to the planet’s biodiversity.

Genes are responsible for both health and disease. Knowledge of

disease causing genes such as those known in cancer and genes

that confer resistance to attack by, for instance, cholera can

provide potential tools for treatment and prevention of many

diseases. The genetic diversity thus has tremendous commercial

value today because of its patentability, that is, genes are

legitimate objects of trade. The larger and the more heterogeneous

is a population, the greater is the chance of finding a useful

variant of a gene.

Our plant’s biodiversity is rich but its conservation is not

easy, and will be costly because of the inescapable intense

population pressure. Environmental organisations have been

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quite active for the past decades in assessing the loss of

biodiversity, and developing effective methods of conservation.

The issue of biodiversity conservation in Bangladesh has to be

distinctively appreciated. It has to be appreciated first that

conservation of the country’s plant resources in natural habitats

would be nearly impossible here due to intense human pressure

on land. Then, of course, we must ask the important question –

why should we conserve, and how? Three purposes of

conservation are: conservation for pleasure and preservation of

natural heritage, conservation for using the plant resource in

established trade and, finally, conservation for scientific studies

for new discoveries.

Our conservation strategy has to be developed in the

context of our specific purpose. We ought to find answers to

questions such as if a medicinal plant, for instance, needs a

million hectares of arable land to support a viable industry, can

we find the land to grow the plant biomass? And, if this route to

using plant biodiversity were not an option for us, then which

conservation strategy would we adopt? Scientific discoveries

using plant biodiversity is heavily dependent on a strong S&T

base, which we lack at present, but it is certainly a worthwhile

area to pursue seriously and immediately because soon we may

loose this advantage due to loss of material, and strong

competition from other countries. Conservation can be addressed

at the social level such as awareness creation as being currently

done by some NGOs, and at the scientific level, which needs

skilled scientific manpower and costly equipment to do the

conservation work. Prudent decisions are to be taken on the

question as to whether we should do conservation here, or we join

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international efforts in the matter with due protection to the

sovereignty clause on biodiversity convention.

As opposed to plant biodiversity, we have the advantage

of human biodiversity. Our human genetic diversity is enormous,

and despite our best efforts to contain our population, it will keep

increasing through the better part of the century. An appreciation

of this fact, and measures to exploit this resource ought to be a

critical element of our planning. Bangladesh government is

considering legislation to protect our biodiversity in the light of

the Biodiversity Convention treaty to which Bangladesh is a

signatory. Two pieces of legislation – ‘The Biodiversity Community

Knowledge Protection Act of Bangladesh’ and ‘Plant Varieties Act of

Bangladesh’ – are now being considered. It is important that the

legislation also covers conservation of our human genetic

diversity.

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Seven

National Science and Technology Policy

Planning process in different sectors is based on specific

contexts of the country’s needs and its advantages, which in an

atmosphere of idealistic zeal can often be missed. In science and

technology planning for instance, the process is more difficult

than building roads or sinking tube wells. The nation’s S&T policy

that exists now suffers from many inadequacies.

There is often lack of clarity on the issues of ‘science

policy’ and ‘scientific planning’. This adversely affects proper

structuring of scientific activities in many developing countries,

because these words can be applied interchangeably, resulting in

overlapping and faulty planning. The relationship between policy

and plan is somewhat similar to that between ethics and rules.

Ethics determines the general principles, and provides the basis

on which rules of conduct are framed. For example, love and

knowledge can be considered as ethical parameters, and rules

framed on the basis of these parameters are more likely to be

beneficial to humankind, less likely to be harmful. Science policy

should, in fact, provide analogous directions by accurately

defining the important parameters relevant to the country, and it

ought to clearly suggest ways on the basis of which both the long-

term and short-term scientific workplan should be developed.

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POLICY STRATEGY

A policy takes into account the important socio-economic

and cultural aspects of the country and provides choices for

anticipatory decision-making. When several routes are available,

the policy would define or even dictate, what ought to be

followed in the nation’s science and technology development.

Every country has unique socio-economic attributes, human and

material resource profiles, and geographic and cultural

distinctiveness. A sound science and technology policy should

have two categories of statements. One category would be

generalized statements that would suggest certain principles in

general terms on which the policy is based. For example,

assertions such as the aim of the policy is to attain science and

technological competence and self-reliance in order to improve

productivity and employment, to advance the frontiers of

knowledge and such other intentions as one can find in most

science and technology policy preambles.

The policy should also contain another category of

statements pertaining to the circumstances of the country, and

present suitable options. The latter is critical in any situation, but

more so for us since in many ways our circumstances are unique,

as discussed in an earlier chapter. Certain policy statements in our

country contexts should receive the highest consideration. For

example, serious consideration must be given to the fact that in

agricultural sector we may never acquire any advantage of

economy of scale in production, so that planners understand how

much investment is justified, and for how long. Then there ought

to be statements on other critical issues such toxicity of land, air

and water, as we will have to use large quantities of fertiliser and

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pesticide for increased productivity, and the toxic residues will be

deposited in a relatively small landmass.

When the issue of environmental toxicity is evaluated

with two other attributes of the country – small landmass and a

large population – the result would have disturbing implications.

Toxicity level in our country is likely to be much higher per unit

land area because of high levels of fertiliser and insecticide use.

This would be aggravated by the fact that we do not have any

advantage in rapid dilution of toxicity, which a country with

relatively large land area gets. In countries with similar level of

use of these insecticides and pesticides, but distributed over a

much larger land area, the level of toxicity build-up on land will

be admittedly slower. Thus, the S&T policy statement should

address such issues, in order to bring these into intellectual focus.

These issues would then be more stringently reflected in the

action plan.

The S&T policy of any country has to be a carefully

designed document developed painstakingly by scientists,

technologists, economists and development experts working

together. This is an extremely important issue where lapses may

render even the most sincere efforts fruitless. Policy developers

must have sharp vision on the important country perspectives,

and not merely be driven by flamboyant perceptions, often

borrowed, which generally lead to the policy being a document of

pleasant tone, but little value.

The scientific action plan, as opposed to policy statement,

selects the appropriate route to undertake a given task at a given

time and under a given set of circumstances. It determines

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priorities and defines the modalities through which it is to be

executed. The action plan draws its force from the policy; it is by

itself without much intrinsic strength. An example may be

illuminating. When it is asserted in the policy that vertical

productivity of land must be ensured, the plan of action takes lead

from this assertion and decides, for instance, that one way to do

this is to use high yielding varieties of crop plants, and discourage

agricultural activities that put greater demands on land without

adding greater value to the products.

Priority fixation is an essential component of a good

science and technology action plan. Clearly, no country,

particularly no developing country can hope to do several things

simultaneously because of various constraints. Goals that are

identified as of high priority can be achieved through several

possible routes of which the one with the greatest potential for

success in the context of the country should be selected. The most

important thing that comes to influence the selection process is the

specific-country situation in terms of natural resources, the level

of socio-economic development, availability of trained manpower,

cultural background of the people and certainly political stability.

The S&T plan is thus a detailed description of the specific

undertakings that have been identified as reflecting the subject

and spirit of the S&T policy and is presented both as a short-term

plan of action, usually 5 years, and a long-term one, which could

span over a period of 10 to 25 years. The S&T plan thus charts the

most productive path scientifically and technologically, as it must

also define resource requirements and resource availability in

order to ensure successful execution of the plan. The plan thus

provides the operational details to the country’s overall S&T

activity over a given period of time, and must be very specific to

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the areas of work and the projects of priority. In many developing

countries one often finds the existence of an S&T policy that is

described only in broad terms without an accompanying S&T

plan, or just a ‘policy’ with a hybrid make-up that serves the dual

purpose of both a policy and a plan. This is reflective of an

improper perception of the overall issue of science in the context

of its relationship with economic development strategy.

It is suggested by experts that the S&T workplan should

be as detailed as the nation’s economic development plan, and

may span over a similar length of time (5 years) prioritising the

activities to be undertaken sector-wise, identifying the targets to

be achieved, developing methods for evaluation, specifying major

projects in some areas, and suggesting the critical implementation

path. The resources necessary for the entire workplan, manpower

requirement and funding, should be clearly indicated and source

of funding suggested, so that uninterrupted flow of funds is

ensured for the operation of the plan.

In the execution of an S&T workplan, a class of

institutions, the R&D institutions, are the vehicles for

implementation of the workplan. The relationship between

development goal, S&T policy and S&T workplan, and the

activities of the R&D institutions is generally seen as follows:

Development Objective : To increase, for instance, capacity

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of the manufacturing sector, causing

reduction in importation of capital

goods.

S&T Policy : The S&T policy will provide guidelines

to specifically determine the areas of

science and technology that should be

activated in order to reach the objective.

S&T Workplan : Development of a workplan specifying

projects, the participating institutions,

mode of operation, and budget

formulation.

R&D Activity : Execution of the workplan by pre-

industrial research that is carried out by

the R&D institutions.

In the development planning, S&T is a distinct sector in

Bangladesh. It encompasses the whole spectrum of activities that

relate to scientific and technological manpower development and

scientific and technological research, including R&D work.

Overall, therefore, the R&D activity of a country may reflect only

a fraction of nation’s total S&T activity. It is not clear what

distinction is made in our planning process between the above

aspects. All of our state-run general universities offer a range of

science subjects in undergraduate and postgraduate levels. These

are certainly part of nation’s S&T activity, but these are also parts

of the country’s higher education sector. The National Science and

Technology Policy adopted by a cabinet decision in 1986, which is

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in force with some minor modifications to date, does not clearly

define these issues.

THE POLICY

Background

Bangladesh did not inherit a science policy, because at the

time of independence in 1971, Pakistan also had none. With one-

eighth of 1% GNP being spent by Pakistan in the S&T sector for

the Eastern wing, little science could be expected. Overall, it was

the efforts of some towering scientists, personalities like Professor

Salam in West Pakistan that, in effect, solely presented our

nation’s scientific image to the outside world during the pre-

independence time.

Among the developing countries, India’s position is

laudable in science and technology planning. India enjoys the

advantage of a rich background of scientific culture, which greatly

contributed to the accomplishments that has India made in S&T

today. After independence in 1947, the then Prime Minister of

India, Pundit Nehru himself took the responsibility of the nation’s

science and technology sector. He had relied considerably on the

advice of the prominent Indian physicist Meghnad Shah in

developing the strategy of how to consolidate S&T in India.

Among the first steps that Nehru took to strengthen India’s

science and technology profile was the declaration that Indians

themselves must develop India’s science and that the home must

be the pulpit where Indian science has to be cultivated and

nourished. A strong research programme was initiated in the

universities to produce high-quality scientists with doctoral

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degree. The University Grants Commission was created to

facilitate the programme. Generous financial support was

extended to all deserving scientists, who showed promise in

research. Laboratories were equipped with the latest scientific

instruments at great cost in order to generate momentum in

scientific research. The Ph.D. programme launched at all the

leading universities of the country played a strong role in further

stimulating a culture of research and of self-esteem. This paid a

great dividend; soon the Indian scientists reached a position from

where they could successfully compete with the advanced

laboratories of the western countries. Indian scientists after

earning Ph.D. from Indian universities maintained their scientific

link with western laboratories through their post-doctoral

research work. They undertook this at prestigious institutions

abroad, where they were highly acclaimed because of superior

background. After post-doctoral training most of them returned to

India with the definite knowledge that on their return they will

find matching work opportunities at home. Thus, an environment

of both challenge and opportunity was created within the country,

almost entirely by the vision of Nehru and through his personal

efforts. Nehru saw that the future of the great country rests

entirely on cultivation of science and technology, and its

application to nation building.

A significant step for which Nehru received high

admiration was that he constituted in 1956 the Scientific Advisory

Committee to the Cabinet comprising top scientists of the nation

and with wide-ranging terms of reference. Subsequently, in 1958

Nehru introduced a historical resolution in the Parliament. The

resolution, which was readily adopted by the Parliament,

provided strong government support to the nation’s scientific

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aspirations. The Parliament resolved to “secure for the people of the

country all the benefits that can accrue from the acquisition and

application of scientific knowledge”. The resolution had far-reaching

effects on the development of science and technology in India. In

essence, it became almost a constitutional provision and all

governments that came to power honoured this resolution almost

as a constitutional obligation. The resolution gave the necessary

stability to the S&T planning process over the decades that

followed, and today India is the beneficiary of this far-sighted

vision.

The circumstances in Bangladesh were unfortunately

quite different. Bangladesh, in the decade that followed

independence, had to tackle the problems of a war-torn economy

and had little time or resource to devote to science and

technology. The 20 or so R&D institutions that were inherited

from Pakistan, some in important sectors such as rice and jute,

were already in a precarious condition during the Pakistan time,

and continued to exist in this manner during the early years of

Bangladesh. Towards the end of 1970s, conditions improved a

little, and it was then possible for the government to pay some

attention to the science and technology sector. This resulted in the

formulation of the first National Science and Technology Policy in

1980. But soon afterwards, the country transited into martial law

that again precipitated stagnancy in science and technology

planning. In 1983, however, renewed interest in science resulted

in the creation of high-powered committee, the National

Committee for Science and Technology (NCST). The NCST was

formed in May 1983, as per a cabinet decision, with the President

and the Chief Martial Law Administrator as the Chairman of the

Committee.

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The committee studied the S&T policy of 1980 and came

to the conclusion that it had major deficiencies. For instance, it

only outlined the ‘broad objectives’ in the S&T sector, without

defining the guiding principles that ought to drive the policy.

Furthermore, the committee concluded, the 1980 policy failed to

address one important issue – that is, it ‘did not form a part of the

national development plan’. The committee adjudged these

deficiencies to be sufficiently serious, and felt the need of a new

science and technology policy.

The new NCST Committee had fifteen members,

representing various ministries, and seven scientists selected by

the government to represent the major scientific institutions.

These seven scientists were selected by virtue of their being heads

of seven important scientific institutions of the country. The

institutions were: Diabetic Association of Bangladesh, Bangladesh

Agricultural University, Bangladesh University of Engineering

and Technology, Rajshahi University, Bangladesh Atomic Energy

Commission, Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial

Research, and Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council.

Interestingly, the nation’s oldest and the premier university, the

University of Dhaka, was not included among these seven

institutions. Why the University of Dhaka, which was established

at least half a century before these seven institutions were created,

and which had in its operational perimeter the nation’s entire

system of medical education, vital for in any developing country,

had to had to face this humiliation was never explained to the

nation. Similarly inexplicable was the fact that representatives of

some ministries were included in the Committee that had little

relevance to the activity of the Committee, such as, Secretary of

Local Government Division, and Secretary of the Cabinet

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Division. Furthermore, the committee had also the distinction of

having an odd ratio of administrators to scientists; it was 2:1.

Formation of an executive committee of the NCST was

also approved in order to carry out the functions of NCST. The

number of members in the executive committee was not specified,

but the executive committee was to include ‘concerned Ministers’,

‘concerned Secretaries’, and three ‘eminent scientists’ to be

nominated by the NCST. The executive committee was to be

headed by the Deputy Chief Martial Law Administrator, and it

had the power to include in the committee any number of non-

scientist members. Sadly, however, the number of scientists in the

executive committee was kept at an immutable figure of three.

Thus, the very structure of the executive committee was faulty.

An important committee, created by an important policy to steer

an important sector, was itself so poorly formed that a shadow of

doubt was immediately cast as to its ability to address any serious

scientific issue.

The NCST, however, undertook the task of preparing a

national policy on science and technology, a policy that was to

replace the one made in 1980, and expectedly, to be one of

superior merit. The task of drafting the policy was given to the

executive committee of the NCST that had three scientists in it.

The executive committee of the NCST worked for three

years to develop a draft of the National Science and Technology

Policy. Many seminars, workshops and discussion sessions were

held over these years to examine the issues involved, and to

develop the framework for the policy. After years of hard work, a

document entitled “National Science and Technology Policy” was

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produced, which the Cabinet approved in 1986, and after gazette

notification, the 19-page document was made publicly available in

printed form.

Core of the Policy

In the Preamble of the policy two important statements

are made – that science and technology is to be harnessed to reach

national socio-economic goals, and that there is a lack of clear

perception on the special nature of the R&D institutions and their

management. The aims and objectives of the policy are – to attain

scientific and technological competence and self-reliance, to help

increase production and employment in various sectors, to

contribute to worldwide pool of knowledge, to encourage

scientific co-operation between different countries and to provide

guidelines for institutional rearrangements in the R&D structure

of the nation, which will include education and training.

The National Science and Technology Policy is organised

under five major headings. A one and a half page Preamble

presents the meaning of the terms ‘science’ and ‘technology’, their

role in the socio-economic development of a nation, and the

reasons for our backwardness such as deficiency in science and

technology development and of scientific knowledge. It strongly

argues for high national priority to science and technology. The

next heading in the policy is ‘Aims and Strategy’ which provides

in one page, a description of the general aims of the S&T policy

such as attainment of scientific and technological competence and

self-reliance, contribution to global repertoire of scientific

knowledge, co-operation between nations in developing S&T and

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rearranging R&D structure of the country including ‘education

and training’.

Then the policy presents the important part of the

document, which is described as ‘Major elements of science and

technology policy’ which runs across twelve pages, with its

content described under twelve sub-headings. This section

outlines in considerable details a large number of functions, all

advisory, that the NCST is required to perform. These include,

among others, R&D co-ordination, selection of R&D priorities in

different sectors of the economy, institutional capability

enhancement, and manpower development.

The NCST also assumed a role in the improvement of the

standard of science education in schools, colleges and universities,

in securing career development opportunities for the scientists

and technologists, in creation of mass awareness of science,

development of indigenous technology, and organising a scientific

documentation system for the nation. A statement recommending

the enhancement of S&T spending from 0.3% of GNP at that time

to 1% was included together with some suggested measures to

supplement this enhanced S&T spending, such as participation of

the users of science, levy on all productive (manufacturing)

sectors, obtaining support from external sources, etc.

Section 4 devotes a paragraph on one of the most

important roles of the NCST, a role that was not given to the

committee under its terms of reference when it was formed. This

function was later incorporated; it was formulation of the S&T

Action Plan. Section 5 of the policy is a preview of the future,

visions of hope, and prosperity for the nation in the days ahead.

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The National Science and Technology Policy came into

effect in 1986, but the implementation of the policy lay in

hibernation until early 1990s, that is, after the country had

returned to civilian rule and took its first steps to democracy. At

about this time, winds of sweeping economic changes also began

to be felt across the world requiring fundamental changes in the

planning and management of most sectors, including S&T.

Transition to market economy demanded high priority to be

placed on foreign investments in profitable sectors in order to put

momentum to economic growth and the nation’s wealth building

process. There was consequently little attention given to S&T

development during the early 1990s, which continued through the

decade with the unfortunate consequence that we entered into the

new millennium with very little progress in the S&T sector.

Free market assumes as its primary function, rapid

economic growth – that is, rapid increase in nation’s wealth. The

radical free market advocates are also stern growth advocates and

are not willing to accept indigenous S&T development as a part of

economic development, because if economic development is tied

with indigenous S&T development, the former will move at a

slower pace, which is unacceptable to the proponents of the free

market. Admittedly, it was a difficult transition for the country

with no experience of the winds of change, and little expertise to

handle the crosscurrents of global trade. Economic development is

the major need of the time, according to the growth advocates,

and the necessary technology for this should be imported, if not

available in the country. In any event, the pace of growth cannot

be compromised by adherence to indigenous S&T development.

These circumstances had their anticipated effects on the nation’s

science and technology activities, which could not be pursued

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with any degree of seriousness. Thus, despite being an important

document nation, the policy could not be put to test.

The maiden steps of developing the science policy began

at a time when the ripples of the free market were not sufficiently

strong. But the final shape of the policy took place during the

period when Bangladesh began actual transit into the free market,

and thus had little scope to address the important issues related to

S&T’s place in a free market. In the free market, economic growth

is deemed to be the supreme need of the nation, which is to be

achieved, if necessary, bypassing indigenous S&T development.

The S&T policy, on the contrary, was based on the strategy of

integrating S&T fully with the country’s socio-economic

development plans and strongly emphasised promotion of

indigenous S&T development. Thus it collided head on with the

market forces immediately after its formulation.

By far the most important function of the NCST was

preparation of the S&T action plan. Certain attributes of the action

plan had been suggested in the policy. That is, the action plan will

be undertaken as a multi-sectorial, interactive and collaborative

process with scientists, technologists, economists and

development experts participating in the making of the S&T

action plan. The time frame of an action plan is an important

policy issue. An S&T plan requires a long time to prepare, and

obviously its working span has to be several times longer than its

preparation time. An action plan, certainly, cannot be a one-year

plan; it has to be either a three-year plan, or perhaps a 5-year plan.

The S&T policy ought to define these important parameters and

suggest actual resource allocation and tenable strategy for

resource mobilisation, in order to implement the action plan.

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The Misplaced Attributes

There are many elements necessary for science and

technology development in a country. One is a pragmatic science

and technology (S&T) policy, and a sound mechanism for its

implementation. A good S&T policy should not be based on

academic premises only, but should consider both the potential

areas of advantages, and the factors that are special to the

country. These parameters would influence the productivity of

scientific efforts. As noted, a reflection of these aspects has been

lacking in our scientific planning, which has significantly deterred

progress in science and technology sector. Although we adopted

the National Science and Technology Policy in 1986, the policy

failed to align itself with the socio-economic attributes of the

country. Indeed, the precision with which this alignment is

accomplished, determines success. This, unfortunately, is not

obvious in the policy.

Critical examination of the National Science and

Technology Policy presents a rather panoramic landscape to its

readers. It touches on nearly everything thereby compromising

with its focus. The functions of the NCST as outlined in the policy

are rather narrow in scope. It had three important advisory

functions given at the time of its formulation – recommending a

national science and technology policy, suggesting priorities of

research areas, and co-ordination of research activity with

development activity. The S&T policy has, in addition, given the

committee nine more advisory functions, and the additional

‘supervisory’ function over a national scientific documentation

system.

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One should not fail to note that most of the issues in the

policy were drawn in the context of Pakistan. This perhaps caused

some omissions in the policy. For example, in Pakistan at that time

there was no impending need to be concerned with land

constraints. West Pakistan had plenty of land relative to its

population, that is, it had a favourable per capita land quota and a

low population density (50 million people in an area of 800,000

square kilometres). These are still at a reasonable level in

Pakistan, due to the large area although population has increased

three times.

Pakistan may be pardoned for omission of these aspects

in our context, but when we wrote the policy the policy, it was no

more Pakistan. And, without doing serious homework we wrote

the policy with careless disregard to our circumstances.

The science policy conspicuously failed to address the

changed circumstances as it related to agriculture,

industrialisation, communication, housing and many other

important sectors. A sound policy must not only provide sound

working frame for the present, but it must also foresee the future

and develop a policy with sufficient momentum to tread along the

future years smoothly. We inherited institutions that were made

to work in the context of Pakistan, and we continued to work on

their strategy to build our future. That was perhaps a serious

mistake.

A National Committee on Science and Technology should

primarily involve scientists and technologists with, of course, the

participation of development experts. The example of India in this

regard is illuminating. The Indian National Committee on Science

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and Technology was formed in 1971, after the issue was

thoroughly discussed at a national conference in 1970. The

composition of the committee was remarkable. The committee

had ten members including the Minister for Science and

Technology as its Chairman, and nine working scientists, as

opposed to heads of institutions that characterised our National

Committee on Science and Technology. The working scientists

were selected from among the most talented pool of scientists in

the country with considerable sectorial expertise. No heads of

institutions were included in the committee, which was done to

prevent institutional loyalty from playing any role in the

functioning of the committee.

The issue of recruiting only the working scientists in the

NCST in India, and its conspicuous omission by us, merits

dispassionate debate. Admittedly, India has a large reservoir of

very high quality scientists in all fields. We are at a disadvantage

in this regard because the impact of brain drain on our relatively

small scientific workforce was more pronounced than that in

India. India was able to absorb the drainage impact better. No

doubt, we did have some talented working scientists in various

institutions of the country, but they were unrecognised. The drive

for becoming administrative scientist is strong in our culture, and

anyone not aligned to this track cannot be easily traced. Scientists

in the administrative ranks are by no means less talented, but the

enormous burden of administration, most of which is unnecessary

and wasteful, soon puts them out of the scientific work track and

soon they find themselves far removed from the mainstream of

science at work.

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Our National Committee on Science and Technology has

15 non-scientist members – the head of Government, Ministers

and Secretaries – and 7 scientists all of whom were selected on the

basis of their being institutional heads. Merit of this procedure

obviously is questionable, as much as it is defeating for proper

scientific development. The policy, one might note, had been

written under a military government, with the head of the

government preparing for a transition to civilian rule. Perhaps

this influenced the process and led to this populist approach to a

most vital activity of the nation.

The NCST has no secretariat, perhaps a meagre operating

budget, and it rarely had any meetings after it submitted the

Science and Technology Policy in 1986. Only during the early

1990s the committee began to sit in formal meetings, albeit at long

intervals, but to-date, as of the year 2006, the most important task

of developing an S&T workplan has not been completed.

A poorly conceived S&T policy fails to discern between

mundane matters of the country and the key elements important

in building the country’s future. The success of scientific planning

depends on a clear realisation of these aspects and how these are

likely to influence the outcome of the plan in the long run. The

important issues relevant to us were not altogether unknown at

the time the policy was written. It was already known then the

major elements of the demographic profile of the country such as

population growth, population density, decline in arable land, etc.

The meaning of these in our socio-economic contexts should not

have escaped attention The per capita arable land in Bangladesh

is already the lowest in the world, about 865 square meter

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compared to 1,109 in Sri Lanka, 1,377 in Nepal, 1,855 in Pakistan,

and 1,995 in India.

Errors In Research Thrust

The S&T policy identified 10 sectors for research and

suggested indicative thrust areas of R&D research in these sectors,

apparently without regard to what ought to have been a critical

question. That is, maximising vertical land use, which if not

emphasised as a policy statement, may be easily overlooked in

subsequent planning. Areas where we have comparative

advantage have not been identified in the policy, so that the rather

wide range of activities indicated under the thrust areas appears

to be largely academic in tone. Too many areas have been

included in the list without any qualification or explanation. No

doubt, many of these thrust areas are important, but more

important is the issue of deciding what we can do and what we

cannot, given our critical limitations. Decimating land, an

increasing population, lack of raw materials for industry,

population pressure on land, were the issues that ought to have

been considered in pragmatic terms. But the policy conceived

instead, for instance, the creation of heavy industry. One can see

today that very few of the thrust areas suggested in the policy

produced any tangible results. In fact, in most areas we retracted

on the face of strong global competition. It was soon to be found

that commodities that we produced in low volumes, and

consequently at high cost, could be purchased from external

sources at a far cheaper price.

Throughout the policy, nowhere is there a reference to

what eventually will be our primary and sustainable export. No

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country can survive in today’s world without exporting goods

and services. Can we export goods that require vast land to

produce? Can we achieve any economy of scale on our land-based

agricultural produce; indeed, can we compete in trading with our

agricultural goods on any significant scale for any significant

length of time?

The only sustainable commodity with a lasting export

market is the skill of the hands, skills for which there will be a

demand in the world market. Thus, a policy statement on

exportable technical skills and the strategy of their development

ought to have been the most important component of the S&T

policy. Human development pertains to the empowerment of

people with knowledge and skill that would, in turn, fuel socio-

economic development process. Creation of wealth is an economic

goal, and the ingredients that enhance the process are the

resource, which for us is our technical manpower. Although the

issue of human development has been mentioned in the policy,

the strategic route to achieve this rapidly and profitably was not

addressed.

Lack of a sound S&T policy and an S&T infrastructure led

to brain drain. The government had little incentive to invest in

S&T because the scientists failed to give anything tangible to the

country. The vicious cycle ensued – bright scientists left the

country, which in consequence further depressed S&T

development. No one could see an end to the cycle. But a

potential solution was hidden, in part, in timely discovering the

unseen scientists. A few talented scientists from the fleeing

caravan could have been stopped by only one thing – opportunity

for work here that would earn them name comparable to their

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western counterparts. These unseen scientists would stay back

home perhaps due to patriotism or their dislike for western life.

But we failed to realise that we do have such a crop of scientists.

We have spoken of centres of excellence, which have not come

forth despite good intentions because we could not foresee how

such centres should be created and operated. If all want to turn

excellent, only the true excellent disappears. If a single centre of

excellence had been created and operated properly, and if it could

deter one in ten, or even one in a hundred scientists from crossing

the sea, it could still make a difference in the structure of our S&T

today. One good centre of excellence with a small number of

talented working scientists would have created today ten such

centres, and a few hundred bright scientists.

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Eight

Scientific Publications

Science is for sharing, and the traditional vehicle for

sharing is publication of scientific work in printed medium, and

thereby, to place the work in public domain. Publication is highly

weighted in evaluating scientists in all countries of the world. The

means of evaluation are the subject of critical scientific study as to

methodology and efficacy. Scientific publication is so much

important now in the career of a scientist it often turns into a

passion in the scientific community. Publish or perish is a popular

joke in the most developed country of the world, the USA. But it

is often a cruel joke, for without papers scientists inevitably perish

there, as they perhaps do lesser degree, elsewhere.

Indeed, scholarly publication is an integral part of the

mankind’s creative activity. It is the vehicle by which knowledge

gained today is passed on to the posterity. Progress of science or

any other discipline of human inquiry has been intimately linked

with the practice of keeping records of discoveries, initially in

hand-written form and later in print. Written records relieved

modern science from the esoteric component that characterized

science of the past. This practice greatly facilitated dissemination

of scientific knowledge in a readily accessible manner. At the

same time, dissemination makes public revelation of scientific

discoveries possible and provides a platform for competition,

which is, for the most part, healthy as it contributes to

development of science as a discipline of free inquiry although too

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much emphasis on publication can also have its negative effects as

well. Unrestrained zeal for rapid recognition in the scientific

world is now so strongly evident among scientists that scandals

are common, which too often tarnish the nobility of science.

In earlier times, learned societies kept records of scientific

work in the form of proceedings of the scientific deliberations. The

proceedings were published and distributed to its members free

of cost. The cost of publishing the proceedings was met by the

society’s own resources, usually from membership fees and

donations received from different sources. As the level of

scientific activities grew, the volume of scientific literature also

increased. Today, scientific literature is indeed so vast that it

subdues every other discipline of inquiry at the present time. As

the volume of scientific publication grew, the cost factor was no

more a trivial matter. It became impossible to adhere to the

scholarly creed that let no scientific knowledge be left unknown

for want of money to print it. Although most scientific societies

still undertake publication on a cost recovery basis, the ripples of

market economy and profit factor are slowly infiltrating into this

domain. And indeed there are already examples of considerable

success in scientific publication trade made by some

organisations. This trend will grow further as the market forces

gain in strength.

PUBLICATIONS: LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL

As in science, scholarly publications in other fields such

as history, arts, humanities, culture, music, archaeology,

anthropology, politics and similar other disciplines reflect creative

potential of peoples of different culture and different heritage.

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Work in these disciplines, however, are generally of local or

regional interest, as the academic appeal of such work may not

ordinarily transcend the national boundaries, or even the barriers

of language within the nation. As such, in these areas, scholarly

journals that are published locally have traditionally played a

pivotal role in fostering the people’s creative efforts. We also have

a rich heritage in these fields, which is substantiated by the

existence of high quality local journals since long past in arts,

history, music, archaeology and the like.

Scientific publications are, however, somewhat different.

Science is international, a heritage of specialised knowledge for

humankind. Scientific journals are also expected to carry an

international in tone. It is therefore not surprising that within

scientific communities in most countries, particularly the

developing world, there is a noticeable zeal to characterise their

scientific journals as international publications. This claim is

usually established by the fact that these journals are distributed

in a token scale outside the home country. They also publish a

small number of papers received from other countries, and carry

an international serial publication number, the ISSN (International

Standard Serial Number), which can be readily obtained, as the

granting organisation only requires regularity of publication of

the journal for assigning a number. The ISSN, therefore, does not

impart any special value to the journal as to its scientific merit,

although it does add an international flavour to it, which, many

organisations of the developing countries take as a token of

recognition. Also, some journals have a few subscriptions from

abroad and are abstracted and indexed by some abstracting

organisations. Abstracting confers further credence to the

journals’ international tone.

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As such, and quite expectedly, there are great variations

in the standard of scientific journals published worldwide, both

from the advanced countries and the developing countries.

Among the hundreds of journals that are published regularly

throughout the world, only a few are of high merit, where only

the very best works of science find a place. But the number of

such journals worldwide may not be more than a few dozens

covering the different disciplines of science.

An important issue frequently discussed in connection

with the rather unrestrained zeal for publication of scientific

journals, is the quality of the papers published. Some scientists

believe that because science is international in scope and

constitution, only the best quality scientific work produced by

high profile institutions of the nation should be published in

outstanding international journals. In other words, they think that

national journals are not doing any good to the nation in this

respect; on the contrary, they think, these may be doing a

disservice. This view would support limiting the number of local

journals considerably, not their complete cessation, and raising

the standard of a small number of journals to much higher levels.

This may be a strong view, but it cannot be dismissed, for it is

through this fiercely competitive process, proponents of this view

believe, the cause of science would be best served.

There are different types of scientific studies. One type

can comprise mainly data collection, for instance, a study of the

yield of a certain variety of rice in different parts of the country, or

effect of certain fertiliser application on yield, etc. The other type

of study is what may be called experimental work that is based on

a hypothesis and testing the validity of the hypothesis by well

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designed experiments, such as studies aimed at crop

improvement by genetic manipulation, basic studies in physics

and chemistry, and in biomedical sciences, research on

development of new drugs and vaccines. These two categories

may have qualitative differences, but both are important and of

relevance to the country.

Local journals are protected from competition by virtue of

their isolation, which inevitably contributes to their poor

standard. However, national journals can serve and they do serve,

a significant purpose. Firstly, these can serve as tools for

development of scientific culture in the country. Through these

journals young scientists would learn how to write scientific

papers; relatively senior level scientists might find these useful in

acquiring the skill of critical reading of scientific work, and

refining their editorial skills. Second, local scientists invariably do

produce interesting papers through their research work that may

not have high international relevance, but may have considerable

local value. These ought to find a vehicle for at least proper record

of the data, if not for the high tone scientific worth of the work. It

is the responsibility of the nation’s scientific community to create

and operate such vehicles, but the operation must follow certain

guidelines to ensure at least a minimum standard without which

the very purpose of scientific publication will be severely

compromised.

FAST GROWTH OF SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS

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The first scientific journal that stands to our credit was the

Pakistan Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research published by

Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. It was

launched as an official vehicle largely for publication of scientific

studies carried out in different laboratories of the council located

in East Pakistan and West Pakistan, and also research reports

from other institutions of the country. The standard of the

journal, however, was poor as the amount of publishable scientific

work produced in the country was very low at that time due to

inadequate research facilities. However, there were some talented

scientists both in East Pakistan and West Pakistan who succeeded

in establishing modest research facilities in their respective

universities. Research work that originated from these

laboratories was usually of high quality that could be published in

standard journals abroad and, understandably, the scientists

producing the work preferred to send their papers to those

journals. The national journals thus received only the poor quality

papers, which the journal had to publish in order to stay in print.

The Pakistan Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research continued

its existence after the creation of Bangladesh under the name

Bangladesh Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research but its quality

declined further.

After the emergence of Bangladesh, a new trend

developed; the number of scientific journals began to increase

rapidly. This increase possibly resulted from the realisation that

since the Pakistan government deliberately neglected nationally

published scientific journals, a quick remediation of the fault

appeared to many scientists as a call of conscience. Therefore, as

the scientific societies in different disciplines of science began to

increase in number, so did the number of scientific journals. The

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action was probably well intended, but the possible adverse

consequences en mass publication of science journals was not

carefully examined. Scientific societies alone are not sufficient

factors for good science. The pivot of science is the university

where good scientific work is expected to be carried out before the

vehicles for publication such as journals are of any consequence.

So, the method that sought to correct a malady, in effect created a

new one. Many new journals began to appear as official organs of

different scientific societies in the physical and biological sciences,

in medicine, agriculture, geology, geography and other

disciplines.

The government of Bangladesh, at this time, took the

decision to support scientific journals with financial assistance.

The societies were given money to cover the cost of publication of

the journal. This policy of financial support was also well

intended. It encouraged scientific journals to publish critically

reviewed papers that would find a place of distinction in

international scientific literature. But, in effect, this produced

quite the opposite result. The journals spent the money, but many

of the journals began to appear in poorer formats both in material

quality of the journal and in the quality of articles published.

While increasing the number of journals, our zeal

superseded reason. Often we failed to distinguish between simple

data-reporting type of scientific paper, and those reporting results

of experimental work. The former category of study has an

inherent ‘archival’ content, and could be preserved as

‘institutional reports’ and made accessible through organisations

such as BANSDOC. This could avoid unnecessary reproduction of

data that differ only quantitatively, and, as a result only add to

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the bulk of the paper with little scientific content. Studies

reporting experimental work are admittedly different. It is

important to appreciate this difference, and the journal policy

should clearly define the nature of the work that it would

consider for publication. Most journals failed to appreciate the

importance of the issue, which led to weak editorial review of

articles, and inevitable decline in quality. Thus scientists with a set

of data in hand, slowly found its publication a relatively routine

affair. And, the easier the publication process became, the faster

was the increase in the number of journals. Since nearly anything

could be published in one journal or another, the number of

papers written also increased rapidly. The journals thrived,

number of published papers climbed, but it was the quality of

scientific work that paid the price.

The large number of journals that began to be published

regularly gradually diminished the freedom of the journal to be

selective for the quality of the articles received. To the publisher of

the journal, it is the uninterrupted publication that is more

important than what it publishes.

To this, one has to add another factor that became a

strong force in scientific publications. In all institutions,

publication of research work in scientific journals is an important

criterion for promotion, so many scientists preferred to increase

the number of their publications by simply splitting a particular

piece of work into several articles albeit on wholly inappropriate

scientific grounds, and sending those for publication in different

journals. As such the journals never ran short of articles, and

many scientists kept on stretching their publication list to very

considerable lengths. A casual look into our scientific literature for

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the past few years will reveal how extensive has this culture of

paper splitting become simply for the purpose of increasing the

number of papers. A couple of hundred papers flattering to the

credit of some scientists is not too uncommon, whereas scientists

of high talent working in advanced laboratories outside perhaps

would not have half as many.

This largely tells the story of the quality of scientific

publications as it gradually took a downhill slide. The large

number of papers reported by some organisations at certain

period of time simply reflects the emergence of an over-zealous

scientist skilled in the art of producing papers. The lack of any

system of institutional review of papers prior to their release for

publication added further to the declining quality. In many

research institutions of the advanced countries of the world, this

system of institutional pre-publication review is strictly enforced.

An article is reviewed within the institute by experts in the field,

modified by the author as per reviewer’s comments and

submitted to the head of the institution for final clearance,

following which the paper can be sent for publication in a journal

of the author’s choice. This system infuses a healthy scientific

competition within the peer, contributing to quality.

However, in many universities, even in the Western

countries, such practice is not common since the university

symbolises academic freedom. Fellow colleagues have maintained

this trust placed on them by the university authority through the

tradition of extensive informal review of the paper by peer within

the university, before sending the paper directly for publication

without an intervening administrative clearance from the

university.

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IN-HOUSE JOURNALS

In addition to about 40 scientific journals that are enlisted

with BANSDOC and are published on a regular basis by different

scientific institutions and societies, there are numerous intra-

institutional in-house journals such as the ‘university studies’

series that are brought out by various faculties and departments

of different universities. The 40 journals listed with BANSDOC

are considered the top journals of the country; these are perceived

to be so mainly in terms of their regularity of publication, not by

any qualitative criteria of the materials published.

In our country, the practice of publishing in-house

journals by different universities and scholarly organisations was

instituted in the context of disseminating the knowledge in such

disciplines as humanities, social sciences, history, literature, art

and culture. Research work in these areas can be highly original.

Our culture is our heritage, and despite the lack of strong

international competition in research in these areas, work carried

out by local scholars can have, often does have, high intellectual

content. In these areas, thus, these institutional journals came to

play an important role in disseminating, and preserving the

creative scholarly work. But with scientific research, the

perspectives are different because science is more international

and scientific publications ought to be internationally competitive.

This special perspective of scientific research, however,

received little attention. The overall situation turned gloomy due

to several confounding factors the most significant of which was

publication for the purpose of promotion in career. In all scientific

organisations it is required for the purpose promotion that the

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scientists show some evidence of scientific work having been

carried out by them at the institution. In this matter, publication is

a widely recognized yardstick, although not a perfect indicator of

productivity. The pressing need for publication without

significant scientific work gradually led to less and less stringency

in the scientific review of process. Since there was neither a

mechanism, nor a desire for a minimum standard for counting a

paper towards credit for promotion, the consequence was

disastrous. Almost anything could be published in any of the

myriads of journals that came out at regular intervals in different

disciplines. Thus, many in-house journals in science became

simply publication vehicles for promotion. Slowly the in-house

journals in science were seen to be opening the floodgate for

customized journals, publishing customized papers, and papers

catering tailored needs.

The ease of publication had contributed positively to the

increase in the number of journal numbers in the country, but did

not add much to improving science. This adds substance to the

fear that some scientists had entertained, and had favoured the

idea that we should encourage our research publications be

published in only high standard international journals. That

would have limited the number of local journals, and could be

helpful in enhancing their quality. Since this was not done, the

damage is obvious. One can only wonder now, what is the

remedy?

The BANSDOC receives about 40 journals published

regularly covering the disciplines of science, engineering and

medicine. In addition, there are the in-house journals of unknown

number. Most journals publish two issues in a year. Only with

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respect to the journals covered by the BANSDOC, a small piece of

statistics might be illuminating. If one assumes that on an average

20 articles are published in one issue of a particular journal, then

1200 articles will be published in one year in these 40 journals.

During the years 1994-96, the total number of research articles

published in different journals received by BANSDOC is reported

to be 2,843 or over 1400 articles per year, according to a

BANSDOC report. To this, one has to add the contribution of the

in-house journals. It is possible to make an estimate of the total

number of articles published in these in-house journals published

by different university departments, based on statistics such as

the number universities, number of science departments in each

university, and assuming that each department publishes two

issues a year each issue containing an average of 10 articles. If one

has the mood to do so, it may give a lofty figure on number of

articles published per year in these journals! This would represent

commendable quantity, but one that has been achieved through

enduring the pains of fallen quality.

To-date, no systematic study on the growth and quality of

scholarly journals in Bangladesh has been undertaken. But the

matter deserves attention, as interesting changes appear to be

taking place in this area. Research journals are disciplined-based.

Two major categories are recognised on the basis of character,

tone and substance of material published – science journals

represent one category, while the other category includes journals

in the humanities, social studies and liberal arts. All journals,

however, carry a common denominator. They are all claimed to

be of high intellectual content.

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Over the past decade, we have seen a phenomenal

increase in publication of scholarly journals, which some would

describe as explosive. In addition to the established journals in

various disciplines, numerous new journals are seen in the

market, and some of these do contain research material and

critical analysis on important issues. Even without substantive

research, one can say from casual observation that this explosion

is perhaps real. This would of course testify to our attachment to

the world of letters, and may be a reflection on our print culture

since long past. One would of course wonder why has there been

this explosion at this time?

Now-a-days, academic publications seem to fall in a

particular specialized category that is characterised by the

preponderance of information compilation rather than significant

innovative work. Sponsors of such publications include mainly

organisations, not individuals. Many of these books and

magazines are apparent products of information mix-and-match,

and in many cases aided by the Internet revolution. Combinatorial

mixing may vastly increase the number and diversity but creates

little depth. The underlying cause of the apparent publication

explosion is difficult to understand, and it perhaps deserves

careful study. Creative writings and books of thought are,

however, written but they readily fall prey to publisher apathy

because these books rarely sell well in the market. Serious

compilation works are few, but it must be admitted, there has

been recently some landmark work of compilation, for example,

the National Encyclopedia.

Knowledge is slow to develop; it is not generally

explosive in its genesis. It is like a long thread rolled into a tight

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ball. The thread can be stretched, coloured, fabricated, and given

an architectural tone in many different ways. This process is not

totally divorced from the element of knowledge. Indeed, in

scientific revolutions this probably has occurred many times in

the past. The very rapid increase in publications that we see now,

however, raises the question – does it represent creation of

knowledge, or it is a consequence of something else? The answer

is not easy to find without a systematic study, and such study is

not easy either because of difficulties in definitions of certain

terms relating to quality of scholarly work. One can, however,

take note of certain factors such as improved publication

technology, favourable cost factor, and availability of funds.

Explosion is a sudden phenomenon, not a gradual one, but a

culmination of a gradual process. The observed explosion in

scholarly publications could be the cumulative effect of some

favourable factors.

One cannot miss the fact that the explosive shift is

correlated in time with the country’s transition to free market.

This might offer a plausible explanation. For optimum

exploitation of the market and to extend its horizon, there is a

need for a spectrum of activities that are best carried out by

organisations outside the government, such as NGOs. It has been

a highly successful strategy in many countries; in Bangladesh, the

success has been widely acclaimed. Activities such as market

awareness, environmental studies, access to the nation’s

biodiversity for its assessment and conservation etc., are the

working areas with easy availability foreign funds. These are

activities that usually fall in a narrow zone between high tone

science, and popular journalism. Funds for publications that cover

these areas are easy to obtain. Proceedings of workshops,

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conferences, seminars and symposia are examples of publications

that come in a strange blend of science with something quite not

scientific.

Scholarly publication is the product of high quality

research. Efforts that create what one might call ‘synthetic’

knowledge that is produced by mixing existing knowledge may

lift the popular image of knowledge. The volume of publication

for example, might increase considerably. But at some point the

matter of quality in claimed scholarly works must be addressed.

Quantity would ultimately would stand to loose, if quality is

pressed to the corner.

GRADING: THE RULE OF 50

Whether the explosion in publication is matched with

quality of the material published, is an open question. The two

issues, intellectual content and intellectual impact of scholarly

work, and the method to evaluate them, have been the subjects of

much discussion. Opinion varies considerably among the scholars

on these issues. Most of our journals display a strange

phenomenon. Despite the fact that many are published regularly,

the post-publication picture in terms of their preservation and

presents a dismal picture. Many journals apparently vanish soon

after they come out of the press. Scientific societies distribute

these journals to their members free of cost, but libraries do not

receive these journals, as there is a price to pay, which involves a

trivial amount of money but a very complicated procurement

procedure. The cumbersome procedure and poor use of the

journals discourage many libraries to stockpile these items. The

quality of papers published is also of little appeal to individual

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members of the society who receive the journal as a membership

bonus, and thus they are also not keen to preserve the journals at

home or office.

It seems that just the act of printing the journal is the end

in itself. If indeed just the printing were the mission then it would

be important to search for the cause of this low tone journey of a

high tone academic pursuit, and suggest means to correct the

malady. The nation’s intellectual well-being would greatly

depend on how well it it finds the cure.

Evaluation of the intellectual content of a piece of

scholarly work is not easy an easy task. Yet, in this time of

explosion of information generation, production of new

knowledge, and fast dissemination of knowledge, it is essential to

develop a tool for evaluation, however incomplete this might be

at the beginning. The extent of citation of a scientific paper by

other scientific papers in the relevant field is used by specialized

organisations to determine the impact of a piece of work. The so-

called Impact Factor derived in this manner may not be ideal, but

useful.

Remediation of the poor state of scientific publication will

inevitably mean fixation of stringent criteria for reviewing papers

before publication. This will immediately depress the volume of

publication from its present lofty height to a significantly lower

level, and will surely meet stiff resistance from different quarters.

But the pain endured now may pay well in the future.

What can we do to improve the standard of science

journals? There are two ways that one might consider. One is the

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direct government participation with the actual task of

publication given to the National Council of Science and

Technology (NCST). To this option, however, there will be

considerable doubt in the minds of many as to its effectiveness. In

some countries, government participation in this sector has

worked well. In Canada, the federal government organ the

National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC)

publishes a series of journals in different disciplines of science and

engineering. Similarly, another organ of the government, the

Medical Research Council, has its own journals. Canada has many

scientific societies that are very active in organising scientific

meetings, seminars, and workshops and in these activities the

societies make significant contributions to national science. Yet, in

Canada, the federal government provides large amounts of

money for publication of these journals. One possible reason for

this support is that Canada could not compete well with

publications from the USA, and without this support the journals

may not survive. India also has made great progress in scientific

publication. Many high quality science journals are published by

the Indian National Science Academy, but there are also many

journals that are published by private organisations and scientific

societies.

As true in all countries of the world, there is a

considerable spread in the quality of scientific publications, but as

long as competition is maximised it will do its work and serve the

final purpose well. Government participation in scientific

publication may not be without problems but certain activities

need to be treated as obligation to the nation, as it seems to be the

case in Canada and many countries of Europe. We may try this as

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an experiment for the growth of the nation’s scientific literature

and overall development of science as a whole.

If, in our case, government participation is considered to

be a worthwhile route, then, first of all, a small list of journals

should be selected representing the relatively active and

potentially promising disciplines of science in the country at this

time. Obviously, the list will have to be changed with time, as the

spectrum of scientific activities shifts. The selection process has to

be stringent and done with care so that only those scientific areas

that are sufficiently active and relevant to country’s contexts are

included in the list. Operational responsibility for the journals

could be entrusted with the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences

(BAS), the apex scientific body of the country. The BAS boasts of

nesting the most talented crop of scientists but the attention,

which a national science academy is expected to receive from the

government, was never accorded to it over the decades that

followed independence. In many countries, such academies have

been the scientific repertoire of bright and dedicated scientists and

provided an atmosphere where science could be cultivated freely.

But this would require two things – strong government

patronisation and, on the part of the academy, a sharply defined

purpose, and its reactivation towards the desired level of

excellence. At present, unfortunately, the BAS is not a very active

organisation both financially and in terms of its mandated

activities. It does not have a premise of its own, no library, is

housed in a borrowed office space, and carries to its credit the

publication of a science journal with two issues a year. Ideally,

the nation’s apex scientific body should have regular meetings

where scholarly research work carried out in different institutions

would be presented before an intellectual gathering, and later

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these presentations would be published as proceedings of the

academy. Science academies in many countries in fact operate in

this manner.

Under the NCST participation in the publication process,

there should be no more than a dozen journals in its list. An NCST

journal should have an editorial board comprising people of

unquestioned talent and integrity and at least ten percent of the

editorial board members should be drawn from advanced

countries representing scientists of international repute. In

making the editorial board, no consideration other than scientific

merit and editorial proficiency, should count. The editorial board

will report to the NCST and will be responsible for quality of the

journal using a set of criteria for impact assessment, regularity of

its publication and rapid dissemination of the journal, nationally

and internationally.

Without a system of assessment, no scientific work can

stand well. Differences of opinion may exist as to the desirability

of introducing a grading system for scientific publications.

Frankly, there is no question about its desirability; the question

that merits debate is whether it is possible to develop an

acceptable system of grading against the backdrop of a very large

number of international journals that scientists from any country

can use for publication of their scientific work? The issue is

further confounded by the fact that, contrary to expectation, many

journals that are published from relatively developed countries of

the world are not of very high quality, compared to some of our

own national journals. It is not too uncommon that articles

rejected by local journals on the basis of scientific inadequacy find

place in journals outside the country, and hence, are often

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classified as more international. There is also the other side to the

issue; often many articles that we publish in our journals are

either too poor to be sent abroad or are those that have been

rejected by foreign journals.

In the past, the issue grading scientific or scholarly

publications has been debated with a blend of passion, and

objectivity, but no system has yet emerged. True, it is not easy to

develop a good grading system, but it is possible to develop an

arbitrary system that may be of some value to us at the present

time our purpose at the present time of crisis when journals are

created for publication of articles of designated individuals, for

the dedicated purpose of promotion, and once the intended

promotion is secured, the journal disappears. One may consider a

grade-point system based on acknowledged standing of a journal.

The system might have the following structure.

For a particular discipline, five categories of journals may

be selected – category A, B, C, D and E. An institution, which

could be a university department, an institute, a faculty, a

research organisation or its constituent disciplines, departments

or units, etc., would select through the opinion of their own

scientists, and perhaps experts in the field, a list of say 10

international journals of high repute that would potentially cover

the bulk of the research activities of the organisation concerned.

This first lot of 10 journals would be graded as group ‘A’ journals.

Publication of a full-length paper in a group ‘A’ journal would

carry let us say 5, points. A second group of 10 journals that are of

somewhat lower in standing, would form group ‘B’ journals,

where publication would receive 4 points. Similarly, there will be

group C, group D, and group E journals, with decreasing

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scientific standing. Publications in these will carry 3, 2 and 1

points, respectively.

Thus, an institution, through the participation of their

own scientists, can select a total of 50 journals that would

accommodate the bulk of the scientific research that is carried out

by the institution. Selection of this list of 50 journals would be the

sole responsibility of the institute, and the institute may revise the

list, add or delete journals as it deems appropriate, but it should

be entirely the responsibility of the institute. At this time, our best

articles in science subjects would perhaps find a place in no better

than a category C journal, since the state of our scientific research

cannot offer any better hope at this time. Today, even India with

its much higher elevation of its basic research podium, cannot

hope to publish a good research article in Nature, but India is

rapidly closing the gap.

The bulk of the national journals, at present perhaps all in

a particular discipline, could be placed under one single category,

category N, for instance, with a grading scale spread over the

range of 1-2, with decimal gradations such as 1.1 - 1.9 so that a

publication in a national journal will have a maximum point value

of 2, and a minimum of 1. This arbitrary grading system is

presented to highlight the principle only. Any journal outside

these 50 may become relevant in particular the institution itself

can determine its equivalence, and place it in proper category.

The grading will introduce a value system, and would

help to differentiate between the very good and the very bad. As

usual, the average category of publications is difficult to classify

in an objective manner anywhere in the world. Every institution

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engaged in scientific research should follow the grading principle,

which may be somewhat different for different categories of

institutions depending on the type of work done. So, the grading

system need not necessarily be a unified national system to be

followed by all institutions, but the principle is worthwhile to

consider. The government’s role in the implementation of the

system need not be any more than that of an overseeing body, and

one of co-ordination, to ensure reasonable uniformity between

institutions. If a grading system is introduced and applied fairly it

will be evident that many young scientists would surpass seniors

in grade points. This must not be feared, but encouraged.

The system may appear idealistic and disagreements may

be strong. But the system would deserve to be examined and

tested. If a research institution, a university department, or an

individual scientist cannot develop a list of 50 journals in their

respective fields of specialisation, it would indicate serious

intellectual weakness.

Publication of journals by the government will obviously

raise important operational issues. That is, is the ministry willing

to do the necessary work, which will entail more staff and, of

course, money? Second important consideration, will this not be

seen by the scientific community as an intrusion into scientific

freedom? Perhaps it will be, but this is where honest exchange of

views is essential. Admittedly, arguments will be put forward

citing examples of some of the world’s most advanced countries

such as USA, UK, Japan, Germany and others where the most

outstanding journals are published by scientific societies with the

lone and distinct exception of the British science journal Nature,

which enjoys the unique reputation of being the world’s most

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prestigious scientific journal where the vast majority of the Nobel

Prize winning papers are published, but Nature is published by a

private publishing company.

The notion of ‘publish or perish’ that is widely prevalent

in some of the advanced countries is not difficult to understand in

today’s nearly total freedom of the market. But it has its gloomy

sides as well, such as depressing the free development of science.

Today, it is no more a peripheral question, but a truly vexing one,

and one that is increasingly generating international scandals.

Questions are often asked in top science journals of the world

such as, is science loosing out in the face of recognition,

recognition for prizes and publications? The quality of scientific

publication is not separated from mainstream science done on the

laboratory bench. It is thus desirable that the government takes

effective steps to raise the standard of both simultaneously.

However, raising the level of scientific research rapidly in a

developing country is admittedly a difficult task, but raising the

level of scientific journals is somewhat less difficult. It is apparent

that the drive for publication has nearly destroyed the very

foundation of scientific research. Good scientific publications

without good scientific work are wholly unrealistic. Proper

appreciation of the various dimensions of science is impossible

without direct involvement with scientific work. If we are unable

to raise the standard of both scientific work and scientific

publication simultaneously, we should address the one we can

hope to redress. A rigour in scientific publication may create

parallel rigour in scientific work.

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Nine

Professionalism in Science

MEANING MISUNDERSTOOD

Many scientists entertain a naïve notion about

professionalism in their of work, that is, in the cultivation of

science. Professionalism, they think, is a mark of the trades-people

that does not quite match the sparkling horizon of intellectualism.

They prefer to do experiments for the simple pleasure of just

doing so, with no obvious end in sight, but with a subdued dream

that the knowledge acquired will be of some use to the

humankind in their efforts to understand nature.

But to some scientists, the idea of science devoid of

professionalism is not appealing. Those scientists would argue

that even a theoretical physicist would take sojourn through his

imagined world, but that has to be done with a spirit of

professionalism to reach the end of the imagined world in a

manner that would satisfy the staunchest realist, and the most

ardent idealist. When a scientist discovers black sand in the sea

coast of Chittagong, the scientist must chart the working course of

that discovery as precisely a business person – that is, one must

not only do the necessary scientific work as best as possible, but

also keep in view many of the things that a good businessman

would in his trade, such as cost, benefit, time, competition, and

commercial value of the product. If a scientist stops at just the

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discovery of the material, and after making only crude

calculations on the imagined potential of the material, the work

ought to be characterised as non-professional. Just the scientific

study, the ecstasy of new discovery, and the hurried and often

unrealistic calculations would be counter-productive. Examples of

such ‘scientific work’ are many in the relatively short history of

our nation.

The Nobel laureate in Physics Professor Abdus Salam

noted in the context of development strategy of science and

technology in the third world countries ‘….. it is very important for

people in developing countries to realise science is highly professional.

The days when you thought you reached the truth without being a

professional experimenter or a professional theorist are gone’.

Today this view deserves high appreciation of the

scientists today than ever before, since the opinion reflects on the

transformations that have taken place in science over the past few

decades, and the place that science has assumed in the changing

social architecture of humankind. This view, specifically told

about the third world scientists, is also important to consider.

Many the third world country scientists, according to top

scientific thinkers, suffer from an emotional aberration to the

effect that anything not seen from the top of the ivory tower is not

truly good science.

Like all revolutions, social and political, humankind

creates innovative ideas at all time, but their impact on society

remain imperceptible until suddenly a pattern emerges linking all

of these developments in some coherent manner. This is Kuhn’s

paradigm shift in scientific revolution. All revolutions must have

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a purpose, and scientific revolution cannot be without a purpose.

The renaissance was the product of such paradigm shift in human

knowledge, knowledge that was created and had brewed for

many years before being woven into a pattern. And, the purpose

hidden in the scientific revolution is clearly manifested in the

post-renaissance history of the world – creation of comfort for

humankind – the pinnacle of which can now be seen in some

countries.

We have to think ourselves today not simply as biologist,

but professional biologist, professional chemist, or professional

physicist. A professional undertaking is clearly distinguished

from the pursuits of amateurs. In the former, one takes recourse to

a certain spirit, possesses a definite purpose, and follows

established methods. Amateurism, on the other hand, consists of

doing things out of just a liking for doing it, and is generally

devoid of any of the above attributes linked with professionalism.

A professional person possesses certain skills, which he also

professes and let it be known publicly. A professor, for instance,

has to profess the skill in public, or practice the skill in a socially

recognisable manner with a certain spirit, with a defined method,

and a stated purpose.

Thus, a scientist trained in a professional spirit can see

things that an ordinary person with just the love for science

cannot see. A professional scientist should be able to see clearly

the purpose of the work. In the context of one’s country, such a

scientist should be able to clearly appreciate the assets and needs

of the nation, and guide the scientific efforts in directions that

would bring prosperity. Scientific activities devoid of this

professional spirit have undoubtedly caused considerable

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wastage of our wealth and energy. Professionalism in science does

not conflict with freedom of inquiry, or the issues of basic research

and applied research, fundamental research and technological

innovations.

In science, it is often seen that scientists are classified into

two categories: those specialised in what is called basic research,

and those skilled in application-oriented research. This

classification has produced a class of scientists with idealistic and

academic views as to the purpose of their work. To many of these

scientists the purpose of science is to gain knowledge, knowledge

for the sake of knowledge, and knowledge for the love for

knowledge only. In reality, however, the scientist must be both a

visionary and a professional. Not only a scientist should be the

master of the science he or she pursues, the scientist must also

have basic understanding of the different aspects of the science

that he produces, and about the society that would enjoy the

benefits of the science and also bear the associated burden.

A scientist may not just sit on the secluded premises of

disinterested knowledge, but he or she should also acquire

knowledge the fundamentals of economics, planning, and the

world of business. Scientific undertaking divorced from these

considerations often meet a dead end, and sadly the scientist

discovers the dead end too late when the end of the career is close.

Of course, while fostering professional approach, one should

admit freedom for the genius, but their work also need not be

divorced from professionalism. Mendel counted the number of

peas in his experiments in hybridisation, Darwin kept detailed

records of his observations, Einstein found the right target for the

most abstract view of the universe – all of these activities do carry

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some flavour of professionalism. Thus, when it is demanded of a

scientist that he should calculate how much black gold is lying

along our shores, how much would be the cost to the market, and

what would be the income, it should not be taken as an

infringement on scientific freedom, but rather as common sense

scientism, the version of science relevant to most of us.

INSTITUTIONAL PROFESSIONALISM

The spirit of professionalism is critically important in all

R&D activities. The nature of the R&D activities inevitably

demands an appreciation of the fact that the target of R&D effort

is the product, and the mission is the market. In our country the

operation of the various R&D institutions portrays a mixed

picture, some of success, but mostly of failure. The failures relate

to faulty scientific approach to the problem and method followed

– that is, due to overall lapses in scientific professionalism.

Institutions where scientific approach with the right

professionalism well defined, the achievements have been

commendable. In this respect, scientific activities in various

sectors can be reviewed in terms of achievements and failures.

Agriculture

The R&D activity in the agriculture sector is essentially

confined to a few crops of which rice is the major one, followed by

tea, jute, wheat and pulses. In the field of research on rice, the

Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) has done a

commendable job over the past few decades. Establishment of the

institute coincided with the beginning of the green revolution

characterised by the use of high-yielding varieties, adequate

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chemical fertiliser and pesticide, and establishment of irrigation.

Over the years, the activities of the institute have been sustained

at a reasonable level of productivity. The institute has developed a

number of high yielding varieties of rice through conventional

methods of pure line selection and hybridisation. To date, a total

of 40 varieties has been released and are being used by the

farmers, and many new varieties are in various stages of

development. It is widely believed that the BRRI has succeeded in

creating a coveted image for itself home and abroad. The success

of BRRI is due partly to the fact that our staple crop is rice, and

that the institute was closely affiliated with the prestigious

International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Manila. The BRRI

had its research focus sharply defined from the beginning. One

cannot fail to notice the fact that BRRI followed traditional

research methods of genetics, instead of modern methods of

genetic engineering, in its breeding programmes. This was done

because it was felt that in the latter route there would be little

immediate advantage for the institute, but a lot of time will have

to be spent on just developing the research facilities. The institute

precisely determined its area of advantage, and research projects

were developed that were sharp and mission-oriented. In only

three decades, approximately from the year 1970 to 2000, BRRI

has accomplished what no other agricultural sector has been able

to do – it helped the country to achieve self-sufficiency in food in

the year 2000. Admittedly, the self-sufficiency cannot be sustained

for long due to our very fast population growth (2 million people

is added to country every year). But the research trends set by

BRRI should be an example of professionalism in science. Future

programs of BRRI are directed both towards improved varieties

including the ‘hybrid rice’ production technology, along with

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research on management practices such as use of fertiliser,

insecticide and pesticide use, and proper irrigation techniques.

The thrust of the institute would be to double the country’s cereal

production, of which rice will be the major crop, but wheat will

also increasingly gain in importance. This doubling, from the

present 5 metric tonnes per hectare to about 10, is to be achieved

by the middle of the next century when, experts predict,

population of Bangladesh will also double, to about 300 million.

With the quantity of arable land available at present and by using

high yielding varieties and intensifying management practices,

this doubling of food production may be achieved, as examples of

other countries would suggest, but in our case the land toxicity,

which will build up fast due to heavy input chemical fertilizer on

a small land area, and poor dilution rate of the accumulated

toxicity due slow rate of flow of water over the country during the

rainy season.

In contrast to good research work on rice, that on jute

once recognised as the ‘golden fibre’ has been of poor

productivity. This is partly because of falling world market and

partly due to poor planning. We did not foresee the competition

that jute would face from the synthetics. Now that environmental

concerns due to use of synthetic non-biodegradable substitutes

have been growing, we could hope this to be reflected on our jute

sector, but no significant effect of this is yet visible. Bangladesh

Jute Research Institute (BJRI), and the Bangladesh Rice Research

Institute (BRRI) were the two most active R&D institutes of the

country in the agriculture sector for a long time. But the success of

BRRI has not matched by BJRI. The BJRI has developed a number

of varieties, some of which are used by the farmers, but low price

of jute has steadily receded jute acreage over the years by as much

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as fifty percent, and the acreage would decline further in the

future. In recent years, the institute has placed thrust on its

technology wing aiming towards diversification of the use of jute.

Here again, availability of sufficient land for jute cultivation in

order to make jute-based industry sustainable is an important

concern, which is unlikely to change in the future. The institute,

despite its low productivity, still maintains a large scientific staff,

which, in the absence of adequate financial support and active

scientific programme, appears to have accepted the painful fate of

sedentary existence.

Tea has a good world market but Bangladesh being in the

third position, after Sri Lanka and India faces stiff market

competition. New entrants in the world tea market such as Kenya,

enjoy the advantage of extensive expansion of tea acreage, and

would certainly offer strong competition to us in the near future.

The Bangladesh Tea Research Institute (BTRI) is a fairly old

institution, which was established in 1957. The institute has been

working on improved methods to raise quality and yield of tea

and optimising the tea processing parameters. Recent

accomplishments include development of several cloned varieties,

varieties that are obtained by vegetative means not through

sexual process that causes significant genetic degeneration of the

variety with time. These cloned varieties are now in the market,

both for domestic consumption and for export. However, the

future of tea as a foreign currency earner appears to be doubtful

again due to severe land constraints, which is limiting the volume

of tea production in the country. Some expansion of tea

plantations is being done in Chittagong and Dinajpur districts, but

that will still not provide the needed acreage for us to be globally

competitive. At present, yield enhancement through improved

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management practices, is one area that the tea estates are

concerned with, but increasing biotic interferences in the tea

estates caused by tourists and automobile traffic would certainly

have adverse effects on production. Most tea traders believe that

within the next two decades Bangladesh may not have sufficient

surplus for export after meeting the rising domestic need.

The Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) is

mandated to conduct research on crops other than rice, jute and

tea. The activities of the BARI include crops such as wheat, pulses,

fruits and vegetables. The institute has an extensive network of

sub-centres throughout the country with staff trained in extension

services, and performance trials of different crops. It is also one of

the better-funded institutes in the agriculture sector. According to

a BANSDOC survey, BARI has a revenue budget that is the

highest among the R&D institutions in the agriculture sector. One

reason for this high level of funding is that the institute is one of

the biggest recipients of foreign credit in the agriculture sector on

account of fertiliser, insecticide and pesticide use. At present, the

primary focus of the institute is the development of high yielding

varieties of a large number of crops – wheat, millet, barley, pulses,

vegetables, spices, tuber crops, oilseeds, fruits and cotton. The

institute founded in 1976, has to its credit the development of 203

improved varieties of different crop plants. This is a laudable

testimony of success, achieved in just about two decades. Despite

this success, import of agricultural products that are included in

BARI’s own inventory is steadily increasing both through formal

and non-formal routes.

It would be of interest to take a more critical view of the

research agenda of BARI. Improved varieties, mostly high

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yielding varieties (HYVs), of fruits, vegetables, spices, etc. are

now available that could be field-tested in our setting to optimise

the production parameters, and in such efforts donor funding is

also easy to obtain. But, the fact that land will be the critical

impediment to growing anything other than rice and wheat is an

important factor to examine critically with a professional outlook.

HYVs would require good quality land. If we are unable to

provide that, should we not select only a small number of crops

and maximise their production in the minimal parcel of land?

That would call for a new land use strategy, as discussed before,

and a professional approach to this important matter is a need

that should not be ignored.

Unfortunately, many R&D institutions suffer from poor

professionalism in their research outlook. There is at present a

noticeable tendency in some R&D institutions to cling to the

caravan of biotechnology research, irrespective of whether it fits

into their mandated activity. In our country plant tissue culture is

an area that is considered by many scientists in our country as

biotechnology. This technique of artificially culturing plant tissues

in the laboratory allows basically two types of manipulations. One

is the micro-propagation technology by which it is possible to

produce healthy seedlings and other propagating units in large

numbers. The other type of manipulation is introduction of

foreign genes in cultured tissue to raise transgenic plants. Many

laboratories are now seen to work on culturing plant tissues of a

broad range of economically important plants, again with little

prior feasibility study as to how much of it is being duplicated,

and how much of it bears commercial potentials. At present,

about a dozen R&D institutions are active in plant tissue culture

research. Many different plants are routinely cultured without

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defined purpose. Several institutions, for instance, carry out work

on tissue culture of jute basically for the same purpose as

conventional breeding, that is, to create better varieties. These are

needless duplications and have so far failed to produce anything

of superior value.

True, plant tissue culture and micro-propagation

technology is useful, but when technology is applied to jute, a

crop that has lost international market long before, and when one

considers the depletion of arable land and the rapidly diminishing

jute acreage, there would be little merit in investing on genetic

improvement of jute by using this technology. Again, some

scientists are heard to talking about creating better timber-

yielding trees by applying modern methods of genetic

engineering when the existing forest cover is rapidly disappearing

due to human activities, and availability of sufficient land to be

dedicated to timber-producing trees on a 50-year tenure, seems to

be a remote possibility.

Then, of course, one cannot ignore the same trends in the

newly created universities of science and technology, where the

discipline of biotechnology constitutes an advanced degree-

course, such as M. Sc. degree. Facilities in these universities are so

rudimentary that with these facilities biotechnology even in its

very basic form would be difficult to teach. For curriculum

development, however, these universities include the

conventional agricultural technologies such as fisheries, forestry,

livestock, etc., in the biotechnology programme. It is difficult to

see how the need of even conventional biotechnology, as opposed

to sophisticated contemporary biotechnology that uses expensive

molecular techniques, can be served through such expansion of

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institutions without resource and manpower support. Creating an

institution is usually not difficult and can often be done with a

little political support, keeping them running in a symbolic

manner is also easy, but keeping them running as productive

units is certainly a different matter.

Natural Sciences

In the natural sciences, the major R&D institutions are the

Bangladesh Council for Scientific and Industrial Research

(BCSIR), and Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC).

BCSIR has three laboratories, the central laboratory in Dhaka, and

two regional laboratories, one in Chittagong and one in Rajshahi.

BAEC has several component research arms – the Atomic Energy

Centre (AEC) located at Dhaka, the Atomic Energy Research

Establishment (AERE) at Savar, Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear

Agriculture (BINA) in Mymensingh, and Institute of Nuclear

Medicine at Dhaka.

Research publication is considered to be an important

indicator of performance. Publications from these organisations

and those of a few others have been complied by BANSDOC for a

period of 10, from 1986 to 1996. The Table below presents an

overview, which highlights trends in the type of papers published,

and their number by different institutions. More

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- = No publications reported na = Information not available

Organisations include all of their associated institutes, research centres etc. Source: BANSDOC.

recent data are not available, but the picture may be similar, with

the exception of biomedical sciences where the number of

publications appear to have increased considerably over the past

few years.

Great variations are seen in the number of research

publications. The institutes, which are engaged in laboratory

research, or small-scale field studies, and those where scientific

data are generated within a relatively short period of time, are the

ones that produce large number of publications. In this regard, the

Organisation

1986-89 1990-92 1992-94 1994-96

BRRI Rice Res.

Inst.

13 9 na na

BCSIR Sci. Ind.

Res. Council

34 102 113 248

BJRI Jute Res. Inst. 23 - - -

BINA Nuclear

Agri.Inst.Mym.

4 - 171 -

BARI Agri. Res.

Inst.

8 4 na -

BFRI Forest

Research Inst.

260 43 55 55

BLRI Livestock

Res.

28 56 15 10

FRI Fisheries Res.

Inst. Mym.

Na 54 17 -

AERE Atomic

Ener. Res. Est.

Na Na 18 142

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place of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) is not highly

remarkable. But when its actual achievements in the field are

weighed in terms of the release of 40 rice varieties that greatly

enhanced country’s rice output to near self-sufficiency, one may

not deny due credit to this institution. One factor that may partly

explain the low output of research publications by BRRI is the fact

that plant breeding work usually takes a long time to get

sufficient quantity of reportable data to publish, about 10 years or

so. During this period, however, valuable scientific information is

gathered that comes from the different phases of the scientific

studies. The data are usually recorded as institutional reports, not

published as scientific papers.

In terms of number of publications, the position of BCSIR

is noteworthy, which has been consistently high and has steadily

increased over the period under the BANSDOC review. This,

however, is not true in the case of other institutions. For instance,

BINA reported a massive number of papers published during

1992-94 and AERE during 1994-96. These two-year segments

markedly contrast with publications both before and after. What

factors are responsible for such spurt of research publications are

not clear.

Obtaining patents, by which intellectual property right is

protected on inventions, can be indicators of productivity. A

patentable invention is one, which is not obvious to persons of

ordinary skill in the particular trade. New knowledge about

things and phenomena are routine things in our day-to-day life

but we do not claim those to be inventions because these are

obvious to persons of ordinary skill in the art, and are of no

commercial value. A patentable invention must have the intrinsic

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value of being so rare in our ordinary business of life that

ordinary knowledge and skill cannot readily reveal it. Such

knowledge is thus protected as intellectual property by the laws

of patenting system. The essential elements of protection is based

on the innate quality of the invention itself, the patenting process

only reinforces that quality. Patent protection can be very costly if

such protection is seriously pursued. Both the patenting process

and maintenance of patents are expensive in the industrialised

countries, and unless an invention has sufficient merit, no patents

are sought. A rigorous internal review process determines

whether the institute should seek a patent for any invention.

In our country, neither a good legal framework on

patenting exists, nor the spirit of patenting well understood. We

have a national patent office that usually grants patents without

critical review, and the cost of obtaining a patent is very low. This

is not intended to say that the patents given through such a loose

system are illegal, but to only indicate that such loose systems

dampen the impact-making potential of the patenting process.

Among our R&D organisations, the BCSIR tops the list in

the number of products and processes that have been protected

by patents. During the period 1994-96, a total of 218 projects were

completed by BCSIR, which produced 235 research papers and 64

patents and processes of which 39 have been leased out to private

companies for commercialisation. The number of patents is

indeed commendable, and far outshines other R&D institutions

except one. This exception represents a relatively new

organisation in the health sector, the Rehabilitation Institute and

Hospital for the Disabled which has, during the same period,

developed 173 processes and leased out 17, which mainly

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includes gadgets made from indigenous material for use by

handicapped people and accident victims. Many processes have

been leased out by BCSIR to private companies in the country. No

process, however, with the exception of a few related to food

items such as high protein soy biscuit, low calorie biscuit for

diabetics, pickles etc., can claim authentic commercialisation.

Whatever is the nature of the product developed by our

R&D institutions, one important consideration should be kept in

view. The value of a patent lies in how much of the market share

the patented product has captured. It is a part of competition

within the business community, and is an integral part of the free

market. As to market capture, we have no mechanism to assess

this parameter for the products based on the leased out patents.

The market share, in simple terms, it is the relative share of the

domestic market in sale volume compared to the competing

products in the market. Pickles and biscuits with some novelty in

their making may be, for instance, patented, but these are also

produced through traditional knowledge. Thus, if the patented

product has no significant edge of the total market share over

those made through traditional knowledge, then one has to

assume that the product has not successfully competed, and can

claim little credit. Patents obtained by BCSIR and inventions

leased out to industry ought to be evaluated on the basis of this

market capture criterion. If this criterion is applied it may turn out

that the market share is too small to merit any patent protection,

and the conclusion is unavoidable that the work had been

executed with little professionalism. Nevertheless, the system of

patenting of inventions by our R&D organisation will continue,

and as elsewhere in the world, total number of patents will far

outnumber commercially successful patents.

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Interestingly, some patents on processes have been

secured by BCSIR and BJRI that are on natural products with

significant commercial potentials. These merit further

development, and products based on these inventions should be

taken to industrial readiness by extensive R&D work carried.

Unfortunately, lack of finance and expertise has prevented the

work from proceeding beyond the laboratory stage. Instead, the

intellectual property right to these processes or products has been

leased or sold out to business enterprises in consideration for a

one-time payment, not on the basis of royalties on sale of products

made by using these patents. Thus, one cannot avoid the sad

conclusion that many decades of work, and many patents

obtained by our R&D institutions have failed to produce any

mark on nation’s economy.

The number of patents for inventions made by different

R&D organisations is admittedly valid indicator of productivity.

This, however, varies with the type of research that the

organisation carries out. BRRI, for instance, has developed many

methods for creation of novel varieties of rice, and some of those

could be patented, but there are no trade incentives in this work,

so no patents have been obtained. High yielding crop varieties

have been traditionally a non-commercial activity, entirely carried

out by government initiatives so that in this sector, protection of

the knowledge as intellectual property was not attractive.

The Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC) has

charted its course along more practical lines, although it still

retains in its program establishment of nuclear power plant in the

country to produce electricity. In this respect we are caught in the

middle of two opposing forces. On one hand, electricity is rapidly

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becoming important to us in industrialisation, while at the same

time the likelihood of our acquiring the nuclear technology

remains as illusive. The predicament is partly due to fear that the

technology required for power plant operation can also be used in

making nuclear weapons. The other reason is inherent to our

country context – that is, small land area and extremely high

population density. It is not difficult to see that we may not find a

suitable location to set up a nuclear power plant. When the issue

was being discussed at its formative phases, this matter was not

given much attention. Setting up of a nuclear power plant

anywhere in mainland Bangladesh is to be discarded in the

context of high population size and relatively uniform and high

population density throughout the country. Today’s population of

over 140 million will double in about 40 years and there will be

hardly any place suitable for setting a nuclear power plant that

could be cordoned off from the public without enormous and

costly fortification. Then there is the issue of accidental reactor

explosion. If that happens, we will very rapidly expose several

million people to high-level radiation. The Chernobyl accident

affected 7 million people; a similar accident may affect perhaps 30

million in Bangladesh and 10 million in adjoining regions. Thus,

the size of the population at high risk of radiation exposure here

due to nuclear accident will far exceed the combined population

of many countries of Europe. Our offshore islands are few and are

quite unsuitable for setting up nuclear power plants because of

frequent cyclones and flooding, and perhaps our neighbouring

countries will not feel comfortable of having such an

establishment located in the water that may flood their coastline.

The AERE is equipped with a 3 megawatt TRIGA Mark-II

research reactor that is updated from time to time to widen its use

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and it is currently serving the intended purpose of producing

limited quantities of a few clinically useful radioisotopes, 131I used

for diagnosis of thyroid function and treatment of

hyperthyroidism is important.

The Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA)

depends for the ‘nuclear’ component of its program to the AERE.

Since the scope of BINA was not carefully defined when it was

established, the institute failed to develop in the intended

directions – that is, blending nuclear science with agriculture to

enhance agricultural productivity. Thus, it had to make the choice

of turning to conventional plant breeding programs including

plant tissue culture technology, and classical agronomic research.

Some of the activities are potentially useful, but by and large, its

research efforts generally overlap with those of other agricultural

R&D institutions, causing duplication and little productivity.

Biomedical Sciences

There are about 15 R&D institutions in the biomedical

sector. This number does not include the 13 government medical

colleges since the medical colleges are not active in research. Most

of the R&D institutions in the biomedical sector are involved in

field research that include epidemiology, disease prevalence,

nutrition survey, vaccination, health awareness creation, public

health, and similar other areas. A few institutions have the

technical infrastructure and manpower support that would allow

modest level of basic research towards the development of

biomedical products and services. Among these are: Bangladesh

Institute of Research on Diabetes Endocrine and Metabolic

Diseases (BIRDEM), National Institute of Cancer Research and

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Hospital, Institute of Public Health, and Institute of Postgraduate

Medicine and Research at Bangabandhu Shiek Mujib Medical

University (BSMMU) campus. Of these, BIRDEM is relatively

active R&D activities compared to the other institutions where

research on improved treatment and development of diagnostic

methods are carried out in addition to disease prevalence, and

work on social medicine.

A far better equipped biomedical institution is a research

centre that was created in the early 1960 for research on cholera.

The high prevalence of Asiatic cholera in Southeast Asia, and

increasing US military involvement at that time in the Vietnam

War, stimulated interest in basic research on treatment and

prevention of cholera. This led to the establishment of SEATO

Cholera Research Laboratory in Dhaka in 1960, which later

became Cholera Research Laboratory after the birth of

Bangladesh. In 1978, it was converted into an international centre

under the name International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease

Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) by a landmark Act of the

Parliament of Bangladesh, the first of its kind in the country,

establishing the first ever international biomedical research

organization in the world with wide mandate to carry out

research on diarrhoeal diseases and associated problems of

nutrition and fertility. The ICDDR,B has made significant

contributions towards development of the medical marvel of the

past century – the oral route to correcting dehydration caused by

severe diarrhoea with oral saline. Since 1963 it also carried out

field trials of cholera vaccines and other anti-diarrhoeal vaccines,

but no effective vaccine against diarrhoea has yet been developed.

During the late 1980s the impact of globalization was also obvious

in the operation of ICDDR,B and the centre made changes in its

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research agenda, and its fund raising mechanism. Research

emphasis changed from basic biomedical research to applied

field-oriented research. Research areas were also widened to

include broader health problems of the country in addition to

diarrhoeal diseases, the main mandated function of the centre.

Soon the centre assumed the profile of a Centre for Health and

Population Research. This shift ensured better flow of funds from

external donors. Specific projects were supported by international

development agencies often reflecting the interest of multi-

national pharmaceutical companies and these projects received

priorities in the centre’s research agenda. Indeed, by about the

mid-1990s one of the stated mission objectives of ICDDR,B

included work “in improving both supply of and demand for

existing health technologies”.

The ICDDR,B is equipped with advanced facilities for

basic laboratory research but these facilities are primarily used for

work towards refining diagnostic and therapeutic products that

are under development by external organizations. This is done

through collaborative research with the participation of external

development agencies, research laboratories and pharmaceutical

companies. In these efforts, the centre has optimally utilized the

talents of bright local scientists in foreign-funded contract-

research, but failed to stimulate innovative research that could

lead to the development of novel biomedical products. If the

centre had adopted this path, it could possibly add to the centre’s

financial independence, and greater freedom to pursue its own

research agenda, rather than carrying out primarily donor-driven

activities. The stated reason for this apathy towards basic research

being done at the centre is the notion entertained by its

international board of trustees that the centre should only

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undertake research where its strength is the greatest, that is, in

field-oriented work, not in expensive basic research where it

cannot compete with the Western laboratories. Validity of this

argument has long been debated, and is a highly controversial

issue in the public mind surrounding the centre.

Both our national institutions working in the area of

better treatment and biomedical product development and the

ICDDR,B generally undertake collaborative research with western

laboratories as part of their working strategy. This is both a

necessity for funding and technical support for these institutions

and offers the advantage of high disease prevalence and large

patient population for conducting well-controlled laboratory,

clinical and field studies with new drugs, vaccines and other

biomedical interventions.

To date, neither ICDDR,B with its impressive facilities

and external scientific linkage nor any of our national institutions

has developed any significant biomedical product that they own,

although they have substantively assisted foreign partners in

developing products. Reason for this failure, in the case of

ICDDR,B is the organisation’s almost total dependence on

external donor agencies including the pharmaceutical companies

for targeted, often contracted research, which, as a consequence

severely restricts independent research in this direction under

centre’s own research agenda. For the national institutions the

reasons lack of significant progress are the country’s poor S&T

base, and the consequent lack of significant basic research in

contemporary areas of molecular biology in the universities.

Universities are to provide the driving force for application-

oriented research in the R&D institutions by producing sound

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graduates with vision, technical skill and professional spirit to

provide direction to nation’s R&D activities.

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Ten

Science and Industry Interface

Scientific research leads to the development of

technology. Application of the technology to the country’s socio-

economic development is carried out by the necessary pre-

industrial termed R&D. Thus R&D institutions should have both

S&T component, and development component in their operation

strategy. This duality of function of R&D organisations is

generally emphasized in the aims and objectives of most R&D

institutions. For instance, the aims and objectives of the country’s

first R&D institution, the Bangladesh Council of Scientific and

Industrial Research (BCSIR), include:

- initiation, promotion and guidance of scientific and

industrial research bearing on problems connected with the

establishment and development of industries or with any

other matter referred to the Council by the government;

- establishment or development of national institutions for

research, testing and standardisation with the overall

objective of utilising the economic resources of the country

in the best possible manner;

- undertaking and fostering ‘development research’ for the

utilisation of discoveries and inventions resulting from

research of the Council.

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An R&D organisation can carry out both laboratory

research related to development of useful products such as drugs

and vaccines, and also field research such as testing of drugs in

the field setting for safety and efficacy. Field research in this

context can be of two types. First, testing the efficacy of the drug

in a field population, which is part of biomedical research, and

second, testing public acceptability of drug, and identifying

potential barriers to acceptability and suggesting means to

overcome those barriers, which is called operations research.

R&D PERFORMANCE

Nation’s R&D performance has been far from satisfactory.

The involved parties lying at the interface between science on the

one hand, and industry on the other have taken a position that is

characterised by some amount of passion. This has considerably

overshadowed the important issues. Scientific research leads to

creation of knowledge some of which offers useful products and

services, a function that usually is carried out by the R&D

organisations. Industry then assumes the responsibility of taking

these products to the people by bulk production and

commercialisation.

The two groups – scientist at research end, and

industrialists on the production line – are both interested in

getting the benefits of science to the common people, but their

vision often gets blurred at the interface. The degree of this is

largely the product of the economic circumstances of the country.

Almost always, the discordance is acute in poor economies

because the country cannot offer the critical minimum financial

support to the scientist. Too little resource is shared by too many,

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leading to loss of focus and ultimately little of meaningful

scientific work. In Bangladesh, as it is true for many other

developing countries, it is a general notion that our R&D

institutions have failed to deliver the fruits of their research to the

socio-economic development of the country. Reasons for poor

performance of the R&D sector are many. One important reason is

perhaps the lack of a sound national S&T Action Plan, and the

other is our inability to correctly focus our R&D efforts in the

context of our own socio-economic conditions, resources and

constraints.

The Missing S&T Action Plan

Many years have now been passed after the adoption of

the National Science and Technology Policy by the government,

but no Science and Technology Action Plan has yet been

developed. This was an important mandated function of the

National Committee of Science and Technology (NCST). The S&T

action plan is critical for the success of science policy. It defines

the course of action in the different sectors with details of high

priority projects, identifies institutions to undertake those projects,

and makes budget provisions within the economic development

plan. The S&T action plan developed in this manner would then

become the instrument for mission-oriented operation of the R&D

institutions.

In the absence of an S&T action plan, different R&D

institutions drew up their individual research agenda. Generally,

the projects that were undertaken could be shown to be falling

within the S&T policy frame, and would qualify for funding.

Individual scientists were free to select research problems, and

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pursue those according to individual plans with little critical

review as to scientific merit, relevance to the need of the country,

technical feasibility or commercial potentials. Generally, the leads

for many projects came from external sources, and often our

scientists failed to appreciate the potential limitations in our

contexts. As such, many projects could not proceed beyond

laboratory experimentation stages.

Inadequate Project Development Protocol

A major impediment to R&D success has been the poor

project appraisal and feasibility study before undertaking a

project. Most R&D institutions have highly qualified scientists,

many with foreign Ph.D. degree from reputed universities abroad.

The Ph.D. work of most scientists pertains to basic research, as

expected. After return, they cannot easily match their learning

with the available facilities at home institution. Thus, the scientists

are immediately required to re-orient their thinking and develop

their workplan in entirely new directions, often improperly

perceived. This transition requires difficult adjustments to be

made by the scientist. But however difficult the task may be, it is

an inescapable reality with which the scientist has to learn to live.

Unfortunately, however, this is where the most costly mistakes

are made. Imbibed with the spirit of free inquiry and a strong zeal

to serve the motherland, young scientists quite often fail to

identify the components of a project in terms of R&D needs and

potentials for commercialisation. This has often led to wasteful

spending of resources in pursuits of activities with poor

technology content1, and potential invitation of failure.

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Proper project identification is a key element for

successful R&D research, but it is an easy task. For a sound R&D

project, the scientist needs to examine many issues before

undertaking the project. Although project sharpness from

scientific perspectives is important, both in R&D initiative and

basic research, it is only a small part of the complex set of issues

associated with an R&D project. These are: technical and

economic feasibility, market demand, sustainability in terms of

raw material availability, and the time factor required to complete

the project, which can slip off rapidly decimating the value of the

product before it is ready for the market. Even issues pertaining to

ethics, religion and cultural background of the people to whom

the product is targeted are to be considered.

These various aspects of R&D initiatives are considered in

a special type of study called scientific feasibility study, an

elaborate procedure requiring skill, experience and critical review.

In many cases our failure at this phase of project development

greatly impedes success

1. Waliuzzaman, M. 2003. Role of R&D in industrial development. In: Bangladesh

Vision 2021. Bangladesh Academy of Sciences pp. 81-96..

of R&D projects. An example may be illuminating. The use of

indigenous raw material is an important consideration in a good

R&D project. Decades ago, it was suggested that molasses from

our sugar mills could be used to produce citric acid, an important

industrial raw material, by growing fungal organisms (moulds) in

the molasses that would convert the molasses into citric acid.

Projects on production of baker’s yeast grown in molasses were

also considered. Yeast being rich in protein and vitamins, it was

felt that it could be used as feed supplement in poultry industry.

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Against these multiple uses of molasses, certain important aspects

escaped notice of the R&D scientists. For instance, the molasses

production and the world economic trends involving these

products were not critically examined. The Bangladesh Atomic

Energy Commission undertook the project on citric acid

production in the mid-1960s. By the mid-1980s some progress had

been made and it was determined at that time that about 100 tons

of citric acid was our annual requirement, and that if the product

is made in the country we could save about 50 lac Taka in foreign

exchange annually. With the quantity of molasses available, 50-70

thousand tons per year1, this quantity of citric acid could indeed

be produced. But there were a few contingencies. Molasses that

would actually be available for citric acid production after its

other uses such as ethanol production, and the potential savings

that could be made, were not rigorously worked out. Also,

increased citric acid requirement of the country could not be

projected, and the time that would be needed to travel from that

particular stage of the work to industrial production was not well

charted. After nearly two decades of laboratory work, there were

no industrialists found with interest in the product. The time

taken was unduly long for the laboratory work, and in the

meantime sugarcane

1. Islam, M. S. and N. Choudhury. 1986. Genetic improvement of industrial microorganisms: Induction of high citric acid accumulating mutants of Aspergillus niger with the help of gamma-rays. In: Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering. Ed. Zia U. Ahmed and N. Choudhury. Bangladesh Academy of Sciences.

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acreage declined due to increasing pressure on land for cereal

production, and the coming winds of market changes meanwhile

made it obvious to the entrepreneurs that imported citric acid

would be far less costly and of perceived superior quality than the

small quantity of locally made product. Here, we lost many years

of R&D work in a manner typical of many other R&D efforts.

INDUSTRY APATHY

Why are the entrepreneurs not responsive to our R&D

inventions? We complain that our industrialists are venture-shy,

and are neither willing to spend on industrial R&D efforts of their

own preference, nor would they support institutional R&D

ventures. The issue important to business is whether the local

product has a substantial pricing edge over the imported material.

To an industrialist, no product is satisfactory if the market of the

local product is several times higher than the imported product.

In the case of baker’s yeast production, scientists at BCSIR

calculated that locally produced yeast would cost Tk 150 per kg

while imported yeast would cost Tk 250 per kg. To an

industrialist, this difference of Tk 100 is not a big margin in low

volume production ventures. A product such as this, according to

the thumb rule of business, should have several times higher price

to be commercially attractive.

For the past several years, many R&D activities are being

carried out in different institutions on storage of dry vegetables,

preservation of vegetables by radiation, preservation of

vegetables in salt solution, canning of local fruits, etc. While

undertaking such studies one should consider whether in our

climatic conditions, production seasonality, consumption rate etc.,

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there is any potential for commercial use of such processes? These

are the questions that an entrepreneur will ask. Storage of fruits

and vegetables by keeping them at low temperature is the most

appropriate way to maintain their natural taste and other

consumer-preferred properties. But cold storage is expensive and

highly energy dependent. Thus it is beyond the easy reach of

many developing countries. The question of canning fruits in our

country is to be seen in the perspective of whether there is

sufficient need for canning. That is, do we produce enough of the

fruit item with sufficient surplus over the normal level of its fresh

consumption? Does the item have the important characteristic of

biological uniformity, a factor that is important in preservation

process? Two varieties of mango, for instance, will almost

certainly require small changes in the preservation protocol. For

preservation, one ought to select a particular variety and through

programmed breeding one has to raise a uniform crop for the

applied preservation process. This is also be true for other fruits

such as pineapple – one single variety should be used, for which

its cultivation has to be customised preferably in one cultivation

facility; otherwise, batch to batch variations will invariably affect

product quality and customer acceptability. Canning of pineapple

was taken up as a commercial project with export objectives.

There are two issues for consideration: production volume of

pineapple and local consumption. Pineapple production is

seasonal and its production cost is low. It does not put stress on

prime agricultural land because it can be cultivated on hill slopes

where no other crop can be easily grown. The price that the

farmer gets is perhaps adequate to cover the cost of production

and make some profit. But the project failed, perhaps due to

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heterogeneity in the quality of pineapple and consequent process

failure.

Canned fruit is not much in demand in our country

because fresh fruits of different types are available throughout the

year. Whether our background is compatible with the canning

culture, and whether the small number of lovers of the canned

product would prefer our products over those that can be flown

from abroad at only a little extra cost, is important to consider. In

external market, our products would face competitors. Thus, we

must first ask, do we have a competitive advantage in this trade?

Canned mango may be an exportable item with established types

of mango of uniform quality, but to increase production volume

for economy of scale, considerable increase in acreage will be

needed for mango cultivation, which is not feasible. Vegetables

such as brinjal and cauliflower can be preserved in salt solution

and marketed in jars, will our people develop a taste for the

product when fresh material is easily available? On one side,

brinjal is a relatively low cost item and it grows in all parts of the

country, and cultivation of several varieties throughout the

country more or less ensures its supply round the year. So an

industry based on salt-preserved brinjal is not likely to make a

market. Cauliflower is highly seasonal and although it is

cultivated now in a fairly large scale, it is not in great demand in

the countryside largely because of its cost. If, for instance, we

assume that it will continue to be an item of the relatively well to

do section of the society in future, then the preferred preservation

method is cold storage. Thus, the expectation that R&D work in

these lines would lead to the development of any commercial

product is unrealistic.

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There are, however, potentials for microbial

biotechnology. In Bangladesh, trained microbiologists are

produced in fairly large numbers now who do meet the needs of

the service sector such as quality control in pharmaceutical

industries, shrimp culture, food processing industry and the fast

growing sector of clinical microbiology. But microbiological

product development is a difficult matter where fierce

competition is to be met from the industrialised countries owning

advanced technologies, which is a strong deterrent to this sector

in all developing countries.

Most of our R&D institutions in the health sector are

engaged in adaptive research, mainly testing diagnostic kits in the

field setting. Also included in such studies are testing new drugs

and vaccines, or enhancing demand of marketed products

through awareness creation and market promotional activities.

Basic research on the development of drugs and vaccines is, at

this time, beyond the capability of our national health research

institutes. An international health research centre which was

created by an Act of the Parliament and which is now famous for

its contribution in the area of diarrhoeal diseases carries out small

amount of basic biomedical research. This is the International

Centre for Dirrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B)

with modern facilities for basic research. But ICDDR,B being

entirely a donor supported organisation with no reserve funds or

endowment for basic research, has focused most of its efforts in

well conducted field trials of new drugs and vaccines including

the now famous oral saline for diarrhoea. Donor countries have

profitably used ICDDR,B’s excellent field facilities to test many

health products. In the clinical facilities of ICDDR,B trial of drugs

in volunteers, sick or healthy as the study may require, is a

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priority area and many western pharmaceutical companies are

available with funds to field-test their products. Thus, contrary to

the expectation that ICDDR,B would promote basic research by

spending a fraction of its resources, it turned out that basic

research cannot be carried out by the centre even if funds are

available. This stems from the fact that no donor country or

company with a product under development will like to finance

an organisation that would stand as a competitor. Attempts made

by local scientists in this direction in the past met with stiff

resistance both from the centre’s administration and the donor

community.

With the transit of the country to market economy the

range of testable health products increased considerably.

ICDDR,B made good use of the emerging opportunities. Key

research areas were opened in Child Survival, Population and

Reproductive Health, Application and Policy, and biomedical

research on human molecular genetics and Molecular Diagnostics,

turning many of its filed studies to no more than market

promotion activities for the available products in diarrhoea,

family planning and child health. The government while

approving these changes in the centre’s work strategy could do

little to encourage basic research aimed at development of

biomedical products as opposed to testing such products. The

necessary will was not there in the government, and when donors

expressed the view that basic research in Bangladesh is not their

business but a business of the government of Bangladesh, the

government quietly accepted the view. Microbiological product

development in the biomedical arena thus remains a distant goal

for us.

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These considerations although very pessimistic in tone,

are, however, not trivial to the entrepreneur. An industrialist will

ask precise questions on viability of the product, and its market

potentials. In most cases, we cannot present a product with strong

competitive edge. It is through such questions that differences in

perception arise between science and industry. Scientists are

blamed by the industry as living in an imagined world; the

industry is blamed by the scientists for being non-receptive to

scientific inventions. The interface between science and industry

thus remains blurred.

INDUSTRIAL R&D

In developing countries, the results of laboratory research

are taken to the market in a few discrete steps. Conception of a

project and study of its feasibility is the first step. Laboratory

research then defines the basic procedure of the process leading to

pilot scale production, which examines whether the scale-up

procedure works well, and wherever necessary the needed

modifications are introduced in the process. Next step is

evaluation of the pilot lot in a small-scale field trial. If the product

is, for instance, an edible item, it is to be subjected to a market

assessment as to its acceptability, price and competition. If it is a

biomedical product, the product is subjected to a clinical

evaluation for safety and efficacy, prior to testing a pilot

production lot in a small field population.

This stage sets up the need for another level of R&D,

which is different from research R&D, which is sometimes

referred to as industrial R&D. This involves such studies as large-

scale field trials of the product, consumer acceptability, for

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biomedical products the safety aspects in field conditions, ease of

use of the product in the field setting, market survey for potential

demand, determination of production volume, study of export

potential, establishment of production technology and finally

release of the product.

In western countries, industries maintain R&D

infrastructure at both the levels – that is, industries maintain both

laboratory R&D and industrial R&D infrastructure, the latter for

the transit of the product from near industrial readiness to full-

scale industrial production.

In the developing countries, however, the situation is

different, because of government’s direct participation in

laboratory R&D, as opposed to the industrialised countries, where

the industry gets substantial tax benefits for R&D work. In those

countries, therefore, maintaining a laboratory for basic R&D work

is a private sector undertaking. The government’s role there is

primarily regulatory, relating to safety of the product. In the

advanced countries research funding provided by the government

is restricted to supporting basic research in universities and

specialised high profile research institutions, whose discoveries

provide the driving force for industrial R&D. In developing

countries, the interface between research organisations and the

industry has to be viewed in the context that most of our R&D

work is government supported, and the interaction of the

scientists with the industries is weak. The industry would be

interested in a product only after the product has passed the

following stages:

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A. The product has reached the stage of licensing;

B. The pilot production lot has performed well in

the market or in the field setting;

C. Production technology can be easily acquired;

D. The product is backed by sustainable raw

material supply from within the country;

E. The product has a substantial market that will

recover investment within a short time which

in most cases will be in the range of 3-5 years

and;

F. There is export potential of the product.

These conditions are difficult to create readily in a

developing country that makes the industry take cautious steps

before investing in industrial R&D. It is important to keep in

mind that in our situation one of the foremost considerations of an

industrial enterprise is the assurance that the product is sold

immediately for sufficient profit that will enable rapid cost

recovery. This is also the strategy of industries in other countries

as well, but there is a substantive operational difference. That is,

in industrialised countries the high profile industrial

establishments have sizeable amounts of ‘idle money’ – money

that cannot be invested readily for high-return economic

activities. Small profits are not tempting to large industries in the

industrialised countries. As a result, these industries often choose

to divert that money to R&D. The industries either carry out the

necessary R&D themselves, or give the money to research

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institutions as contract research projects, or simply as research

grants.

In developing countries, idle money is not available.

Industrialists can re-invest all the profit that they earn, either in

the same business or in a new business. Since all new industries in

developing countries are based on established readily available

technologies, immediate profit is almost guaranteed. As the

economy grows, the magnitude of their profit also grows, some of

which could then be placed in the idle pocket and used for R&D.

But we don’t see this happening in our country yet due to several

reasons among which socio-economic factors are important. We

do yet not know the point in our culture where our industrialists

would put some of their profit into the idle pocket, instead of

funnelling it into the chain reaction of rapid amplification. When a

nation wins over the amplification syndrome, there is the

appearance Ford, Rockefeller and Carnegie. But one might also

wonder how much money Henry Ford had when he established

the Ford Foundation, or Graham Bell when he founded the Bell

Laboratories? Did philanthropy play any role, or it was a function

of the personal fortunes?

There is also the element called ‘venture fatigue’ within

our industrial circle. This is evident in the fact that even if our

industry is given an indigenous technology, and the necessary

fund, either as grant or soft loan, there is little enthusiasm because

the time and energy that will be required to make the product a

commercial success can be better given to an adaptive technology

of proven market and high profit margins.

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While there are blames, which science and industry can

trade against one another, the role of the government cannot be

overlooked. Lack of funding is one and it is quite miserable one

indeed. It is well established that when less than 1% of GDP is

spent on S&T, it cannot produce any good results. Our S&T

spending is as low as 0 .05 - 0.1%. This amounts to spending the

money to keep the scientists alive as individuals, a sort of welfare

benefit to this scientific community. In addition to this well-

known malady of poor funding, the overall apathy reflected in the

administration of the R&D sector, particularly that related to

industry as opposed to agriculture or health, has been

conspicuous since the time of Pakistan. There was no uniform

policy of recruitment of young scientists in different R&D

institutions, which resulted in several tiers of scientists within the

R&D framework. Some institutions got the brightest products of

the university, while others found it difficult to attract them

because of differences in opportunities and benefits. It is true that

all institutes cannot be of the same standard with respect to talent

or infrastructure, but science is a highly specialised activity, and it

is essential that a certain minimum level is attained by an

institution, and to ensure that science does not suffer

marginalisation into an off-line activity.

In summary, while the mono-disciplinary R&D institutes

such as those on rice, wheat, sugarcane, etc. in the agriculture

sector, have done significant work over the past years on

improving yield, similar tributes cannot be paid to institutes in the

industrial and biomedical sectors. The agriculture sector had some

special advantages – the support of the government, ready fund

availability, and the fact that by and large they carried out simple

adaptive research rather than basic research. Agricultural R&D

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had little to interact with the industry. In the agriculture and

biomedical area, our interaction with the industry was non-

productive because we could not offer any product with which

they felt confident about profit. This was due to the fact that we

failed to identify projects that would attract entrepreneurs. With

our transit to market economy, we cannot expect our businessmen

to support indigenous R&D at the cost of ready technologies

available from abroad for immediate use. This brings up the

question of how, in the changed economic order, should the

government address the crucial issues of science and technology

development in the country?

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Eleven

S&T in New World Order

CHANGES AND CONSEQUENCES

The new economic order that swept through the globe

beginning in the 1990s signalled many changes including changes

in the scope of science in the changed world. Balance of political

power fast disappeared, which gave the economic order both an

enormous and a scathing competition for wealth accumulation.

Improved travel and movement of goods, and rapid information

transfer, changed the world into a global village, a phenomenon

that was considered illusive even a decade ago. Free market was

projected to be the cure for all of the world’s economic ills, in

different covers and colours. Developing countries opened their

doors readily qualification, exposing a huge population to

everything that the industrial countries had to offer, from onion

and orange juice to cricket, and the fun culture mania. The free

market requires liberty, freedom, democracy, and good

governance for optimal operation. In the absence of these in many

developing countries social murmurs were evident, but market

reforms slowly picked up pace in the predicted manner. Western

mannerism, and marketism transformed the large cities into what

may be called mini-countries within the country. Scientists in the

developing countries saw these changes as an impediment to their

freedom, but they had little time to think for long. The changes

were fast and sweeping.

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Standing on the crossroads our scientists were

bewildered. They are often irritated when their work are put to

the searching tests of the market, and not too infrequently, they

blame the government for failing to protect their scientific

freedom from the sharp edges of the market culture. They

wondered should S&T be left to the swings the of market forces?

This is a difficult transition in any setting, and for us the

task was further confounded by certain facts of our history.

Thirty-three years have passed since Bangladesh came into the

world map as an independent nation. The first few years had to

be spent in mitigating the devastations of the war. Both the

economy and the state machinery fell victim of a crippling

political instability, which as a consequence, caused deep

fractures in the rudimentary foundations of the nation’s S&T

infrastructure. Increasing the scientific manpower was a priority

but training and infrastructure development remained

dangerously neglected.

Lack of competition in scientific research in the

availability of research funds was damaging. It has long been the

practice in our S&T institutions to receive funds directly from the

government, and to dispense the funds to different units of the

institute as per internal rules. But the rules often failed to address

an important scientific issue, that is, preferential funding of

projects of high merit due to lack of stringent procedure of

institutional scientific review. This inevitably led to mediocrity,

which was perpetuated by the system of permanent appointment

and poor performance review. In most cases, scientific

publication, and occasionally patents of little value, were the

criteria to judge performance. Publications often mean appearance

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of an article in one of the many local or institutional in-house

journals, and authorship means appearance of one’s name in the

long list of authors that appear in the paper with little scientific

and intellectual input, but a good public relations profile. This

almost guarantees promotion. These are the ills of a lack of

competitive climate.

SCIENTIFIC REVIEW SYSTEM

A shift from core-funding to project-specific funding

would create an atmosphere of competition. The core funding

should be greatly reduced, as centralised operations are to be

more inefficient. Decentralisation of scientific efforts to individual

levels is desirable, as this will boost individual initiatives. In such

a shift, the enterprising scientists may well outperform their past.

This shift in scientific research that will be more ‘individual-

based’ is important since it will help proper identification of

talents without internal tremor.

By far the most significant lapse in our R&D activities is

the lack of a sound system of review of scientific activities. A

system of rigorous project review is critical for any project-based

funding system. In the USA, such review process is thoroughly

searching. Government funding agencies usually take about one

year for a project to be reviewed. The grant application, what we

call project proforma, is designed in such a manner that to present

just the skeleton or summary of the important aspects of a project

it would take about 25 pages. To this, is added the scientific

portion of the project with review of literature, experimental

procedure, rationale, and budget with full justification of every

item of expenditure, etc. A grant application is routinely an

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elaborate document of about 50 pages. The application is given to

several reviewers and a panel of experts selected by the granting

agency for evaluation. Through this searching exercise the merit

of the project comes to sharp focus. Although it is a highly

involved procedure, the system has proved to be effective in

selecting projects of high merit.

We have not yet been able to develop a good project

review system, as much as we have no definite granting agency,

with defined scientific work programme. There is no standard

project format that is sufficiently elaborate to allow critical

assessment of the project, and no worthwhile monitoring

mechanism to review the progress of research projects. An active

monitoring system would deter sluggish performance or

mediocrity, and the competition, which will be generated through

such a system, will both encourage young scientists to stay home

and those abroad who are looking for an opportunity to return

home, to come back.

The transition from centralised to project-based financing

may not be easy, strong opposition may be encountered. A

scientist has to win competitive research grants, and obtain funds

both for the scientific work, and supplementation of his salary.

Strong political will be necessary to accomplish this change, if

S&T is to be properly organised in the present time. Important

contingencies ought to be appreciated – funds and grand plans

are not enough without bright scientists in leadership positions,

and young talents in the pipeline. Without this, much of the

money may simply vanish. Nehru had an uncanny ability to

identify such talents. He had kept science under his direct

administrative control and story goes that he would sign blank

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cheques to hand over to them without reservations. The outcome

as we know now was brilliant!

Importantly and perhaps signalling a major departure, it

is to be expected that as a result of such changes, there will be an

automatic freeze to permanent employment because such a

system with an ingrained sustained high level competition can

only operate under short-term employment at entry, and when an

individual has achieved the desired level of accomplishment,

longer term employment can be provided but with the clear

understanding that there is nothing like permanent employment

in the new system – persistent non-productivity will inevitably

result loss of job. Scientific research is no less stringent a business

than traditional business, so no complacency deserves any

attention.

THE NEEDED FOCUS

It may be unacceptable to many when we say that at the

present time a good option for us is perhaps the free market. Our

circumstances – high population, scarce resource base, small land

area, and high population density –may stand to our advantage.

Our main economic resource is our large population. Our

products and services will earn for us the needed wealth to buy

all that we need but cannot produce because we do not have

enough land. The need will be wide- ranging, almost everything

for food, clothing and shelter, since we will in the future produce

very little of any of these on our meagre parcel of available arable

land, which would face the heaviest human pressure and turn

rapidly highly poisonous. Thus our survival kit is not our land,

but our hand. If we can make products of high demand and freely

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sell those in the global market, the wider is the market and the

greater is the freedom, the better it will be for us.

SEPARATION OF SCIENCE FROM TECHNOLOGY

In these contexts what should be the focus in S&T?

Science generally is independent of its immediate practical value;

it primarily strives at understanding nature. Some findings of

science do, however, carry potentials for application, which the

discipline of engineering picks up for further development with

additional input research to enhance its utility. Finally, technology

takes up for large-scale operation. Thus, science has generally

broad objectives but technology has specific goals of practical

value. Technology is created by scientific knowledge, but the

purpose of technology is to modify the knowledge in a defined

manner, that is, to convert the scientific knowledge to an easily

usable format. The greater is this conversion, the better it would

serve the industry. Scientific results are regarded as universal, but

technology has an inherent secrecy component. Technical

knowledge is protected for commercial exploitation as intellectual

property.

These differences carry significant implications on

planning, and unless these differences are understood in their

proper contexts, mistakes may be made. The scope of scientific

research is knowledge-oriented, hence much broad-based.

Scientific planning cannot ignore this element of profundity in

scientific research, and cannot easily dispel the inherent element

of uncertainty in scientific research. Technology, on the other

hand, must be fixed and based on certainty. And, largely because

of these attributes the utilitarian value technology must be

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amenable to measurements. While the measurement of scientific

research is largely confined within the scientific community,

technology is inevitably measured externally on the basis of its

contribution to socio-economic development, and human comfort.

For the scientist, however, these distinctions are not

always easy to comprehend. The mindset of the scientists is

inherently fixed to the notion that science is first and foremost a

free enterprise of the creative mind, and must thus look at

creation of knowledge as its first and foremost goal. But an

appreciation of the distinction is important. Many developing

countries plan science and technology together, but some

countries avoid this mixing of which Maldives, Malaysia, Korea

and some other countries of the Asia-Pacific region offer

examples. These countries emphasized on only technology

initially with little attention to basic science. After having attained

a certain level in technology, they are now trying to raise the level

of basic science. But this strategy may not be without problems.

Intellectual stagnancy is dangerous, and firmly grounded it is

often very difficult to uproot.

Among the developing countries, India provides an

example of significant exception as to the fact that India has

pursued science and technology planning together since its birth

due to the highly fortunate circumstances. India had its scientific

base already formed when the market transition was initiated.

Specific country context should determine what route to follow in

S&T efforts. We also have done our S&T planning through the

mixed route, perhaps due to historical antecedents. We lived in

undivided India for hundreds of years, and perhaps failed to see

our highly different contexts in new Bangladesh. This blending

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was perhaps inappropriate. This has been reflected in our

National Science and Technology Policy. The policy is widely

believed to have major lapses, but no new policy has yet emerged

correcting those inadequacies. This is again due to the fact that the

significance of this blending has not been fully appreciated, that

led to our failure on deciding our options. In a situation of relative

affluence, a country can take to the luxurious recourse of blending

many extempore flambuoyant intentions, and achieve little with

not much impunity, but for us it would be a highly defeating

path..

It is important that that we define our science agenda, and

our technology priorities. We may ask ourselves how much of

high-tone basic science can we realistically hope to do, and how

much of technology should we aim at, and in which direction?

This is a difficult question to which a ready answer would also be

difficult to find, but one that cannot be evaded. Traditionally,

universities have served as the focal point of science as for other

creative pursuits. Universities thus have raised an umbrella with

some measure of legitimacy over the scientific activities of a

nation, and for the most part, this has worked well. Our

universities also had the same role when the country was under

the British rule, and very significant contributions were made in

the physical sciences. But the Muslims unfortunately fell behind

the Hindus in this respect. The effect of this was that there was a

very weak foundation of science in Muslim society, the legacy of

which is painfully felt by us today. This sad state was further

accentuated by the notion that university education must be made

accessible to many through liberal enrolment and high subsidy.

The effect of this has been catastrophic.

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Scientific research must strive for excellence because of

the universal nature of science, and as such it must face the

inescapable global competition. Since at present we cannot face

the competition well, we must take the decision as to whether we

should invest in hard-core basic research. This is not to negate

basic research, but as I will elaborate later, to fix our priorities in

the global context. Development of strategies for basic research is

something that a nation with our heritage cannot ignore.

Some scientists would like to think that we should take

lessons from the global changes and approach the issue of

scientific research with new pragmatism, not unrestrained zeal.

That is, we may consider separation of science from technology

and, of course, put greater emphasis on technology initially. This

has been done by Japan. But there is a risk that basic science might

suffer, and one can see that it indeed happened in Japan. Japan

through its highly disciplined workforce and technical skill, has

revolutionized its manufacturing sector with magical levels of

proficiency. It has done so not by lofty achievements in creative

science, but by applying the skills of copying to add value to

material. Countries like ours cannot neglect the potential

economic benefits that would accrue from such a compromise.

There will of course be criticism to this, such as by sealing basic

science into a crystal vessel and allowing only technology to reign

over the nation’s intellectual horizon, can we build the long-term

future of the nation? This is certainly true, we cannot. Today

Japan has earnestly begun to appreciate the mistake, and now

places great emphasis on basic research, because it feels that

without basic research, progress in the longer term is impossible.

This is a crucial issue that merits serious thinking

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Prior to the 1990s, there was no separate ministry for

science and technology in Bangladesh. Science and technology

was placed under the ministry of education as a division. A

separate ministry of Science and Technology (MoS&T) was

created in the early 1990s, which was later renamed as Ministry of

Science and Information & Communication Technology

(MoSICT), for emphasis on the emerging ICT (Information and

Communication Technology) sector. These metamorphoses and

the strange nomenclature style were not associated with serious

policy shift, which thereby failed to bring any good even in the

ICT sector. As of 2004, there were about 400 software exporting

companies in Bangladesh, that earned about Tk 42 crores

annually, a rather trivial amount. The reason for this poor

performance of the ICT sector deserves careful study. We often

exclaim with pride when young Bangladeshi youths win prizes in

international competitions in computer contests. This would

certainly bear testimony to the merit of our youths, but it also

contrasts sharply with the poor growth of this sector. Our

performance in this sector should be dispassionately analysed it

casts reflection on the pitfalls of our S&T planning.

The S&T sector needs strong background in basic science

in subjects such as physics and mathematics. Sadly, due to the

general decline in the standard of our university education, the

teaching of these subjects has also suffered. If the universities

could maintain the expected high standard by investing more

prudently, these departments could be the springboards for our

ICT ventures. In a fiercely competitive ICT world, innovative

skills are those that effectively supplement the copying skills.

Imitation with innovation requires a strong base in science.

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PRIVATE SECTOR S&T

The prospect of private sector S&T in Bangladesh is poor

at this time. Science has been traditionally regarded as a sector for

the state to develop. Private sector S&T would be obviously

highly focused and tailored to the market demands, and there will

be no external interference in its course of development. Thus, its

scope of work would be very different from that if it had been in

the hands of the government. It is not easy for the government, for

instance, to restrict highly basic scientific research to a small

number of specialised institutions, and to segregate science from

technology at this time. One may then wonder whether it would

be a correct course at this to place selected S&T packages into the

domain of the private sector and see how it performs under the

market forces?

Private sector science will be application-oriented that

could be rapidly transformed into technology, and to marketable

goods and services. Many experts of S&T planning believe that in

most developing countries, a prudent approach would be the

sectorial approach, as opposed to integration of various

dimensions of S&T in one intricate conglomerate. For us, the

sectorial approach can be initially considered depending on the

resources available in discipline-based or even narrower

packages, such as specific activity-based undertakings.

The specific-activity-based approach may be easier for the

private sector to adopt. In this scheme, the development of S&T

ventures will be contingent upon an important preceding

parameter, that is, scientific attainments of the type that can

produce immediate commercial benefits. Here, one has to

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recognise the fact that technology will precede science for a time.

Thus initially such ventures would most likely be an adopted

technology to be adapted to local conditions – so called reverse

technology. This reverse period would be intellectually dull, and

certainly unattractive to bright scientists, as it would be simply a

period of adoption of established methods and available

technologies to make marketable products. This period may last

for quite some years depending on a myriad of circumstances,

after which the system itself would force a contingency upon the

sponsoring organisations to enhance their technical capability in

order to adopt higher-level technologies. At this stage, the

organisations would be required to invest in scientific research, or

risk serious financial loss, even their survival.

Some significant transformations would then take place in

the relationship of the private sector and the research scientists,

working in dedicated research institutions. Admittedly, the

private sector will be unwilling to tread along the difficult and

costly track of highly basic research in science and technology all

by itself. Instead, it will prefer to work in partnership with the

universities and R&D institutions, where the infrastructure is

already available together with the needed manpower. A

productive operational linkage might thus be established. This

linkage would be sustainable because it would be of benefit to

both parties, and would be cost effective. But the private sector in

its truly professional outlook would only look for the very best in

the trade – the best scientists and the best laboratories in the

universities that would match with their requirements and the

universities would be required to provide the right kind of these

things for the interaction to develop in right directions.

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For this scientific interaction, understandably research

centres of high reputation ought to be available. This would be the

time of a critical transition. Pressure from the private sector will

force research scientists and research organisations to develop

professionalism in their work, and at this stage the universities

will have to break their dormancy and rise with new vigour and a

positive mindset. The university at this time would appreciate the

benefit of learning while earning from this partnership. Some

shifts in the university’s operating strategy would then have to be

brought about by changing the operating.

As private sector S&T may be intellectually less

stimulating, finding right kind of private sector organisations to

do the job may not easy. Private sector enterprises that can be

identified at this time for such technology ventures with the

necessary operating gadgets are few. Indeed, only some private

universities operated by large NGOs, and some pharmaceutical

companies, are the ones that may be considered at this time.

Front row private universities are few, and they should be

prepared to make the necessary investments in infrastructure

creation for programme-based S&T ventures. It has to be hoped

that given the pressure of the new economic order, the private

universities will soon find it possible, and also necessary, to

accommodate science research within the folds of their stated

purpose of fulfilling market demands, which at present is

restricted to training students only for the job-ready business

establishments. This advantage will soon wane; and already there

are signs that the process may already have begun.

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At present, S&T activity is very restricted in the

pharmaceutical industry, although they have the necessary

infrastructure. The reasons for this are many, and some have been

outlined in a section on science and industry. One problem is fund

availability. The pharmaceutical industries expect the government

to provide the necessary funds and incentives for S&T work,

which the government has failed to do. But this shift would offer

new options; it would not be necessary for the industry to extend

its arms to the government for financial help. Instead, they now

can tread freely into the free market to develop collaborative

ventures with national and foreign investors and partner

companies. Opportunities for the pharmaceutical companies are

vast, and our industries should be prepared with new vision to

seize the opportunities in the areas of our advantage.

One particular field that can be readily identified, which

has been discussed later, is the biomedical field. This is the area

where an international NGO, the International Centre for

Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B), has been

working in the country for the past few decades. It has made

significant contributions towards the development of new drugs,

vaccines and other biomedical interventions, by blending the

basic research carried out in western countries and performing the

necessary field testing and laboratory based studies on field the

material here, to develop biomedical products many of which

have been successfully commercialised by western companies.

Our local pharmaceutical companies and some local

NGOs working in the biomedical area and possess field facilities,

can easily compete in this area. They are likely to succeed in this

competition because of the critical advantage of low operating

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cost compared to the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease

Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) where a system of high salaried

international level positions are mandated by the ordinance which

the Bangladesh Parliament enacted in 1978 to create the Centre.

The international positions are structured after the United Nations

system, which entails very high cost on the part of the Centre.

Since the Centre is almost entirely donor-supported with no

significant resource of its own to cover its operating cost, and as

there are increasing signs of donor fatigue in funding the Centre,

the centre has now turned to project-based funding in areas that

are of interest to the western pharmaceutical industries. The

Centre’s scientists develop research projects in collaboration with

external partners working in advanced laboratories. The latter

usually maintain linkage with the different independent and

different funding agencies in the industrialised world. Western

pharmaceutical industries also maintain close linkage in this

funding system. Thus, in the biomedical sector, project-based

research money is easy to find, with which the Centre has been

operating well.

However, this advantage cannot be long lasting in a

world of free enterprise. Already, because of its high operating

cost the Centre has fast loosing its monopoly in the competitive

free market. The edge of advantage that the Centre currently

enjoys almost entirely now comes from the support that it receives

from the Government of Bangladesh as per provisions of the

founding ordinance. The support provides protection of

protection to the Centre in its activities. In order to attract more

external funding, the Centre has broadened its work area much

beyond diarrhoeal disease research – the Centre is now informally

called Centre for Health and Population Research. Through this

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shift it is now possible for the Centre to write projects on different

areas of health research. In essence, this strategy has all the

flavour of private sector S&T which is supported by high-level

funding assurances from international multilateral sources and

government agencies, that act as business promotion arms of

respective governments and multinational pharmaceutical

companies.

Our advantage in collaborative S&T with foreign partners

in the biomedical area is significant. This should be understood by

us clearly and prudently exploited. The private universities are

the ones that can quickly orient themselves to fit into the folds of

this advantage, than the state-run universities. This advantage in

biomedical sector that the new economic order offers to us should

not be lost for lack of vision, and it is the private universities that

have the circumstances more congenial to exploiting the

advantage.

The new economic order should stimulate new thinking

about our S&T planning. Routine financial support that the

government has to provide at present to keep the state-run

universities operational cannot be withdrawn. It will perhaps

continue at the present level. Sadly, this in effect will also mean a

decrease in real value of the investment because of uncontrollable

factors such as increased enrolment of students without matching

increase in funding and enhanced inflationary pressures. Without

massive investment the public universities cannot be lifted from

the abyss of stagnancy, which the government cannot do by using

a uniform policy for all universities; it cannot be selectively as it

this will be immediately turned into unpleasant slogans. When a

government rests on a platform of underdevelopment, poverty

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and illiteracy, any denial can be politically penalising and the

voting constituency is usually seen to inflict the necessary

punishment correct such aberrations every few years through the

institution of election, but the punishment as a rule fails to correct

the malady. It resurfaces soon after the elections are over creating

grounds for another penalising episode few years down the road.

Twelve

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Exploiting Advantages: Biomedical Research

Human health and primary education are the two sectors

that received special attention of our development partners

during the early 1980s. Studies on how best to deliver health care

services to the people in the developing countries also received a

share of this attention. Research in the health sector can be

operationally divided into two categories, biomedical research

and health research. Biomedical research involves basic laboratory

research related to understanding of disease, and making

diagnostic tools, drugs and vaccines. The latter category of

research operates at the community level, aiming at providing

health care in an efficient and cost-effective manner, and is

generally blended with diverse disciplines such as epidemiology,

anthropology, behavioral science, and other branches of the social

sciences.

History of basic biomedical research in Bangladesh is

neither very old nor highly substantive. It was, in fact, through

international collaboration that the maiden steps of biomedical

research in Bangladesh were taken. This involved the historic

disease cholera. The high prevalence of Asiatic cholera in

Southeast Asia, and increasing US military involvement in this

area during the Vietnam War in the 1960s, stimulated basic

research on treatment and prevention of cholera. This led to the

establishment in 1960 by the then South East Asian Treaty

Organization (SEATO), a research laboratory in Dhaka named

SEATO Cholera Research Laboratory, which became Cholera

Research Laboratory (CRL) after the birth of Bangladesh in 1971.

In 1978, the CRL was changed into an international centre under

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the name International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research,

Bangladesh (ICDDR,B). The ICDDR,B was created by a landmark

Act of Bangladesh Parliament, the first of its kind enacted by the

Parliament, establishing the only international NGO in the world

with wide mandate to carry out research on diarrhoeal diseases

and associated problems of nutrition and fertility. The Act gave

nearly unlimited freedom to the Centre to obtain research funds

from international sources. The organization also enjoyed

substantial exemptions from duties and taxes, and significantly,

immunity from legal proceedings. Over the years, the ICDDR,B

has made significant contributions towards development of the

medical marvel of the past century – the oral route to correcting

dehydration caused by severe diarrhoea through drinking saline,

instead of intravenous infusion. Since 1963 it also carried out field

trials of cholera vaccines, and other anti-diarrhoeal vaccines.

However, no effective vaccine against diarrhoea has yet been

developed.

During the late 1980s the impact of globalization was

reflected in the operation of ICDDR,B and the Centre made some

changes in its research agenda, and in its fund-raising mechanism.

Research emphasis changed from biomedical research to field-

oriented applied research. Areas of research were widened to

include broader health problems in addition to diarrhoeal

diseases, which was the main mandated function of the centre.

The Centre added the epithet ‘Centre for Health and Population

Research’ as part of its logo, to emphasize this shift. This shift

ensured better flow of funds from external sources. Specific

projects were supported by international development agencies

often reflecting the interest of multi-national pharmaceutical

companies, and these projects received priorities in the Centre’s

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research agenda. Indeed, by the mid-1990s one stated mission

objective of ICDDR,B was work “in improving both supply of and

demand for existing health technologies”.

The ICDDR,B is equipped with advanced facilities for

basic laboratory research but these facilities are primarily used for

work towards refining diagnostic and therapeutic products that

are developed by foreign organizations in links with Western

pharmaceutical companies and development agencies. In these

efforts the Centre has optimally utilized the talents of bright local

scientists in foreign-funded contract-research projects, but failed

to stimulate innovative research at the Centre that could lead to

the development of competitive biomedical products. Basic

research if supported at the Centre could possibly add to the

Centre’s financial independence, and greater freedom to pursue

its own research agenda, rather than carrying out primarily

donor-driven activities. The stated reason for this disinterest in

basic research has been traditionally the notion that the Centre

should only undertake research in areas where its strength is the

greatest. This view was automatically translates into research that

involves testing drugs, vaccines and other biomedical

interventions the large rural populations of Bangladesh and in the

burgeoning urban slum populations in large cities that were

readily accessible to the Centre.

In the national scene, a small number of R&D institutions

do carry out research in the biomedical area. They also generally

follow the working lines of ICDDR,B albeit in much smaller scale

in that they also have funding linkages for carrying out similar

trials in clinical settings in their hospitals. Some private sector

clinics and hospitals are also seen to have interest in research, but

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the type of research that they do is generally linked with the ‘drug

development’ and marketing efforts of the multinational

pharmaceutical companies. Overall, by late 1990s market forces

also caused noticeable changes in the career vision of our young

scientists, and medical professionals. They became instrumental

in product promotion while serving the nation with better health

services.

OUR WEALTH: HUMAN GENOMIC BIODIVERSITY

Advances in genetics have been phenomenal over the

past few decades. Genetics deals with the activities of the living

organisms, how they produce the like, and how the almost infinite

number of chemical steps in the complex life process are

controlled in a manner that preserves the biological uniqueness of

different life forms in the planet. Genetics added a new dimension

in its development with the discovery of the structure of DNA by

the biologist James D. Watson and physicist Francis Crick in 1952.

This epoch-making discovery quickly set the course of the life

sciences in a new direction that today touches the realms of

chemistry and physics. It undoubtedly will embrace more

fundamental aspects of the physical sciences, such as quantum

mechanics to fully explain the phenomenon of life.

DNA carries the biological information needed for

functioning of life in the form of a language that has only four

alphabets. These alphabets, the building blocks of DNA, are the

nucleotides or bases. Human beings contain about 6 x 109 bases

(six billion) carried in two spirally twisted long molecules that

make the classic DNA double helix structure proposed by Watson

and Crick. That is, one strand of the double-stranded DNA

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molecule contains 3 x 109 bases, representing the human genome.

A fraction of these bases make up about 35,000 or so functioning

genes, each of which is different in the sequence of bases. The

complete sequence in which these 6 billion bases are arranged in

the two DNA strands has now been determined through the

mega-project under the name Human Genome Project. The of

human genome sequence is a landmark event. Understanding the

information inherent in the sequence carries vast potentials in

human medicine.

The humankind is one single species, the Homo sapiens.

Like all of the nearly 20 million identified species of plants,

animals and microbes that inhabit the planet, each species with

unique genome sequence, the genomes of individual human

beings are also similar. But there are rare changes in the base

sequence of individual genes that are brought about by mutation.

These changes introduce variations in the genome, and are

responsible for genetic diversity within a species. No two

individuals, except identical twins, are likely to have identical

genomes. It is not easy to sequence the genome of each and every

individual nor it is perhaps necessary. But there are numerous

ethnic groups in the world whose genetic diversity is important as

it may add new knowledge to genetics and help in the discovery

of new genes, and new drugs.

Furthermore, as the genetic blueprint is eventually reflected

in human habits, behaviour, disease susceptibility etc., there will

be great benefit in being able to correlate genes with these

attributes. In the human genome 99.9 % of the sequence is

identical in all humans. Only about 0.1% of the sequence show

individual variations involving single nucleotides. These single

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nucleotide variations serve as useful diagnostic tools and many of

these differences relate to genetic diseases. The frequency of these

single nucleotide differences is about one base per 1000 bases. In

the human genome, therefore, there should be approximately

three million such changes. In 1999, a consortium was formed in

the UK to map 300,000 such single base differences representing

one tenth of the total number, and to correlate genetic variations

with disease. For this purpose, a total of 500,000 individuals of

age ranging from 40 to 70 years have been selected on the basis of

physician’s recommendation. Blood samples from these subjects

will be used to obtain DNA, which will be sent to a national DNA

database for analysis.

Today, genetic resources are tradable goods. How the

developing world should trade with this resource is currently

under intense discussion. It is to be hoped that from within the

myriad of complex issues associated with it, some mechanism will

emerge, perhaps a new order for trading with unconventional

resources such as human genetic biodiversity.

Soon the Biodiversity Convention was adopted at the

Earth Summit in 1992, the long awaited General Agreement on

Tariff and Trade (GAAT) came in force in 1993. A significant

clause in the Biodiversity Convention, which was included in the

GAAT, relates to patenting of biological material. Global patent

practice does not recognize simple discovery of life forms as an

act of invention, because these life forms are the gift of nature.

Emergence of genetic engineering made it possible to create novel

genetic entities. This required many aspects of patent laws to be

modified in different countries for commercial exploitation of the

new inventions of genetic engineering. Slowly, genetically

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engineered organisms, also now called. However, genes in their

native state in the organisms were still not patentable. But the

notion began to change with the success of the genome

sequencing efforts, which was initiated in the early 1990s.

Article 35 of GATT provides patentability of genes of

known function. So does the World Trade Organisation (WTO),

the successor of GATT, that went further and granted

patentability of genetic material of both known or unknown

structure and function. The 35,000 genes in human and their

numerous variants thus constitute a biological wealth of

enormous value. Genes are responsible for both health and

disease. Knowledge of disease-causing genes such as those related

to cancer, and genes that confer resistance to diseases such as

cholera, can provide valuable tools for treatment and prevention

of many diseases.

Change in base sequence in DNA causes genetic diversity.

Since such changes are rare it is obvious that the larger and more

heterogeneous is a human population, the greater will be the

number of the changes in the genome. In humans, as opposed to

microorganisms, these changes cannot be experimentally induced,

but must be picked up from what nature has provided in the

population. We certainly have this advantage, but in addition, we

also have the advantage of large family data that are invaluable in

genetic analysis. In western societies, both of these, that is,

population diversity and large families are uncommon. Some

countries of the world, therefore, have been enriching the human

genetic biodiversity base through prudent immigration policy.

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The new premises that are developing of the human

genome are very significant. Most developing countries are not

fully aware of the promises that they hold. For us, an appreciation

of these facts and measures to exploit these to our advantage

ought to be critical in our long-term S&T and indeed national

development policy.

PROTECTION OF BIODIVERSITY

It is widely believed that implementation of sovereign

rights on biological resources would be in conflict with the trade

globalization strategy. International collaboration in science and

technology is essential for the poor countries, and sharing of

biological material in such collaborations is unavoidable. Science

is for sharing1 and sharing is of intrinsic value. The difficulty lies

in the method of sharing. Collaborating scientists from

industrialized countries who often obtain funding from

multinational companies directly but more often through indirect

channels, such as governmental development agencies, are

unwilling to enter into any profit sharing agreement with their

developing country partners. Instead, the notion that drives such

collaboration is that the benefits of the research will eventually

come to the doorsteps of the poor countries in the form of

1. Sen, Amartya. 2002. The science of give and take. New Scientist, April 27, pp 51-52.

products and services. Developing country scientists value the

scientific merit of the work, and consider the financial support

received in this connection a sufficiently satisfying reward to

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justify the collaboration, and in the process transfer biological

material often without record from most of the developing

countries of the world. Potentially valuable wealth thus is lost.

How can this be checked? This is an important regulatory

issue currently being addressed by many developing countries.

India has enacted several pieces of legislation that makes it

mandatory for both bilateral exchange and exchange through

individual collaborative research to be approved by appropriate

national bodies. The laws in essence ‘require foreign researchers

using genetic material taken from India to ensure that any resulting

technical advances – as well as a share of the profit from the eventual

exploitation of the material – are returned back to India’.

The full benefit of such profit-sharing agreement will

obviously depend on the honesty of individual scientists, a matter

that can only be enhanced through provision of research

incentives at home, and creation of awareness, awareness of a

superior kind about our place on the planet and our obligations

towards the motherland. Scientific societies can play an important

role in awareness creation and motivation. For example, Indian

Society for Human Genetics drew up guidelines calling for a ban

on transport of whole blood, cell lines, DNA, skeleton and fossil

samples without formal agreement approved by the government,

and clearly specifying the objectives of the project and the

anticipated scientific, material and economic benefits and the

manner they are to be shared now and in the future.

Genetic diversity of our people is a treasure for our

people. Other countries are making good use of it, but our

appreciation of this wealth is far from adequate. Mutant genes are

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indispensable tools in genetic research as they provide the only

route to discovering new genes. Almost any gene that one can

think of may have its mutant version in our population. Our

scientists working in the biomedical area are poorly informed

about this unique advantage that our large, heterogeneous, and

highly inbreeding population offers to us. This is entirely because

genetics has yet to make entry into our medical curriculum. As

there are genes that can cause disease, there are also genes that

can confer resistance to disease such as cholera, typhoid, hepatitis,

tuberculosis, leprosy, AIDS and so on. In Kolkata, the National

Institute for Cholera and Enteric Diseases have reported

identification of genes that may be related to cholera-resistance. In

our country, the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease

Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) is perhaps working along these

lines as well, but so far no public revelation has come on any such

discoveries.

COLLABORATION WITH A ‘HOME’ FACE

Whatever is the potential resource of a country, its

ultimate value depends on how it is used for public benefit. For

example, natural gas lying underneath is our wealth, but it is of

little value to us unless we have the technology to lift it. Today,

nearly identical scenario characterizes the biological wealth of

nations. It is important to appreciate that we have to share our

wealth with the owners of technology in order to develop

products that will give us economic benefits. Developing

countries with large population provide suitable grounds for

what has come to be known as ‘gene hunting’. The undertaking

takes many forms among which a common mechanism is

scientific collaboration where biological material is sent to foreign

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laboratories for studies for which we lack the necessary

technology. These transfers often occur without any record, not to

speak any formal agreement protecting our sovereign rights.

Many countries of the region have participated in such

collaborations in biotechnology in the past, and transferred vast

quantities of biological material including plants, animals, insects

and microbes.

As we enter into business with genes, an example may be

illuminating. Genes that may provide resistance to AIDS is the

subject of an intellectual property right dispute in the USA. An

individual recently gave his blood sample for routine genetic tests

to a clinic in the USA. The clinic identified in his genome 10 gene

sequences that may confer resistance to AIDS infection. The clinic,

therefore, patented these genes as its own discovery. The blood

donor in turn then set up a company to sell his blood samples for

use in research by biotechnology companies thereby nullifying in

effect the anticipated patent benefits of the clinic. A patent dispute

ensued. In this case the dispute is within a nation and the

country’s patent laws will perhaps settle it. If, however, the blood

sample came from a person from an African country for instance,

with proper record of the transfer and profit-sharing agreement,

the issue would have to the settled in a different manner possibly

to the advantage of the donor country

True, we must collaborate with external laboratories since

we do not have the necessary technology, but it must be done on a

platform of mutual benefit. It is important to ensure that we

collaborate, but in doing so, we should not give away our

precious wealth. Our scientific collaboration must not only be

done with a ‘human face’ while we offer biological samples for

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the benefit of the humankind, but it must also carry a ‘home face’

to bring benefit to our people.

The flow of genetic material from the developing

countries is quite a widespread phenomenon. It is not easy to

control the flow or, in the case of plant material particularly, to

establish sovereignty claims. A plant species is often of

cosmopolitan distribution that makes it difficult to easily identify

as to the place from where that particular material was obtained.

In contrast, a human being anywhere in the world carries a

precise legal address fixed to him or her by birth, and is thus a

unique biological entity in the context of nationality. A legal claim

on genetic material of man or woman is thus far easier to

establish, if proper record of transfer is kept.

The Government of Bangladesh has been considering

legislation in respect of biodiversity conservation, but nearly a

decade has passed just to produce a draft of two pieces of

legislation, and that also on plant materials only. One is the

“Biodiversity and Community Knowledge Protection Act of

Bangladesh” and the “Plant Varieties Act of Bangladesh”. Among the

important features of these pieces of draft legislation there is no

reference to the sovereignty issue of our human genetic resources

and their conservation.

It is vital to realize that a person born and raised in

Bangladesh is not only a citizen of Bangladesh but also a potential

biological asset to the nation. On this issue unfortunately there is

as yet no academic discussion within the biomedical sector. Most

of our physicians are not exposed to recent scientific

developments in the area due to inadequate medical curriculum

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where genetics, not to speak of human molecular genetics, is at

best a topic of passing reference. Awareness creation on general

societal issues, issues of environment, human rights, governance,

etc. that are carried out by NGOs, and other voluntary

organizations, is rapidly becoming a global phenomenon. Now a

new type of awareness creation for conservation of our human

genetic diversity and protection of the knowledge emanating from

this wealth must be considered important. Here efforts have to be

targeted to the scientists, physicians and the educated segment of

the society who due to ignorance of the issue or due to

professional enthusiasm, may trade with the wealth without

ensuring protection. One may argue that since the target

population, in this case scientists and physicians, is highly

educated, and is able to judge and understand the problem, this

awareness creation is unnecessary. But this is a mistaken notion.

Gene hunting in different regions of the world is a highly

rewarding professional adventure. Specific and targeted

programs carried out by scholarly and scientific societies and

NGOs must be developed for this special awareness, the superior

awareness, to protect the living treasure of the nation before mass

transfer erodes this important edge of advantage of the diversity-

rich third world countries.

Legislation is thus an important pre-requisite. If there is

legislation to ensure that transfer of biological material must be

done under an agreement, then there may be some overt and

some covert bypass events initially, but awareness creation and

motivation will slowly decrease their incidence. The general

culture of science has been historically based on shared

knowledge, but today there are substantive academic and

material incentives for scientists ‘who are thinly disguised

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businessmen’, as the Nobel Laureate in Economics Amartya Sen1

noted recently. These scientists may wish to tread along a track of

financial gain, and give away for good valuable biological wealth

in return of small personal profit. This would be a transient gain

for a person, but a lasting loss for the nation. Awareness creation

in these contexts, and enactment of proper legislation may indeed

be the only route to protect our biological wealth.

SEIZING OPPORTUNITIES

For any significant long-term gains in the area of our

advantage, that is, in creating skilled manpower, the S&T sector

has to be activated not in a general manner, but in focused areas.

We should do either basic research or applied research, but not

the hybrid type in the same undertaking. Unfortunately, the latter

dominates the S&T scene today in our country as exemplified by

many ill-conceived R&D projects carried out by leading R&D

institutions in the physical, biological and biomedical sectors

without any tangible products or technologies having been

developed after many decades of work. It is only in the field of

1. Sen, Amartya. 2002. The science of give and take. New Scientist, April 27, pp 51-52.

agriculture that has there been notable success in adaptive

research and extension services carried out by R&D institutions

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working in the field, but innovative research, basic or applied,

have been inadequate even in this sector.

A strategic long-term S&T plan is essential for our survival.

Our S&T thrust cannot afford to be a mere description of schemes,

but must have priorities sharply defined. In human medicine, one

such area has recently emerged as a consequence of the Human

Genome Project. The enormous quantity of data on the human

genome sequence and handling of the data, is already a nightmare

to the specialists. This has given rise to new disciplines of science

called Bioinformatics, and Computational Biology. Bioinformatics

aims at developing computer tools and software for genome

analysis, while computational biology focuses on studying

genome function with the tools of bioinformatics. Today, by

analysing sequence data with the tools of bioinformatics, a

computational biologist can recreate complex functions or even

the image of individuals in cyberspace. In essence thus

bioinformatics and computational biology is a blend conventional

information technology (IT) with DNA biology in its background.

This sector, particularly the one related to biomedical sciences,

deserves to be an S&T thrust sector. It should be pursued with

aggressive zeal and manned by high caliber scientists. No new

institution building is necessary for this work. Instead, existing

institutions can be strengthened with trained and dedicated

scientists and infrastructure. If properly done, this will be more

productive than recourse to institution-building whose vision

initially stretches no further than just raising the building itself,

and acquisition of equipment, and before any significant work can

be started, signs of fatigue caused by various constraints become

apparent.

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A strong S&T base that may be created in this sector

through proper planning will equip us to enter into external

collaboration on a balanced footing. This sector is particularly

relevant to our country context – it is independent of land since

most of its activities are based in cyberspace. Because of this, it

has vast potentials to expand vertically in contrast to

biotechnology that spreads only horizontally, where we have

invested much over the past few decades with little gain. With the

lowest land-man ratio, which is decimating at an alarming rate to

approach the limit of the land’s carrying capacity, the cyberspace

is an option that we cannot not ignore.

The intensely competitive IT business of the world today

is more a business of the brain than of the finger; in the former our

weak S&T base severely limits progress at this time. It is not

possible to think of any long-term advantage in global IT without

a strong S&T base. The nation’s IT guidelines, the ICT policy as

we call it, ought to take cognizance of this fact. Admittedly, this

limitation equally applies to bioinformatics and computational

biology and has to be addressed by targeted S&T support. But

unlike the IT sector, we have in bioinformatics the ‘human

biological advantage’ – that is, we have a large and diverse

population with genetic diversity that would self-propel future

developments in the sector if our skill-creation strategy is

properly executed, and of course, if we can protect our genetic

resources.

Selective thrust in S&T is imperative, but how it will be

done is a matter for dispassionate discussion free from scientific

and political activism, for which we may even consider

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parliamentary mandate, not just executive decisions. The matter is

not just scientific pragmatism but, one of our survival.

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Thirteen

The University : Sliding Pivot of Research

Towards the end of the British rule the country’s first

university, the University of Dhaka, was established in 1921. The

University was modelled with respect to residence requirement of

students, its administration and in its serene location after the

Oxford University in England. The university established itself as

a centre for excellence in the physical and mathematical sciences,

history, literature and art. The famous physicist S. N. Bose who

worked closely with Einstein, and Meghnad Saha who attained

rare distinction in physics for many pioneering work, had their

early scientific career based at this university. After partition of

India when most of these scientists moved to India, an intellectual

vacuum was created. It took us many years to reach just the

fringes of recovery when a political turmoil befell us. It was the

nation’s struggle for independence won through a bloody war.

From the ruins of a war-torn nation, the shattered universities of

the country made a move towards a new beginning.

All over the world and at all times in history, the students

had participated effectively and often successfully, in politically

triggered movements. This they could do because of their ability

to understand issues of collective good, and due to their large

numbers under one institutional framework. They earned for

themselves much glory, and received tributes from poets and

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politicians. Ghandi asked the students to enter into politics for

freedom of India although many Indian leaders did not like this

blanket appeal. Students on the campuses of America also rose

against the Viet Nam War that enhanced the end of the war.

Ghandi’s call had a special tone, love for the deprived, and

opposition of Viet Nam war had special humanitarian appeal, and

in both, the effectiveness of the students in turning the course of

history was noteworthy, and received due recognition. But the

issue of students in politics remained a matter of deep

controversy; perhaps students were never in it.

Historically, students of this part of the subcontinent had

been an effective force in the struggle against colonial rule. In our

case, students and have deeply etched our history with the glory

of liberation. They inspired the people to fight for the

motherland, and also themselves took up arms. These are

examples of what the collective strength of people can do. But

politicians tend to equate this phenomenon with politics in a

blanket fashion. For the students, it was perhaps not politics. In

this issue, one should dispassionately ask this question: do these

acts represent politics, or could these better be described as

examples of patriotism? Free thinkers proclaim the virtue of

freedom of thought and speech as essential ingredients of

university education. Many educationists add high values to

politics in the university as a necessary condition growth of

patriotism, democracy, and freethinking in the minds of the

youth, but in this there seem to be a n undue mixing of politics

with patriotism.

Practice of democracy need not be independent of

circumstances. The link between concept and its application

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cannot always be defined in a straightforward manner. In the

family, the binding force has historically been the force of love,

not a system of election. Size, structure, purpose and intellectual

constitution of a community are important factors in the practice

of democracy. Grand social experiments may fail if the relevant

parameters are not properly defined. Patriotism need not be the

product of politics. In love for self, love for children, parents, for

homeland, there is no need to draw politics within its folds; the

drawings for these are already engrained in human nature, and

politics cannot inspire them any better.

NEW NATION NEW CHANGES

An Act of Confusion

In 1972 a piece of legislation called the Bangladesh Act 1,

probably the first Act of the new nation, was passed which

formally brought all the state run universities under direct control

of the government, and in 1973, the full-fledged University Act

was passed that required the universities to conduct operation on

the principles of democracy and through a system of election. The

innate urge of our students to serve the nation was exploited after

liberation war in an aberrant manner. The law gave democracy to

the university administration. Certainly, it was done with good

intention, but it lacked the crucial elements to produce good

results. The virtue of a law lies not only in its good elements, but

also in its ability to produce the desired effects. A good piece of

legislation should have sufficient force within it to inspire the

intended acts.

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The reason the law failed to deliver the anticipated good

perhaps lies in the confusion between our way of doing politics,

and our understanding of patriotism. Politics simply is the art or

the science of government. It need not have high intellectual

content in its practice, but certainly it must have deep moral

precepts. A moral rule has to be self-imposed; one has to obey the

rule of which he is the maker. This is the spirit of democracy. The

university would teach lessons on democracy, and patriotism

would emanate from these teachings, but the university need not

run practical sessions on the functioning of democracy.

The Act gave the opportunity for democracy to be

practised first by its creators, the university. No one would argue

against this view. Exercise of democracy is the right of all people,

not to speak of the most enlightened, such as the university

community. If the world were to be filled with intellectual giants,

then democracy would perhaps be practised in a certain manner.

They would perhaps refrain from campaigns that create division

among people, and instead find a way ‘election’ that would in

essence be a selection, or a method of ‘selection’ that would in

effect look like election. And in this, there would be not be any

disregard to democracy.

This scenario may be far too idealistic, and obviously

cannot be applied to ordinary people. But the community of

university teachers does not represent ordinary people. They

represent a rather small, and highly enlightened community

where one could expect such exceptional things to happen. To an

enlightened mind, establishing the right to vote is an act of virtue,

holding the right in trust a sacred duty, and creating conditions

that would make its application unnecessary, is glorious.

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The Act appealed to some people at that time, but as it

was based on erroneous ideas, that many people felt that it would

do much harm to the nation. The democratic rights were given to

the university by the stroke of a pen, but we were not told that we

might live and work happily in the university without standing in

need to exercise this right. There are organisations, particularly

scholarly organisations, all over the world with provision for

elections in the charter, but election often times becomes

unnecessary because the voting constituency nearly always can do

the work by consensus. We were not taught that possession of the

right is a sufficient reward for the enlightened minds, and ability

to live without exercising the right is a virtue of superior order.

The Act, however, did not draw the students into politics;

students were not required to elect the principal of the college, or

the Vice-Chancellor of the university. They were drawn into

politics by the default of those for whom politics was mandatory.

The Act required elections at four important levels of

administration – the office of the Vice-chancellor, the Dean of

Faculties, members to the University Syndicate, and members to

the University Senate.

Teachers with an academic bent of mind, the senior and

the scholarly ones, had little interest in those offices, as they

disliked contesting elections. Those who found the system of

election attractive, the activists and claimed defenders of

democratic rights welcomed the system as they could walk easily

along the twisted ropes of politics. Groups were soon formed

within the university, which aligned themselves with national

political parties. The linkage was informal but quite visible. Inter-

group rivalry in disguise of competition surfaced that slowly

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percolated down to the process of recruitment of teachers,

particularly at entry level where, as all good politicians know,

proper selection gives lasting political returns. Lateral entry of

good teachers at senior levels became almost impossible because

such persons lacked qualities that are of value to the politicians,

and were not thus supported by any group. Senior teachers with

high academic credentials thereby became nearly barred from

entering into the university, while simultaneously entry at junior

level became easier for politically active teachers. These

developments had all the elements of an impending erosion in the

very foundation of the university.

No law was perhaps enacted in Bangladesh with so much

of good intention but delivered so little. It was assumed that the

election process given to the top intellectual client of the country

would add a new lustre to the academic climate. In effect, it

produced quite the opposite, and signalled a grave intellectual

decay in the making. Over three decades that have passed,

opinion on how the system has been functioning does not vary

much – most people within the university and outside think that

the law has done lasting harm to the university.

But the Act cannot be inactivated, and it continues to exist

despite the dislike of the vast majority of the people who have

lived directly under the purview of the law for the three decades.

This bizarre situation is again perhaps the consequence of

democracy as commonly practised. The Act came by the activism

of a few, it also perpetuates by the voice of a few. But as the Act

carries democratic connotations of democracy, it tends to flourish

under its shadows. Since democracy is virtuous, its perpetuation

can be ensured by the voice of just a few. To abandon democracy,

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it would take the collective force of the vast majority. That force

has not been forthcoming, and there are no signs that in the near

future it would happen.

Populist Shift in University Education

After independence, we were led to the notion that

student number should be increased in the universities in order to

take higher education to the doorsteps of all. To increase the

number without parallel increase in resources and without

compromising with quality is certainly a difficult matter.

Successive governments have justified in the past, and even do so

now, the creation of new universities using various statistics,

largely of convenience rather than objectivity. In Bangladesh, of

the total number of youths in the age bracket of tertiary education,

that is, between the age 18 and 25 years, only 6% get the

opportunity of entering into tertiary educational institutions, such

as colleges, to study bachelors, and masters level courses that are

offered in the colleges, and the universities. The corresponding

figures in India are 12%, in Thailand 27% and in Malaysia 36%.

The 6% value in a large population with high birth rate can

indeed produce a very large figure in terms of the actual number

of individuals lying in the tertiary education window. The vast

number of youths in this age bracket, about 15 million, is far too

large for our economy to manage in a reasonable manner. But this

6% figure is not altogether bad because there are many countries

in the world with socio-economic conditions similar to ours but

far lower percentage of university enrolment.

Of the 6% students in tertiary education institutions in

Bangladesh, only one-tenth or 0.6% representing about 0.08% of

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country’s population, study at the universities. Whatever these

figures might mean, these would be far removed from contexts

unless related to parameters such as GDP, per capita income, and

population size, etc. The table presented below provides some

statistics on Bangladesh and a other countries.

Country

Population

(million)

GDP trillion

US$

(Purchasing

Power Parity)

University*

Enrolment

Australia 20 0.64 1,000,000

(5.00)

Bangladesh 114 0.30 100,000

(0.08)

Canada 30 1.07 800,000

(2.60)

India 1000 3.68 9,500,000

(0.90)

Indonesia 210 0.90

Not

available

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Malaysia 23 0.25 275,000

(1.30)

Pakistan 160 0.38 362,000

(0.20)

N Zealand 4 1.00 70,000

(1.80)

Thailand

60 0.55 Not

available

UK 60 1.86 2,000,000

(3.30)

USA 263 12.40 8,000,000

(3.30)

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The number of students in different institutions of tertiary

education in Bangladesh are as follows:

‘FORMAL’ UNIVERSITIES OF BANGLADESH

State Universities : 100,000

Private Universities : 50,000

NON-FORMAL ‘UNIVERSITIES’

National University Colleges : 800,000

Open University :

500,000

Madrasha : 200,000

Total : 1,650,000

University education cannot be cheap, as higher

education ought to be the privilege of the highly talented

individuals and it can only be achieved at a cost. The purpose of

the university is basically two – to create professionals and

achieve academic excellence. Relative emphasis on these may

vary. Often it is the former that is favoured because of low cost,

but the latter should not be neglected, as this would defeat the

whole purpose of university education. Our low (0.08%)

university enrollment as a fraction of population is often cited in

support of higher enrolment in our universities against examples

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of 3% in the USA, 1.0 % in India and 0.2 % in Pakistan. Student

performance in secondary education examinations is the usual

criterion considered in university enrolment. But we may ask the

question, those who are admitted into the universities every year,

are they all suitable for university education? Answer to the

question would be in the negative; indeed only a small fraction of

those whom we admit actually deserve and possess the right

aptitude to benefit from university education. But a large number

gets entry because of a populist tone in enrolment, which is

supported by the government perhaps as an act of prudent

politics to enhance public image.

In order to maintain excellence there cannot be any place

for a populist tone in university education. The cost of university

education has to be high if high standard is to be maintained. It is

interesting to examine how costly is higher education in advanced

countries in terms of indicators such as per capita income, fraction

of family income spent per university-going child, and fraction of

GDP spent on running the country’s universities. The GDP of

Bangladesh is now about 75 billion in US dollars, or $ 300 billion

purchasing power parity (PPP). Cost of operating the 23 state-run

universities is about Tk 500 crores (year 2006 estimate) equivalent

to $ 80 million, which is approximately 0.08% of the GDP of $ 75

billion. This amount is spent for over 100,000 students enrolled in

the state run universities, excluding enrolment in Bangladesh

Open University where student number is almost 500,000, and

National University where also the number is nearly 800,000. In

Bangladesh, the cost per student per year at university is

approximately Tk 50,000 that is about a quarter of the annual

income of an upper middle class family with five members. In the

USA, the yearly cost of university education for one child is about

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$ 45,000 against an average middle class annual family income of

about $ 75,000 for a family of four.

The fraction of GDP spent on the universities of the

country would also be interesting. The example of USA may be

used to highlight the issue, as it will reflect the situation in many

of the developed countries of the world. The GDP of USA is some

12 trillion dollars at present (year 2005 estimate). Estimates of

total cost of operation of all the universities of the USA are not

available, but one could get a rough idea. A top university,

Harvard University for example, operates on a yearly budget of

about $ 3 billion, and University of California approximately $ 5

billion. On this scale, one may assume that the top 25 universities

of the USA might spend about 0.1 trillion dollars per year, and the

entire university system of the nation perhaps ten times this

figure. If these assumptions were reasonably close to actual

figures then one would come to a cost figure of about $ 1 trillion

per year for the entire university system of the USA, which will be

about 10% of GDP. In any case, a conservative estimate of the cost

the entire university system in the USA may well represent at 5%

of GDP. In contrast, Bangladesh spends about 0.08%.

Experts believe that for sectors like higher education the

critical minimum resource allocation necessary for perceptible

impact has to be in excess of 1% GDP. But we run our universities

with 50 times less; this can only produce certificates with little or

no quality. As science is international in scope, as much as

knowledge is universal, all nations serious in university education

should be prepared to spend comparable amounts of money to

attain a standard that would match with the international

standard.

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Many of the new state universities carry a new epithet.

They are called ‘science and technology’ university because

spending under this head is more attractive to the people. These

novel creations, although lacking in very basic infrastructure for

S&T do nevertheless strongly project government’s commitment

to science and technology for improving the lot of the people. In

many cases, colleges are converted to universities. Then there are

the disturbing trends of expanding the existing universities with

new science departments, and increasing the enrolment in

different departments without matching increases in physical

facilities and funding levels. The reason is, of course, the same – a

populist approach often under pressure of the politicians and

patronisation of the government. The government in its pleasant

mood understands the detrimental effects of all these acts, but

soon it finds itself in no mood to ‘interfere’ with the affairs of the

university, which is ‘autonomous’.

The prospect of science and technology development in

the country’s state-run general universities thus is bleak at this

time, as much as that of imparting good quality basic education in

various science disciplines. Sadly, the universities have become a

closed system bracketed by bright young teachers in perpetual

readiness to leave the country, and a much smaller number of

senior scholars who exist there just because of their love for it.

Lying in between them is a large number of teachers whose work

is etched with sectional politics, and poor academic dedication.

It has been argued by some that higher education ought

to be a privilege, rather than a right, and ought to be given to the

most able1. The most able cannot be a bulk product as it is not the

rule by which nature works, that is, the phenomenon of

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probability. The most able would obviously be located at the

extreme right of a normal curve, but a populist policy of higher

education would fatten the middle, and flatten the ends.

Birth of Private University

Towards the end of the 1980s the country’s state-run

universities assumed a destructive face ready to destroy its very

foundations. The universities turned into full-scale battlegrounds

where rival factions employed their cadres and hired gunmen to

face each other in professional battle plan using trenches and

equipped with all the necessary gears and gadgets. The nation

witnessed these events with awe; the world saw pictures of trench

battles on sites where one would expect students in sober

intellectual pursuits.

At this critical time, some retired civil servants along with

some educationists floated the idea of establishment of private

universities along the lines of a small number of private

universities in some developing countries such as India and

Pakistan. They took the move on the basis of the stated purpose of

catering to increased market demand for higher education,

particularly in disciplines compatible to the emerging free

1. Shafee, A. 2003. Higher education: priorities and pitfalls. Proceedings of Second

National Symposium on Science and Technology. Bangladesh Vision 2021. Ed. A. M. Harun ar Rashid. Bangladesh Academy of Sciences. pp 63-79.

market. The near-catastrophic situation of the public universities

helped to mobilise popular support for this venture with cautious

optimism. Many also saw in the private universities the

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important attribute of competition to the state universities. This

the state universities perhaps needed at this time of crisis. There

were no other means available to the nation to cover the trenches.

It was hoped that private universities could put up at least a

measure of psychological pressure on the state universities. One

could argue, for example, that if a private university can stay

open every working day of the year, the state universities should;

if the former can make graduates in four years, why should the

latter take seven years; if teachers of the former can stay away

from politics, why those of the state universities cannot? These are

legitimate questions, which the public universities will have to

answer to the nation.

The idea of privatisation of university education,

however, was not extensively discussed within the academia. The

government enacted a law in 1992, the Private University Act, by

which the road to private sector university education was

formally opened. Thus also opened an avenue for market

competition within the university education system. The first

private university was established in 1993, and by 1996 the

number rose to 14. By 2005 the number of private universities

became 52, plus one ‘international’ university, which had various

nomenclatural transformations over a short period of time such as

Islamic Centre for Technical and Vocational Training and

Research (ICTVTR), Islamic Institute of Technology (IIT), and now

renamed as International University of Technology (IUT).

However, during the years of rapid proliferation of

private universities, the important issue of quality of education

presented a dismal picture in these universities, similar to the

state run universities. Most of these private universities started

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with poor infrastructure, inadequate teaching staff, little zeal for

good education, but much of it for good business. Some

universities were, indeed, so poor that they were no better than

coaching centres housed in makeshift buildings. Allegations on

the purely business-like operations of many private universities

even turned into popular jokes; some universities were harboured

beside posh restaurants, and some were sandwiched between

floors where garment factories ran 24-hour work shifts.

At present the private universities offer courses that have

immediate market demand. Most of them generally place little

emphasis on investment in anything other than improvised

classrooms, and borrowed part-time teachers. Technical subjects

that have been opened in some universities include computer

software, architecture (which is given the name ‘engineering’),

and some such subjects as pharmacy that largely trains students

to be skilled sellers of drugs. As the major thrust of private

universities is creating professionals, some private medical

colleges and medical universities were also established to produce

medical technologists to serve both the local needs, and the

perceived demand abroad.

There is little evidence at this time that any of the private

universities will be interested in opening science subjects soon. As

long as enrolment in the existing subjects remains high, and a

satisfactory level of financial return is assured, there little

incentive for investment in science subjects. Science departments

has an initial capital cost required for making and equipping

laboratories, which the private universities are not willing to incur

at this time.

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This is not to say that the private universities should

immediately open highly academic subjects on basic science,

which will neither catch on enrolment nor will provide adequate

financial returns. But there are many science subjects that have

high market potentials. Subjects such as microbiology,

biochemistry, biotechnology, etc. may be considered. But the

university has to display, like any good business organisation,

entrepreneurship and introduce these subjects to create conditions

for future growth of the institution. This would in the course of a

few years create a demand for their graduates in these subjects in

both public and private sectors. But, the financiers of the private

universities are guided by a strict consumption-oriented business

strategy. The market must consume their product in the shortest

possible time after its release and, no lag period is to be tolerated.

The private universities are founded as non-profit bodies

that seek to carry out an important social service. A foundation

receives donation for creating the university from big businesses,

banks and industrial establishments. The requirement of

permanent campus for the university within five years of opening

has been conveniently used by some private universities to

acquire large quantities of prime land in or near Dhaka city. Over

the years the land value has appreciated many folds but campus

construction has dismally slow. If a university decides to shut up

its doors it can lift very high price from the land. There is no strict

monitoring for the academic, administrative, and legal parameters

of the university. The University Grants Commission that has the

mandatory role of overseeing the academic activity of private

universities has very little in its power to do since the Ministry of

Education exerts much influence in key decisions.

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How the future will shape the private universities is a

matter of conjecture. The private universities, as much as they are

providing the necessary challenge to the state universities, will

not themselves be without challenge. This challenge will come

from two fronts at different times. Initially, it will come from

within the private university itself; it will have to be competitive

in attracting students to stay functional. For this the university

would offer attractive packages to students with considerable

compromise with academic standard. And, further down the

road, more genuine competition to excel other private universities

with academic programmes of high standard, and ability to

attract students from outside, may be necessary to stay in

business. About the latter, one cannot be sure at this time how

long it will take, because at present there are no indicators for this

since very few of our private university graduates are exposed to

international competition. Also, in future there may be

competition from the state universities as well, since despite many

shortcomings of the state universities, they still get the best talents

and some universities may rise to the expected level of excellence.

Obviously meeting these challenges would be less easy

than founding universities. At present very little is invested by

these universities in extra-academic infrastructure development,

and co-curricular and corporate activity, but these are integral

parts of a good education environment that cannot be left

neglected. There are divergent views on the relative thrust that a

university should place on imparting professional training to

students on the one hand and, making creative individuals to

enrich the reservoir of knowledge, on the other. A university has

to strike a balance between these two functions. The university

must be a place for free enquiry, and also be sensitive to societal

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obligations. Needless to say, the relative thrust will vary from

time to time, in tune with the changing socio-economic

circumstances, for which provision for necessary adjustments has

to be a part of any long-term strategic plan.

Fourteen

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Premises of New Vision

Four premises could be considered in drawing new vision

of our science and technology. These are, a composed approach

to the problem, appreciation of the Darwinian perspectives in our

context, nature and scope of scientific research, and science in a

climate of free enterprise.

SCIENCE CULTURE

As the Greeks in ancient times could not have lived

without the culture of free thinking, as people of the Middle Ages

could not ignore the church, and as the eighteenth century people

could not escape from the dominance of political thoughts in their

life, humankind today cannot imagine existence without science.

Science is creative work, expression of superior thoughts and

beliefs. Science is cultivated for survival, and becomes a part of

culture so as to maximise the benefits of science for society.

Without a culture value to science, the practice and purpose

would be greatly compromised. Understanding science is far

more important today than it was at any other time in the past,

because science can now change society much faster than at any

other time in history.

The mindset of our scientist needs to be tuned with the

realities of our life and society. As we approach the plateau in

population growth by the end of the century, we also face

monumental problems such as unprecedented population density,

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resource scarcity, high-level social entropy, and massive

poisoning of the environment. These would shape, on the one

hand, the social architecture of the population, and on the other,

the character of the physical environment. Poisoning of the

environment will be unique and rapid; be unique in terms of

pollution density affecting the entire nation, not only just the areas

around factories and industrial units. These are the edges of

limiting biology that cut through a massive population in the

nature’s unique playground of experimentation. An in-depth

understanding these facts would be an important element of our

science culture.

The quality of frank admission of lapses is not highly

expressed in our culture, but this not without historical reasons.

When the Abbasid caliphs moved their capital to Baghdad around

the 750s, the city of Baghdad developed as a centre of scholars

under the patronage of caliph Harun-ar-Rashid, and his

enlightened son Al-Mamun. The successors of the Abbasids – the

Fatimids and the Ottomans – also made significant contributions

to science and philosophy. The renowned Muslim mathematicians

Al-Battani and Al-Khwarizmi, flourished during this time. But the

Muslims of this subcontinent became victims of historical vices,

and fell back because of their geographical isolation. For this they

paid dearly in their creative endeavours in arts, architecture, and

in mathematics, the legacy of which persists in various forms.

Imagined glory and overt pessimism led to a psychological

confrontation that overshadowed important issues.

We suffered even more than other parts of the

subcontinent because of greater degree of isolation and

underdevelopment. The scientific community became dull and

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decimated, loosing objectivity. Few scientists are now willing to

think pragmatically about the impediments to science and

technology development in the country. An undesirable

consequence of this is rise of activism and fatalism.

Scientific activism flourishes in proportion to the negative

internal feedback from improper understanding of relevant

issues. The culture of awards, and the manner it is practised is

interesting. The value of awards declines in proportion to their

number. The decline in value is compensated for by the politics of

dispensation of these laurels. Today, even awards of some sort are

seen to be created, not only by the government but also by

autonomous bodies, social organisations, family trusts and

memorial funds, and by some international bodies that publish

poorly conceived yearbooks where the developing country

scientists are ‘selected’ for inclusion as the nation’s celebrity

scientist by a questionable body of experts and through a system

of evaluation that is equally questionable, often ridiculous.

However, the selected scientist is offered an attractive citation

parchment on payment of a couple of hundred dollars. Many

scientists acquire this, which they view as an award of merit, and

are frequently seen to make it news in local newspapers.

Science culture is built by adherence to the purpose of

science. In this highly specialised activity and only the highly

specialised individuals can contribute best to its development.

Activism, superfluity and verbosity would little serve the purpose

of science. The profile of science is one of tranquillity, not of

turbulence.

RECKONING DARWINIAN BIOLOGY

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As we stand in this fast changing world, helplessly at

times, we need not loose faith in destiny. Facts of biology are often

cruel, but the pace of biology is slow. Humankind will continue

live on this planet for quite a long time, despite cataclysmic

changes, many of our making. Global warming is not a fancy, but

a fact. We lift fossil fuel for our comfort, which was lying harmless

deep inside the earth, and burn it for our comfort. Every drop of

oil burnt produces heat, and we burn billions of barrels every day,

round the year, year after year. The amount of heat produced

must be dissipated as radiation. The earth does with amazing

efficiency. However, the efficiency of the heat dissipation process

is now declining due to increasing cover of gases emitted during

burning of fossil fuel, the so-called greenhouse gases, which

hinders radiation of heat. The quantity of reserve fossil fuel inside

the Earth is large, and its lifting is relatively inexpensive

compared to developing alternative sources of energy that would

do work efficiently, and safely. We will do this someday, but over

the intervening time, we are impatient. We want to do what is to

be done now, not tomorrow. And, this can only be done by

turning the harmless liquid into an ominous blanket of ruin.

Scholars of human social biology warn us about the

terrible consequences of rapid growth of the human population

on this planet. The human species has chosen a dangerous course

in procreation biology. All available resources of the planet are

used for two purposes. One is war, and the other is increasing the

number people to do the war. This seems to be the biological

wisdom of the human species that represents the bulk of the

human population. Procreation is favoured by biology, while

efforts to the contrary are social, and are less favoured by biology.

Biology at some stage would face competition, and many experts

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believe that population growth cannot continue in the present rate

for much longer. Examples from other species that now live on

this planet and those that are extinct, suggest that for the human

species, continued increase in numbers would result in

catastrophic collapse of the planet. Survival of the human species

in a tolerable state beyond the present century seems very

doubtful unless economies and religions of the world learn to take

account of some facts of biology. Tolerable state denotes a

plethora of conditions but increased number disproportionate to

wealth will inevitably cause increased social entropy, the

magnitude of which can only be reduced by more balanced

distribution of wealth. This is, however, a complex process and is

confounded by grouping of peoples along lines based on religion.

These lines are increasingly becoming thicker.

An appreciation of some facts of biology is particularly

important for us. Our population density is perhaps the highest

that any land mammal ever attained in the history of the planet.

Its pitfalls are many, but there may be some gains as well if we

can identify and exploit those potentially gainful areas with

prudence. Facts of biology would predict something very

dramatic for us. An example would be of interest. As noted

before, demographers predict that by the end of the century,

population growth curve will attain a plateau, as the effect of

population momentum would end, concurrent with fertility

decline. But it is possible, as trends that are now faintly

perceptible, that we may not see a very pronounced plateau. This

would happen if the institution of marriage ceases to be the

vehicle for controlled procreation of the human population at the

replacement level of fertility. The result will be a sudden

depression in the procreative potential of men and women

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causing a decline in the growth curve without a pronounced a

plateau. Darwinian biology predicts that population growth

cannot be independent of the complex interaction of three factor –

resource, food and competition. Transformation of the human

being into a human machine, stuck up in a technology web, seems

to be a definite possibility of the future. The human machine

admittedly will not need any family but only work, food, health

support and pleasure. All of these would be built-in components

within the technology web. Sadly, signs of such transformation

are becoming visible in many countries, in some countries at a

rather fast pace. In our country, the conditions for such

transformation do prevail, and we should take due note of the

possible changes that may come in the near future. If the

institution of family becomes socially irrelevant, a scenario of no

child or one child per family, and in many cases bypassing

marriage into a no-family-no-child route to a ‘happy’ life, may be

in the making. The high population density and a transit from

grinding poverty of a large a population may accelerate this

psyche and bring dramatic transformations.

Biology of existence predicts that extreme scarcity of land

would raise land prices to unprecedented levels, and laws

concerning government control on land would largely be the

writings on paper with little force of possession1. Rural land is

appreciating in price at a fast pace due to improved

communication and industrialisation. It would be increasingly

difficult to implement laws against illegal ownership of land.

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SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

The premise on which scientific vision should rest has

two aspects – one is science of production, and the other science

for knowledge. These two are admittedly related, but we should

understand the nature of this relationship and avoid confusion.

The science of production or applied science will admittedly be

the preoccupation of the vast majority of the professionals in

science. These will include a wide range of people – technicians,

technologists and working scientists in the laboratory. The

working scientists would make the scaffold of the R&D

institutions to which the end of the journey is the market, not from

test tube to conical flask. Hence, realistic planning is critical. If the

raw material for a technology is barely available in the country

now, then why one would plan a technology spanning over a time

frame of say 25 years, by which time the raw material will

inevitably become the limiting factor for viability of the

1. Mahmud, Wahiduddin. 2002. Bangladesh Economy: Performance, Prospects and Challenges. In ‘Bangladesh on the Threshold of the Twenty-First Century, Ed. A. M. Chowdhury and F. Alam, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh, pp. 598.

technology. Unfortunately, unrestrained zeal on the part of

scientists in R&D institutions and universities severely masks the

important distinction between the two levels of science. The

consequence is that often the wheel is repeatedly rediscovered.

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The knowledge-creation aspect of science is distinct from

science of production. The former flourishes in the highest seat of

learning that a nation can afford – the University. The universities

in Bangladesh unfortunately are not in good health at this time. In

this section some important issues are discussed on our university

education. This section might appear at places redundant; it

highlights certain imperatives that might bring changes for the

better.

Our vision of scientific research ought to be

pragmatic with respect to the level at which we fix our attention.

Our heritage of a scholarly past provides strong justification for

pursuit of excellence in scientific research. But in the present

circumstances our concern should be focused to certain important

national contingencies. Very high quality basic research in science

cannot be carried out in our universities and R&D institutions at

this time because of various constraints. The R&D institutions

may thus be developed as technology service centres open to the

market needs. The government may allow the R&D institutions to

undergo some sort of privatisation-transformation, that is, greater

freedom to interact with the private sector and a requirement for

income generation through this participation. The universities

may also continue with its emphasis on training professionals in

business and service sectors, skilled salespersons in specialised

disciplines of the biomedical sciences and agriculture, and large

population of lawyers. These do constitute important

contributions of the university, but these would loose significance

if the university neglects the vital purpose, that is, serving as

centre for cultivation of knowledge and attainment of excellence.

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But for basic research, special mechanism would be

required. Scientific research of fundamental nature must be of

high standard. As this type of research does not carry potential for

immediate application, it is usually disfavoured in many

countries except in countries where the economy is so dynamic

that it must be fed by high turnover of basic scientific information.

Creating new centres under the title centre of excellence is widely

favoured by our scientific community, but the issue is a serious

one and deserves penetrating debate. A better course perhaps

would be to enhance the capability of the existing institutions in

specific areas based on the strength of the institution and turn

them into centres of high quality scientific research.

If dedicated centres of excellence are to be created, ideally

some important contingencies should be defined. Firstly, they

should be created with highly focused mandate, not holistic

approach. Second, their number should be small. Third, these

should be fully funded. If the government is the sponsor then

these should be created by a special mechanism such as by an Act

of the Parliament, so that the funding is both sufficient, and more

importantly, sustained through the ripples and tremors of

political change. Fourth, the centre should be ‘internationalised’

with respect to its scientific programme and its administration.

That is, the centre would be advised by an international advisory

board to help with developing the scientific workplan of the

centre and provide policy guidelines for selection and evaluation

of its scientists. Such internationalisation is important but with

one important contingency. That is, the government must nearly

fully finance the centre for its core scientific and operational

activities. In other words, the financial control of the centre should

rest on the government, not on the international community.

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Some centres of excellence created along these lines are

well known – the International Centre for Theoretical Physics

(ICTP) in Trieste, Italy, the International Centre for Genetic

Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) in New Delhi, India, and

the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research

Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The first two are

the outcome of UN patronisation, but these are now pursuing

high quality research largely independent of UN funding. The

Trieste Centre specialises in research in the physical sciences,

mostly in theoretical physics and mathematics, while the New

Delhi centre focuses on biological science. Italy provides a large

share of funding for the Trieste centre, and India for the ICGEB.

The ICDDR,B was created by an Act of Parliament of Bangladesh,

and in its genesis and character in terms of funding, it is very

different from the other two institutions. While the major share of

funding for the Trieste and New Delhi centres come from the

respective governments, ICDDR,B is empowered by the Act to

freely receive funding from multilateral sources, a very significant

deviation from the former two. Its scientific programme being

entirely donor-driven, the centre has often drawn criticism to the

effect that it serves mostly the interest of the multinational

pharmaceutical companies.

The issue of funding of such high quality research centres

by the Bangladesh Government and a greater role of the

government in operation of the centre is very important. This

comes from lessons learnt from ICDDR,B. The ICDDR,B was

created by the government of Bangladesh as an international

centre for research but with authority to receive money from

external sources for the entire operation of the centre. With full

external funding that the centre had to secure made it necessary

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for the centre to tune its scientific programme with donor interest.

This gradually required the centre to orient itself towards product

development and product promotion type of work under the thin

disguise of scientific research.

In contrast, ICGEB is operated with financial support of

the government of India. It was created under the patronage of

the government of India, and was initially housed within a

national institute, the famous National Institute of Immunology

(NII). The government of India took the major financial

responsibility for the centre. The result was that its research

agenda were developed with full international participation of

high calibre scientists, while largely the Indian scientists led its

operation. The result was remarkable. The ICGEB was

independent of donor support and the scientific work done there

on plant genetic engineering is outstanding in quality and its

research agenda is relevant to the interest of the third world

countries.

Admittedly, the cost of maintaining such centres of

excellence would be high, many times more than that spent for

other research institutions of the country, but if excellence is the

issue there is no way to avoid the cost. We ought to appreciate

that maintaining a truly high standing centre of excellence is not

easy; even many rich countries cannot support such centres. If,

however, the focus is very sharp, it might be possible to mange

some centres with limited resources. The centre at Princeton

where Einstein worked was called Centre for Advanced Study,

which the university of Princeton operated. It was centre of

excellence and it was not created to be grand in style so that the

university could maintain from its own resources. As opposed to

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theoretical work in the physical sciences such as physics and

mathematics, experimental work in both physical and biological

sciences is so much more expensive that the cost of maintaining

even one centre of excellence would be high for us. The purpose

of a centre of excellence is to serve as a place for the best brains of

the nation to work freely and carry out fundamental research and

enrich the reservoir of human knowledge. A poor country thus

faces the difficult question as to whether our resources would

allow us to compete in these areas where only the giants tread.

Creating centres in some sort and in some manner is not

usually a difficult task in a situation of political activism; the

problem is with their operation. We have seen that creation of

such a centre in a particular discipline often sets the train on the

move, and soon other disciplines also want such centres. No

country in the world can hope to excel in all areas and the nation’s

think-tank cannot be therefore over-crowded. The expressions

‘centre of excellence’ and ‘think-tank’ when used in a blanket

fashion masks their true meaning.

Realistically, experimental science today has become so

heavily instrument-dependent and so fast moving that many top

scientists of the developing countries express strong pessimism

about the prospect creating and maintaining a truly high profile

centre of excellence by a developing country. In fact, our own

attempts in this respect have met with failure. Even India with a

much stronger S&T base could not make any significant headway

in basic research in science when measured in terms of scientific

papers published in the two most outstanding science journals of

the world, Nature published from UK and Science from the USA.

This is admittedly due to the fact that today’s science is heavily,

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although not of necessity, technology-dependent. Some scientists

think that it has been made so by industrialized countries because

they have unbeatable advantage at this time in technology. Over

the past few decades, there has been no single publication in

Nature reporting work carried out in the laboratories of the

developing countries, including India, the famous Indian scientist

….. Rao.

Many top scientists of India are inclined to tone down

highly competitive fundamental research in the experimental

sciences. Instead, they view that the creative talents in science in

the developing countries should rather be directed to areas where

the scope for theoretical work, not dependent on high technology,

is good, such as in mathematics and physics.

So, should we then attempt to do what is possibly out of

our reach to do in a reasonable manner at this time? Should we

spend money creating excellent research centres to house our

think-tank with little gain? This is a serious issue where scientists

with pragmatic view must come forward to create an objective

climate for frank debate. We must be prepared to do it someday

as pressure of global pressure would require us to do so.

FREE ENTERPRISE

The rising tide of free enterprise boosting the latent power

of individuals is a significant phenomenon, which should not be

lost from our vision. All revolutions, social and scientific, have a

specific pattern behind their genesis. Ideas bloom, the horizon of

knowledge widens, thoughts mature, but all remain in a lull and

disorderly state, until almost suddenly they assemble into a

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pattern that link them together – a paradigm shift thus takes

place, a revolution is born. The triumphant globalisation

phenomenon has been possible by many revolutionary leaps, one

of which is the communication technology.

Views on globalisation differ according to the place of

their origin. The view that generally comes from the poor

countries has understandably a dissenting tone. The poor

countries equate the system to a pattern of exploitation

camouflaged by the doctrines that serve few a few at the cost of

misery to the vast majority. To them, it usually means

disproportionate accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few

with power to dominate over the world. This accumulation is

achieved by the support of global financial and social institutions,

created and operated by the rich countries of the world at the

expense of the labour of the poor. Labour in its various levels of

skill and value addition capability, are abundant in the

developing countries, which is exploited with little attention given

to preserving their land and environment from pollution. But

destruction of the environment is forced upon the poor countries

as the rich countries want to keep their land, air and water free

from this menace and thus prefer to relocate their industrial,

manufacturing and agricultural activities to the poor countries.

The poor countries cannot resist this because resistance would

mean starvation and death for them and their children.

The other view of globalisation, which is favoured by the

rich countries, is that globalisation is a rational path to progress.

The progress is seen to be achieved through free trade, integration

of the world economies, exploiting the relative advantage of

countries for common good for the vast majority, faster

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communication, economic and cultural reforms, dissemination of

knowledge, enhanced mobility of labour and capital, and finally

increased competition that would together turn the wheels of the

system in a synergistic manner to bring benefit to the poor.

The debate on globalisation, which is always charged

with a blend of reason and passion, is not likely to fade. But quite

independent of these controversies, one can see that the free

enterprise system is based on a strong biological attribute that is

universal in the living world – that is, innate love for self. It is a

social force that emanates from the very core of the individual’s

conscious existence. A human being would do the utmost under

the right circumstances to protect and preserve the individual

interest. All productive and creative potentials would be directed

towards its fulfilment, while some parts of these would be

directed towards more noble causes such as helping others after

self interest has been tamed to some degree. A complex functional

framework could develop through the blending of individualism

and interdependence that would under a correct operational

frame, might bring the intended results, the common good.

Impact of these changes in the contexts of Bangladesh

would be vast, and painful. Level of social entropy will rise as

good education will be increasingly difficult to provide, and

values will plunge. Corruption in its most perverse form will

reign supreme in society, making the rule of law its worst

casualty. When everybody breaks the law at every possible

opportunity, and the law enforcing agents themselves commit the

offence that they are supposed to prevent, the society has to take

serious stock of the situation, if a transit to barbarism is to be

avoided.

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Here a shift in our mental orientation would be necessary

to understand the issue in our context. Indeed, there has be major

shift in strategy of feeding the world’s nearly one-tenth of a

trillion people that will live on this landmass that comprises

Bangladesh by the end of the century. Free market will bring

major shifts in world agriculture due to need and convenience.

Agriculture is land-dependent; a resource, which is fast depleting

in some parts of the world due to large number of people, while

in some countries it is still abundant, and gains in potential value

with every passing day. These areas will be the feeder of the

future human population of the planet, while land constrained

parts of the world will be the makers of things, large and small, by

employing the skills of hands and working by a new version of

the clock that does not recognize day and night as a valid

compartmentalization the time. Bangladesh is fast turning into a

manufacturing country producing goods and trading with these

goods to create the wealth necessary for survival. Industrialised

countries will relocate their technology in Bangladesh at a faster

pace as outsourcing prospects gradually improve in the country.

All of these would present us with a scenario that is difficult to

fully comprehend at this time, but we should be ready to pluck

the good that it might offer.

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Fifteen

Beyond the Fading Horizon

Doomsday predictions, and fading into fatalism are easy.

One might have seen a fair share of the doomsday scenario in the

preceding sections. But beyond a dark, dismal and dreary night

there is a good morning in waiting. We must hope that it would

be bright. Whatever shades of gloom may have overcast the

horizon of our science and technology, however intimidating the

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crosscurrents are in the vast expanse of the problems, we have to

assure ourselves that there are ways to navigate through the

turbulence.

We are in the middle of a distinctive socio-biological

transition whose genesis lies on certain important elements such

as large population, high population density and low material

resource base. The large population is a resource, but it is at this

time under great stress. The consequences of stress are many.

Social scientists do recognise this phenomenon, which is

manifested as uncontrollable and often inexplicable disarray in

social order. Under these circumstances, certain instinctive

weaknesses in human nature would surface to further add to the

chaos. These weaknesses are transient and potentially correctible.

We have to do our part to make that happen.

Intense discussions on the maladies, and lengthy

prescriptions for cure have been a luxury that we have long

indulged in for long with little impunity. Perhaps focused

thinking and clear vision can no more be evaded without risking

penalty. Lying beyond the fading horizon of science and

technology and the veil of decadence is hope for a better future.

No people, and no species of living organisms can easily perish

because the biological equation that governs the existence and

evolution of life on this planet does not usually allow such

catastrophic outcome. The demise of a species occurs through the

slow process of organic evolution. Sudden destruction of a species

is an extremely rare event and has happened in the planet’s

history only a few times. We will continue to live, and rise with

dignity obviously with an intervening lag period the length of

which would be inversely proportional to the sharpness of our

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vision and the depth of our ingenuity with which we approach

the coming days.

The three important issues closely connected with

rejuvenation of nation’s science and technology profiles are

research at the universities, the strategic route to S&T planning,

and private sector participation.

THE CAMPUS

No nation can survive with dignity without the capital of

knowledge, knowledge to help make things by joining the bits

and pieces together, and knowledge to create the bits and pieces

themselves with increasing levels of sophistication. Together these

two facets of knowledge comprise the nation’s science and

technology platform, and no nation today can afford to neglect the

pulpit of science and technology development, the university.

Research to create new knowledge is the basic purpose of

the university, which must of course go together with the other

important purpose, that is, training professionals. Research is the

only tool for creation of new knowledge in all disciplines of

human inquiry – science, humanities, liberal arts, and social

sciences. Teaching is certainly an essential function of the

university, but research creates the intellectual podium on which

the foundation of successful teaching rests. In our universities,

unfortunately, research has been worst victim of the changes that

swept nation over the last few decades. Unless the university is

able to create knowledge, which can only be achieved through

research, it cannot deliver any good to the nation. It should be

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recognised that that research is the pulpit on which creativity

rests.

However, basic research is expensive as it has to be

internationally competitive and one has to maintain very high

standard matching with the advanced countries of the world.

Clearly, this will not be possible for us now as the universities

where the bulk of the basic research ought to be done are

inadequately prepared for the work due to a variety of

circumstances. The universities are poorly funded, and they have

to support a large teaching staff and a student population that

contributes little to the cost of the highest education received at

the university. This situation worsens with time as new

universities are created with little resource support.

But for high quality scientific research, high-level

financial support is essential. Thus, if the government considers

any raise in the level of financial support, the question will not be

raise by certain percentage of the present level of support, it

would be several times the present level if the work is meant to be

done properly. Understandably, the government is reluctant to do

it because the path to such a serious undertaking is not clear. So a

state of inertia prevails in fear of costly mistakes. Financial

support to selected disciplines and selected institutions would not

be an easy task either because the government does not have any

mechanism by which the selection could be done without creating

commotion.

A nation’s science ate technology planning has to consider

several aspects. Three are of particular importance. First, defining

the university’s role in S&T in very specific terms; second, clearly

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developing the strategy of S&T development, and third, linking

S&T with R&D in the context of private sector participation. These

issues are by themselves important individually, but in the

context of S&T these should be considered together and,

integrated into a complex where each would largely loose

individual identity but will be interdependent and feed one

another. The greater is the degree of interdependence, the greater

will the complex function efficiently and the faster will be wheel

of S&T turn along the critical path of productivity.

One possible approach to overcome this difficulty might

be to create a blend in which basic research would be linked with

technology development. That is, government funding for basic

research would be contingent upon the technology part being able

to draw private sector interest and R&D funding from the private

sector and external sources. The elements of such a scheme that

might produce fruits would be: research area to be highly

selective, scientific merit of the project critically determined, and a

mechanism of matching grant by the government to successful

projects that draw funding from other sources.

The problems of the university cannot be corrected as fast

as they were created. Government funding of research projects

based on a mechanism of matching grant in amounts several

times higher than what would be obtained from other sources

would automatically create a condition where grant applications

and the sponsoring institutions would face a selection pressure.

This pressure has to be matched by the scientific merit of the

project. The project would be subjected to incisive review by

internal and, if possible, external sources. As such research grants

would be mostly awarded to the universities, it should also be a

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condition that the project carries a high quality Ph.D. degree

component. Each Ph.D. student would receive a stipend

equivalent to the salary and benefits that an Assistant Professor

receives at entry. Also, it would be necessary to select scientists

with talent and scholarly aptitude. These two qualities must go

together, one without the other will not produce any good.

Individuals with these qualities are to be found out through

search, as it is done in universities abroad since people with

qualities people are rather unskilled in exhibiting themselves.

In general, tertiary education, university education in

particular, is a victim of catastrophic confusion due to lack of

defined path and realistic purpose. The institutions exist because

their existence is easier than demise. The issue of academic

standard in the university education has almost disappeared

under the thick smoke of politics in public universities, and profit

motives in private universities. The resulting ills that are

corroding the foundations of the universities are often discussed

freely with some sense of guilt but no serious desire for change. A

total of 23 public universities now exist of which 16 are said to be

actively operating with total number of students in excess of

100,000 and teachers totalling 5000, on a yearly operating budget

of about Tk 500 crores, an amount is just one-tenth of what we

earn by stitching garments.

The private universities offer a measure of competition to

the state universities in terms of politics-free environment, lack of

session jam, and generally qualified teachers recruited on part-

time employment mostly from public universities. But unlike the

state-run universities, which are fully subsidised by the

government, the private universities operate on a cost-recovery

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basis, and select for the relatively affluent section of the society.

Worries are aired about quality of education in many private

universities, but the drive to creating new private universities also

continues.

At present basic research in private universities cannot be

expected to any significant extent. But some private universities

may undertake technology-oriented programmes, and collaborate

with the state universities in joint Ph.D. work that would open

opportunities for some basic research under the umbrella of

technology-oriented programmes.

Slimming the campuses of the state-run universities is of

utmost importance now. Without this no recovery would be

possible. Reduction implies two things – first, cessation of increase

in enrolment, and then lowering enrolment in phases. These have

to be done by raising the eligibility for admission. University will

make the selection for entry only from the best 10 of the 100

‘eligible’ students. There is no justification for putting students

with 95% marks and those with 50% marks together in the same

basket and roll them together in the same admission test. Quality

university education would require 1% GDP to be spent to

university education in such a manner that the best 10% of our

young talents get the most benefit from this significant amount of

investment. This would raise standard of university education,

and at the same time, a pressure will be created to divert our

youths to technical education, a pressure that does not exist now

due to easy entry procedures in the public universities. Easy entry

into the public universities discourages creation of technical

institutions in the private sector. The fear of the private sector is

that after the universities have blotted up the top tiers of students

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through a relaxed system of admission, all that they can hope to

get for their institutions are the mediocre students. Restricting

university entry to only the outstanding students would channel

the next best tiers of students to technical education. This shift is

important, but as long as a populist tone prevails in university

enrolment this would be difficult to achieve.

We are passing through difficult times in a world in

transition to globalisation. Many universities in the advanced

countries are also facing problems. In recent times, a definite shift

in the operational strategy of the university due largely to societal

changes can be seen. Today expressions such as ‘university in

business’ are not just passing phrases, but they do cast reflections

on realities all over the world. Many universities in the

industrialised countries today face severe fund constraints

because the government and the people see little value in

‘disinterested science’— the science for the sake of knowledge

with no relevance to practical needs. Since in most countries it is

the taxpayer who runs the university, they want some value for

their money in return. In order to raise funds many top

universities are seen to open up campuses in developing countries

that are in effect study centres. Many top universities worldwide

are having to reorient their programs towards applied research

with such force that has not been seen in the past. Admittedly, as

the issue is one of survival rather than choice, the journey is

bound to be painful. Very old centres of learning in the western

world have fallen victims of these shifting crosscurrents, and

despite debate on the imperatives of these changes, there is

general agreement that in the present circumstances, there is no

easy way out to circumvent the adverse effects of the painful

phase of academic-business transition.

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S&T FROM THE REVERSE

We have fallen into a web of confusion about scientific

research, S&T and R&D. If we appreciate that the goal of S&T is to

facilitate socio-economic development and the wealth building

process of the nation then we may ask the question, what is the

most important wealth-building tool available to us at this time?

The question has been addressed in different perspectives at

different times. At present, certain things ought to be clearly

understood by us. The days of agriculture, the generous gift of the

fertile delta, are perhaps gone because of highly unfavourable

man to land ratio. It is not difficult to see that the country will be

rapidly transformed into a manufacturing country, with industrial

units set up all over the country. The vibrant manufacturing

sector would obviously produce goods of modest value and our

people will be turned into low cost an industrial production force.

This scenario is real; other people would need our labour for the

things they need for their comfort. In this business, we have to

successfully compete with other countries.

This brings us to an important imperative. The fact that

technical skill creation at various levels in the value addition

ladder is essential is no more a question for debate, the question is

how fast we can do it, and in which way?

The idea of turning our people into a high output labour

force may not match with our mindset. But many countries have

benefited from this in various ways. The example of Japan is

illuminating. Analysts are of the opinion that after the World War

I, Japan had no other way but to learn the art of copying – that is,

to make things with small changes in the process technology and

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adding enhanced technical improvements. This Japan did with

superb skill, initially in industries such as chemicals and

electronics, and later in many other areas. Today Japan is a skilled

copy-making nation and provides a superb example of

transformation of skill to very high value. This is Japan’s wealth

today; this is likely to be the basis for wealth creation in many

other countries of the world where land and other resources are

limited. This is also the path where we do have an advantage and

where we might indeed excel.

Creation of technical skill should thus be the most

important thrust area in S&T planning. But it must not be just

skill creation with no defined purpose and divorced from the

global contexts. In the past, our S&T plans lacked this focus; it was

largely an exercise of lofty intentions and flambuoyant ideas.

But how should we approach the matter of skill creation?

This is a difficult issue because ideally it ought to involve

partitioning of nation’s resources to both basic research, and

applied research. Basic research is the progenitor of technology,

but our advantage in basic research is limited at this time. So we

might look at technology development from a different angle.

Instead of debating on the relative value of basic and applied

research we should instead concentrate our efforts to developing

technical skill in areas of our advantage rapidly. Time available to

us is short as the world is changing very fast so that what took a

decade to happen, now happens in months.

It would be illuminating to look into how the most

advanced country of the world, the USA, started its science and

technology development after they settled in the New World.

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History is quite clear on this matter. The Mayflower carried a

human cargo of the most enterprising type of people. These

people were the products of the conservative climate of Europe,

but in the New World they found the taste of new freedom, which

they blended with the vitality of the European Renaissance in

science. The early settlers found vast quantities of wealth in the

New World – land, forest, and minerals – and to these resources

they applied the scientific knowledge that they brought from

Europe. The blend was magical. It was possible due to one

critically important element in their work. They put all their

efforts to applied science, instead of basic research. They directly

went into developing technology and making inventions.

Historians believe there was perhaps expediency in this course of

action. It resulted in a spate of inventions of practical value. The

heyday of Yankee toolmakers produced automatic reapers,

railroads and telegraph. One could say that machines were almost

engraved into the American spirit. The American inventors

brought miracles in solving technical problems, in developing a

better electric bulb or a batter car engine. But in fundamental

research where one does not know what he is actually looking for

until he stumbles upon a problem, the American spirit was less

perceptible.

The great scientific revolutions in Europe spanning over

several centuries produced giants – Aristotle, Euclid, Galileo,

Newton, Darwin, Mendel, Faraday, Bohr, and Einstein. The early

settlers of the New World could not imagine to match with these

giants; they stand in silent admiration of the intellectual

supremacy of Europe in fundamental science but themselves

decided to apply the European science to bring the best that their

new wealth offered. For them thus the path was evidently simple.

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It was to ride on the shoulders of European giants in order to

make things of practical value.

As a culture of inventions developed, so did develop a

culture of trading with skills. This led to protecting inventions as

intellectual property. A patent law was passed in 1834 and a

remarkable lineage of inventors and practical scientists grew over

the years – Franklin Roosevelt, Joseph Henry, Nathaniel

Bowditch, Simon Newcomb, Benjamin Silliman, Asa Gray,

Willard Gibbs, Thomas Edison, and George Eastman. The list

grew with names like Millikan, Langmuir and Oppenheimer in

physics, Morgan and Muller in genetics, Hale, Boade, Hubble and

Shapley in astrophysics. Wealth grew in parallel. Henry Adams

who is noted for his Law of Acceleration commented about the

Americans of the future, the “child of incalculable coal power,

chemical power and radiating energy………a sort of God compared to

any former creature of nature”.

Inventions led to development of marketable products,

factories were readily made to produce them in bulk, and skilled

salespeople were handy to sell the products for profit. The

nation’s indigenous natural resources were sufficient to support

initial growth of trade and wealth, but soon trade spread its wings

outside, and a far robust wealth-building process began. America

was destined to be the master of magnifying wealth with technical

skill unmatched in human history.

At this point they turned to basic research. Part of the vast

wealth that inventions brought for the nation were then put to

disinterested use, such as pursuit curiosity-driven science as

opposed to production-oriented science, and thus began the era of

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basic research in America. Much of the idle wealth that the nation

had created over the decades went into establishment of private

universities and these became the centres of excellence in basic

research, and also the powerhouse of applied knowledge to cater

to the needs of markets of the world.

Early settlers saw the vast land as their best asset.

Creating institutions of higher education such as colleges and

universities did not receive serious attention until after the civil

war. Higher education in America during the early decades after

the American Revolution had its own aberrations. The Americans

created during this period hundreds of colleges in imitation of the

European traditions but without vision and purpose. These

institutions were created as a founding-mania, that is, creating the

institutions became an act for which no justification was asked. As

such they died as fast as they were born.

At this point of time a gentleman by the name Jonathan

Baldwin Turner came forward with a new vision and proposed

creation of colleges with focus on agriculture to prepare farmers

in their work. The colleges were conceived embodying the

aristocratic tone of Oxford and Cambridge. Later, the Morrill Act

signed in 1862 by President Abraham Lincoln provided land

grants to states for colleges. All western states used this incentive

to rapidly develop agricultural science and technology. The

preponderance of talented scientists in agricultural sciences in the

USA until the middle of the twentieth century owes much to this

Act. It was agricultural science that produced the brightest

scientists of the in America for the better part of the twentieth

century.

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Slowly, the next logical stage was set in motion.

Communities, religious denominations and private individuals

came forward with their wealth in founding institutions of higher

learning that included Vassar, Stanely, Carnegie, and Rockefeller.

They gave their fortunes for the colleges and universities of

America. The institutions that were founded at this time grew in a

different political climate. They valued the democratic traditions

of America, and developed on the belief that free competition is

the proper route to economic development. Many of these

institutions turned into excellent centres of learning creating both

basic knowledge and knowledge with potentials for application.

Today these events now show to the world the strength of

democracy and market competition even in sublime matters such

as intellectual pursuit. The share of famous prizes in science that

are now won in large numbers by the Americans is due to this

blend of basic science and its application. This perhaps is the

secret of American success today in science and technology.

Skill creation draws upon an important responsibility on

the part of the scientists. The scientist must choose a small number

of skills and push these through with sufficient force so that he

stays ahead of the skill, not fall back. Skill of value emerges fast,

and also disappears fast. If we take a long time to act on the skills

created, we would risk leaving the skills behind as irrelevant. The

world would not wait for us. Three technologies in recent years

have dramatically influenced human thinking – biotechnology,

information technology and lately, nanotechnology. Only a very

small number of developing countries have so far benefited from

these technologies, particularly from biotechnology and

information technology. For the vast majority of the developing

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countries of Asia, South America and Africa and even countries

with their economies in transition, these technologies have only

served as feel good factors. That is, these technologies were

accepted within the academia and the research institutions as

representing high profile intellectual activities. This obviously had

been done in the hope that some good might eventually be

brought to the society, but by and large these were seen more as

technology lustre than anything of practical value.

We did resort to this route as well, and like many other

developing countries we also have failed so far to reap any

significant benefits from biotechnology and information

technology. The failure in these sectors is not due to any lack of

talent, but for some very unfortunate circumstances of history that

lead to our weak background in the basic sciences. This

inadequacy would also influence our scores in the widely

discussed nanotechnology, a new emerging technology in which

machines operate at scales of a billionth of a meter, a nanometre.

The technology would use nanoparticles, nanotubes, etc. to make

machines that would use microscopic moving parts similar to

molecular motors or machines found inside the living cells.

Indeed, nanotechnology draws its moving force from the living

system, and the technology would primarily be used in the living

systems.

Today there is evidence that a ‘decoupling’ of energy and

progress is in the making. Progress is a complex phenomenon that

cannot be easily defined but most of us would like to think of it in

terms of economic progress. The Law of Acceleration, which may

be symbolised as a function of energy use, predicts that within the

next couple of decades progress would come to an end, when the

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line depicting progress would show a bizarre property – it would

rise independent of the time axis, perhaps suggesting the

decoupling.

It took the humankind much energy, and many years to

come to the present age of computers. Today, an entire library’s

content of printed materials can be stored in small computers. If

this is done and the library is kept in the Internet, there will be

huge savings on the quantity of paper and everything that goes

into the printing process including human energy. Work, defined

as displacement of a certain mass to a certain distance overcoming

a certain force of gravitation, requires a certain quantity of energy.

Movement of goods across the globe requires huge energy to

operate vehicles, move ships and fly planes. It follows that if the

need for physical movement were reduced, much energy would

be saved. Computer technology could reduce the necessity of

physical movement of matter to a great extent without hindering

progress, adding further to anticipated decoupling of energy and

progress. Nanotechnology would come to influence this energy-

work equation quite significantly, but in which way it is going to

do so and in which way it is going to affect us is not clear at this

time. Nanotechnology might bring remarkable changes for the

society – energy on one hand, and progress on the other, may be

less interdependent, producing a human society that is not easy to

imagine.

Much of the energy of our body is the result of efficient

molecular machines operating at nanometre scale within the cell.

The cells of an individual take the necessary ingredients for its

functioning from the environment, they grow and differentiate

and give the individual energy to do the work. How efficient is

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this matter-energy conversion process in the human body is not

easy to determine, but in our large human population we do have

an advantage in it at this time. The human brain needs relatively

little energy for its own operation, but the brain causes huge

amounts of work that the body carries out in the lifetime, a porter

does more work than, for instance, a Victorian aristocrat in their

respective life spans. But to keep the body in the manner it is over

a time span of say 70 years the amount of total matter-energy

expenditure may be similar for both.

So we have to rapidly acquire skills in fingertip

technologies such as computer technology, information

technology, and nanotechnology. Development of these skills

should be the thrust of the nation’s S&T program for the

foreseeable future. This should be carried out through targeted

funding and strong political will. This would be a difficult

undertaking, as it would require austerity in basic research. This

targeted funding of science in specific areas would have to be

achieved at the expense of the alternative route to scientific

education favoured by some, and driven by the notion that to get

the best results from science for society, it is essential that

scientific thinking is cultivated among all citizens.

The issue before us is how to do the targeted S&T

development and how much the government should involve itself

in the matter and how much of it should be left to the private

sector. The issue is difficult, and it should be carefully studied –

the sectors of skill development should be identified, and our

capacity determined taking into consideration the very important

question of time factor. The rapidity with which we develop the

skill must match with the market dynamics. Would the

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government be in a position to better assess the matter than the

people who are in actual work in the sector – that is, the private

sector? Given the manifold problems in governance at the

backdrop of high-level social entropy, which is gaining in strength

day by day, it is perhaps worthwhile to leave it to the private

sector and allow its development in successive steps of increased

sophistication of skill and increased value additions in the

quickest possible time.

PRIVATE SECTOR S&T

Separation of science from technology is considered by

many to be an effective way to targeted thrust creation. We speak

about thrust sectors, but have not yet considered this issue

seriously. This separation if prudently introduced would create

conditions for dedicated private sector to participate in the

technology sector. In many countries of the world this route has

been pursued with good results. Thus, the question deserves

renewed consideration by us for participation of the private sector

in technology development. This is not to be achieved through

undue negligence to basic scientific research, which would under

a different purview and would work better at this time in blend

with technology as mentioned.

We do not have any experience of technology

development exercise outside the state run institutions. The

working relationship between institutions of basic research such

as the universities, and the industry, is still incipient. It is perhaps

unrealistic to think that under the prevailing circumstances – that

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is, a highly over-burdened government structure with too many

people to do too little available work, scarcity of resources, lack of

any social security net, low motivation, and high level of

corruption – it would be possible to develop that aspect fast. It

would certainly be developed in due course, but for the present

we cannot neglect the time factor.

If we agree that technical skill creation in areas of our

relative advantage is the proper route to wealth creation for us at

the present time, then we should give topmost priority to this in

our agenda for action. We should immediately look for ways with

courage and conviction about how to do it? Is it worthwhile to

make investments in improving the existing R&D institutions for

the intended technology leap? Perhaps not, as in the past such

efforts had been made but with little success. This is due to

incoherence in scientific perceptions on the part of the research

institutions, needs of the R&D institutions, and courage of the

entrepreneurs. There is no easy way to remove this imbalance

quickly, but for speed of action is critical as the present becomes

past today much faster than it happened at any other time in

human history. This contingency is overwhelmingly real, and it is

of utmost importance for us to take due note of it.

While we look into our future, we ought to also focus on

our strength. Our strength lies in labour, in skills of increasing

value continually replenished by ingenuity of science and

technology. This reality must not be lost from our vision. Land-

based biologicals production such as crop, livestock, fisheries,

cannot be sustained and thus cannot create the necessary wealth

for us. In all of our agricultural biotechnology efforts we ought to

take serious note of this contingency. The prospects are very real

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that all innovative agricultural products might be available form

external markets at a price considerably less than our production

cost. Agricultural activities, however, are to be maintained at a

certain level over the foreseeable future but that in very different

contexts such as alleviation of grinding poverty. Our efforts

towards self-sufficiency in food for the projected 300 million

people have to be directed with vigour as long as the capacity of

the land supports the activity.

Many factors including problems of governance would

favour S&T development to be encouraged in the private sector.

The private sector participation in the S&T may also include the

tertiary education institutions such as the universities. Many

people would think, not without justification, that the government

has become far too large to effectively manage itself under the

many challenging constraints. Nature limits size of things before

the size turns disastrous, and this includes size of both individual

organisms and social organisations. The government is an

organism; its size would attain a limit before working efficiency

would be optimised. Inefficiency is the progenitor of corruption,

and corruption assumes its worst face when the inefficiency

blends with the constraints of resource scarcity, and the biological

contingency of population density. Private sector option in

technology would thus be a worthwhile experiment for us to

undertake as most other avenues have failed to give us good

results. But for this a sound policy frame would be critical.

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Sixteen

Concluding Words

Humankind appears to be in a crisis, an emerging crisis of

intellectualism. Vast amounts of human energy are now

channelled to establish participation of the human population in a

‘singular global production process’ called globalisation. As a

people, we have to understand where our place is in this complex

process. Science and technology in Bangladesh does not rest on

firm grounds at this time. We have to rise and reckon the

changing world in correct perspectives, and make the necessary

adjustments in our thoughts and deeds. For a long time, we have

viewed our science and technology with a degree of superfluity

and complacence. This actually belies our strength. Cocksure

certainties based on faulty notions and extraneous ideas have led

us over the years almost to the brink of chaos. The harm done is

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great, but it will be fatal if we now fail to appreciate the emerging

realities, realities that we have unduly ignored in the past. This

realisation is far more important for us now than it was ever

before, and the time in our hand is short.

We have talents – scientists, theorists, visionaries,

pragmatists, philosophers, and activists – to whom important

matter cannot remain in oblivion for long. Humankind must have

hope in the future. This hope must be held high despite many

odds that confront us today, the facts that fundamental

discoveries in science are no more forthcoming, and that human

progress is possibly coming to an end. Human knowledge has

many limitations; it cannot provide any solution to the deeper

questions of human existence, and neither to the simpler

questions of survival in a tolerable state. A tone of sadness and

regret for all the human failings, a subdued rebellion, and indeed

an implicit call for celebrations of the fragmented human self, are

now important themes in modern philosophical discourses. These

are in effect efforts to counter the confusions.

Our cultural heritage should offer us a shield to survive

through this turbulent time. This heritage is based on facts of

history. We possess a culture of asking questions, a culture of

assigning value to freedom, and a culture of courting sacrifice for

superior attainments. The culture of working without questioning

may be productive, but cannot be intellectually stimulating. In

Japan1, China and many developing countries of Asia, asking

questions is regarded as an aberrant behaviour. In the continent of

Africa, many countries are just emerging from the shield of

protracted isolation. Productive human interactions in Latin

America have been impeded by the vastness of the country and

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small population. Our history bears superior antecedents

reflecting the virtues of faith and courage, which we should

nourish with pride. In the chaos of a lawless society where

unfortunately we live today, the path for the scientist would be

tortuous, and remedies difficult.

1. Yamada, H. 1990. Breaking the Mould. In: The Discipline of Curiosity. Eds J.

Groen, E. Smit and J. Eijsvoogel. Elsevier Science Publishers, Amsterdam.

PROTOTYPE S&T

The talented people of the nation – scientists, planners

and visionaries – have to rise to a solemn call, a call for analysis of

our issues in our way and with our wisdom, dispassionately and

pragmatically, with courage and dedication. The call should not

be one of flambuoyant ideas or high-tone ideals, but one that

should address simple questions analysed in correct contexts

using the best tools available, and as incisively as possible.

It is important that we address long-term issues as

seriously as we address short-term planning. These need not

militate against one another. The two processes are different in

character, the latter requiring more analytical inputs for its

development. It is the responsibility of the intellectual class to

bring into focus the special attributes of the long-term issues in

the planning process.

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Long-term exercises are not trivial as some might like to

think. In fact these often determine the effectiveness of short-term

work. As such these must not be neglected on the passing premise

that since long-term issues are inherently unpredictable, they

deserve little merit for serious attention. Such an attitude is

detrimental and must be effectively countered. In this matter, the

scientists have an important role to play. That role is one of

creating awareness about the realities in which we might have to

live fifty or a hundred years from now, and for that what should

be the course of our action. Perhaps, short-term planners believe

that the course would be self-driven, drawing on the leads

obtained from the short-term exercises, but this is a mistake.

Apathy to long-term planning is perhaps an endemic ailment

widely prevalent in many sections of the society in many

developing countries of the world. The scientists ought to rise and

address the issue from balanced perspectives.

An important exercise that we might consider to

undertake would be to obtain as accurately as possible values for

the most critical parameters pertaining to development. For

instance, search for possible scenarios in various socio-economic

sectors fifty years from now, when the population would stabilise

at twice its present level, at over a quarter of a billion individuals.

With this population-doubling in view, we could develop models

adjusting the variables, to create possible scenarios that could be

helpful in appropriate course of action. If we can do it well it

would produce a computer game approach that all could play

some for fun, some to learn. This sort of approach would help us

to know ourselves better, and might eventually become a good

operating system for us in all matters of interest. In a globalised

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world not knowing others might be hazardous, not knowing self

would be catastrophic.

The critical support that this approach would require is a

strong science and technology policy. The present policy has to be

re-written to remove the many of the inadequacies it contains and

to infuse a more pragmatic tone into it. Above all, law must back

the policy; the policy must have the Parliamentary mandate. It

must not be just one of over a dozen national policies that have

been written for various sectors with much zeal, but little vision,

and have been given the seal of approval by the cabinet. Such

policies do not indicate serious business, as the issues cannot be

put to legal test as to compliance because these are not enacted by

the Parliament.

The challenge of accurate calculation in a long-term

perspective has to be admitted by all. Could we project, for

instance, what will be the density, type and distribution of

industrial units in the country fifty years from now? How much

agricultural land would we loose to industrialisation, and at what

rate? After the population stabilises at 300 million, how much

land will be land will be available for tillage after maximal

reclamation of marginal lands? How best we can raise the vertical

productivity of the land? This issue has now three dimensions –

yield, per unit time, per unit land area? What should be our best

route to land saving for its maximal utilisation in economic

activity, from pollution and non-economic activities? Can we

grow the required quantity of cereals to feed 300 million people

the maximal levels of management inputs on the available land?

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Many of these questions can be precisely answered. If we

have the accurate answers to these questions, our development

strategy would be one; if not, it would be lead us in wrong

directions. Our strategy should be based on things that we can do

with some effort, and we should be able to see clearly what we

cannot do even with maximal effort. That is, biological realism

pertaining to pressure of a huge population on small a landmass

ought to be critically evaluated. We cannot stop loss of land to

human settlement, we can only try to minimise it. We cannot force

trees to grow under the shade of other trees, we can only grow

plants in a planned manner to maximise growth of all plants and

not raise a population of sick trees in huge numbers. We cannot,

for instance, stop the natural process of filling of the haors by

humus build-up resulting from high-level organic matter

accumulation from surrounding areas of high-level human

population activities, we should only realistically plan for the best

use of the raised wetland, and not expend resources to keep them

as wet as some of us may wish. That is common-sense biology!

In the wide panorama of the nation’s socio economic

activities, the S&T sector is really quite small. Indeed most people

outside the scientific community are quite indifferent about S&T.

Economic indicators such as rise in GDP, decline in infant

mortality, falling birth rate, poverty reduction etc., would

increasingly show better performance even in an atmosphere of

relative stagnancy in S&T activities. We may not resist rock

culture, we may not stop cultural reforms along the lines of the

West, but these will not destroy our language and our culture.

Culture is heavy and needs strong force to dislodge.

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Many would look at S&T efforts with a dull eye as they

see little hope to benefit from this in the near future. But this is

completely wrong. This perception of S&T is potentially very

damaging for the nation, and it is where the scientists must come

forward with a means to link S&T with the crosscurrents of the

market. It is not a passing issue, the scientists must produce

gadgets of comfort for the common people, and at the same time

pursue pure knowledge, as without this a sustained level of

comfort would be difficult to ensure. That S&T has so far given

little to the people is not the fault of S&T, the fault was with our

method of pursuing S&T.

In an open world, there will be progress in some mode

and manner in all countries of the world. With a pragmatic S&T

workplan in the process, the progress will be of tone, without it

would be of quite a different tone. Our S&T vision must resonate

with global socio-economic panorama. Our focus must be sharp.

Today many of us, scientists included, talk about Bangladesh

turning into a manufacturing country, but do we clearly

understand what exactly this transformation entails?

Manufacturing in a setting of no raw material would be a labour-

intensive affair where S&T ought to answer to some key questions

clearly so as to maximise the value of labour through input of S&T

skills.

SEPARATE SCIENCE POLICY

Here we have to address the important issue separating

science from technology. Should we have a policy adorned with

the sublime view of science, or we should formally separate

science from technology? The separation of basic science and

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applied science need not be based on any intrinsic distinctiveness

of the two, but as an operational convenience. Should we consider

two science policies, one for basic science and one for applied

science?

Our experience from the past suggests that blending of

science with technology, or of basic science with applied science

has added to confusion at the cost of focus. We do hear now a

days some scientists talking about focus, but with little

appreciation of the underlying basis. Applied science must have

three elements – target, time, and trade-value of the product – the

triple T recipe. The target of the work should be precisely

defined, it should be reached in the shortest possible time, and the

effort ought to result in a tradable product. Most of the research

laboratories in the country should orient their work along these

lines, and these elements must be meticulously enforced. This is

the place where the private sector may be expected to find the

promise they want. Basic research institutions, in contrast, would

be few and these should be fully supported by the government.

The major purpose of these institutions would be to carry out

fundamental research in areas where our scientists would make

their presence felt by the giants working in the field. This would

thus help maintain an intellectual linkage with the world.

Applied research scientists are not scientists with any

lesser intellectual ability. There is plenty of scope for highly

innovative work in applied science requiring high order talent.

Scientists at the basic research institutes, so called centres of

excellence, ought to be different largely in vision and aptitude.

Their distinctiveness would only lie in the work they prefer to do,

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and the manner they want it to be done, not in any intrinsic

difference in the work itself.

Two separate policies, one for science and one for

technology, would enable us to understand in more clear terms

the scientific agenda of the nation, and allow us to develop a

clearer road map for its implementation. Writing a science and

technology policy is difficult, writing two separate policies would

perhaps be more difficult as here one has to be more precise in

determining priorities and paths. The potential benefits of this

separation would be considerable for a time, as this separation

would not be permanent. At some point of time, these two would

merge in order to be productive. The applied science policy

would address much of what the market wants and would help to

create wealth for the nation, and basic science policy would help

scientific lustre of the nation through generation of basic

knowledge, a bit of which may in the course of time roll into the

domain of application. This has traditionally been the trail

between basic research and applied research, but for us it is

particularly important that we clearly understand the basis and

the contexts for a formal separation for a time, so that major errors

are avoided.

Eventually, the formal separation of science and

technology would become less relevant as it is the case with the

developed countries of the world where these are already

operationally separated by the market without the regulatory

intervention of the government. In institutions of applied science,

a scientist is never barred from doing basic research. On the

contrary they are encouraged to do so, but without compromising

with the mandatory triple T recipe. If a scientist develops a novel

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substance simultaneously with developing a better blend of drug

or better bitumen for our roads, the scientist would deserve

laurels.

Politicians keep up the independence of nation by

motivating its people to stay together. Manufacturing builds

wealth of the nation using people’s productive capacity. Business

determines the velocity of money. In this relatively simple

operation, distortions might occur when the politicians fail to

keep people together, industry turns into a labour-contracting

instrument, and business creates social stratification. In this

triangle, one can imagine an extra element. This is raising the

value of labour, which must be a continual process, and that can

only be done through science. A science and technology policy

specifically dedicated to applied research would make this easier

to happen.

Human knowledge continually adds value to matter that makes

up the planet. This is how the wealth of the planet is increases. In

this effort, human folly creates something undesirable, that is,

inequality. The ultimate value of wealth lies in sharing the wealth

in a reasonable manner within the humankind. Although a

reasonable expectation, it is perhaps still a distant mirage for

humankind. However, we must hope that it is not beyond human

reach. An enlightened person owning huge wealth would at times

in his life feel the pinch of inequality in society, a moral rebellion.

We must hope that someday that enlightenment might come to

humans. There are species on this planet with traits more humble

than ours. Historically the culture of science has been one of

sharing but today science is not an innocent bystander in social

the inequality. Scientists ‘who are thinly disguised businessmen’1

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are not imagined entities, but are important in the wealth-

building process of a nation. In S&T thus the market factor cannot

be ignored by S&T in the modern world.

Facts of biology are not difficult to understand, as there is

not much counting needed, no equations to be balanced, and no

abstract doctrines to be deciphered. It is important for us that we

understand biological realism in the context of our country. At

this time and under the current global order, our advantage lies in

producing goods, most of it sitting where we are as technology

would make it possible. Our survival in a reasonable state would

depend on how best we use this advantage, that is, how fast we

1. Sen, Amartya. 2002. The science of give and take. New Scientist, April 27, pp 51- 52.

raise the value of our labour. We cannot create land, but we can

lift the labour of our hands to great heights. This is the reality, not

imagination, which we should read correctly in order to avoid

costly mistakes.

We are poised for rapidly turning into a manufacturing

country, and we should maximise our competitive edge in the

global market? We should also remember two other factors that

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are closely connected to the density factor I have mentioned.

These are the ‘time’ factor, and the ‘number’ factor. We should not

discover the right kind of agricultural biotechnology only after the

agricultural land has been lost, and when we compare ourselves

with other countries of the world we should not forget our

number factor. Our immediate path of action is relatively

independent of the doldrums of international politics, and there is

no harm in maximising our advantages to the highest levels. The

less are the mistakes we make here, the better it would be for our

future. Our advantage of large number is not likely to disappear

soon. Although the progress of humankind measured in terms of

energy use might be directed towards living the best with the

least amount of work done, it is unlikely that this would be

attained easily.

Private sector S&T is an important issue to consider. Free

market is a reality to be reckoned. It will evolve, but it may not be

free from the supposed evils of socialism. Socialism is widely

condemned as a killer of creativity that starves the system of

knowledge and brings ruin from within, a limitation from which

the free market may not be completely immune.

Many R&D institutions are now seen to be eager to

participate in advanced degree- awarding undertakings under

affiliation form sate-run universities. If this eagerness means

efforts to secure opportunity for serious scientific work, it would

certainly be of merit, and ways should then be considered which

would exploit this in a productive manner. Degree awarding

interest perhaps is sign of frustration resulting from lack of

challenge for the active minds in their work and career. In this

purely academic matter these institutions have, however, a

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disadvantage. They cannot, however, provide the teaching

climate of a campus. But they can participate in research, perhaps

in a better manner than the universities at this time because they

are free from the political doldrums that the state universities

cannot escape now.

Some of these R&D institutions are quite well equipped in

terms of scientific instruments, library and Internet facilities, and

generally have a strong scientific workforce. These are the

material assets that could be put to good use in S&T activities

through a redrawn operating strategy. That strategy could involve

the private universities in focused S&T activities. The private

university would support S&T projects of their preference, pay an

overhead to the sponsoring institution, and work out a plan that

would motivate participants in the research project.

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In the USA, basic scientific research has been largely the

contribution of immigrant scientists who came to this land of

opportunity from all over the world. This flow would be curtailed

for a variety of reasons. The Nobel glory now frequently goes not

to discoveries in basic science, but to application oriented

knowledge that increases material comfort and augments the

market. This curtails creativity, and the creativity curtailment

element now highlighted in socialism may also invade with a time

lag – it comes early in socialism, a little delayed in capitalism.

Thus, while most of our scientific efforts should be

directed to wealth creation activities through value addition to

skills, a part of the effort must also be given to science that would

cause empowerment. To achieve even a tiny fraction of that

empowerment would not be trivial for us. Science is never a

perfectly practised art anywhere in the world; it is neither possible

nor perhaps necessary to do so. To the ordinary people, much of

what goes under the seal of science carries little meaning in

practical terms. What they would like to see is the substance of the

science. This substance must have one critical ingredient – it must

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empower the nation to successfully compete in the Darwinian

struggle. Only a fraction of the huge effort that a nation expends

for science finally gives that power. That must be identified. That

is, of course, knowledge. This is the ultimate source of power that

can only be gained through the work of the most able few whose

nurturing in a meaningful manner is a formidable challenge today

for all countries of the world, rich and poor alike. For us it is not

an easy task to develop a strategy for nurturing the gifted few,

perhaps it is even difficult to identify those properly. Their

number would be small, and they ought to be provided with the

very best that the nation can afford. A general science policy, that

is, one policy putting S&T and basic science in one basket, may

not make this task easy. But if this task is considered to be of any

merit at this time, this must be done; if it is little relevance now we

ought to wait for the right time to come.

Forecasting gloom is not an end; it is a means to

appreciate the end better. The destiny of a biological species is not

destruction of the species, but rather it is evolution of the species

in directions that biology would determine. A species, for instance

we the Homo sapiens, is the product of a process, which by its very

nature bestows an advantage of number to the species. Species

arise due to a superior survival advantage, and hence is the

associated advantage of high number. Smaller populations within

a species, such as the population of a country, also benefits from

the numerical advantage. Sudden extinction of a species is a rare

phenomenon; it happened in the history of the planet only a few

times. We as a people are not destined to perish. We would

flourish and our large number and high density might facilitate

this process. The advantage of number would fail us. It is here

that we place our hope; it is from here that we move towards the

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needed transformations, and despite many doomsday scenarios

that we see today, we shall rise up – how soon and in what

architecture are matters that belong to the future.

** In this honest zeal to excel, we often hear about centres for

excellence for the talents to tread freely in their world of

freethinking. No doubt centres for excellence are desirable but the

difficult issue is how to attain the expected state of excellence? In

the past, centres were created some of which are described as

centres for excellence, but none could attain the expected lustre.

One possible answer for this failure could perhaps be looked for

at the backdrop of the generally poor level of scientific activity in

the country, which created a situation in which these centres did

not face enough challenge from within to attain a high level of

scientific stature.

Lack of challenge is a good recipe for decay, which unfortunately

might have happened in all of our scientific institutions. But the

question is, how to infuse the needed challenge?

Internationalisation of institution through some mechanism may

be one possible route but this must be properly done, not in the

manner by which we have created the country’s first and lone

international research centre mandated by the Parliament in the

biomedical field—the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease

Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B). The ICDDR,B was perhaps too

hastily created where Bangladesh government retained little

financial control over the operation of the centre. This created

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many operational problems later. Many who had been associated

with this organisation, Bangladeshi scientists in particular, believe

that a centre for excellence created by the government should also

be adequately and effectively funded by the government and its

operation entrusted with an international body as to its scientific

programme and administrative management. If we are unable to

do this at this time and in this manner in order to infuse the

necessary challenge within it, we ought to pause for a while and

find out first the mechanism of how to operate it before we

commit our energy and resources to the task. A centre for

excellence ought to be one for excellence of knowledge, not of

ordinary skills; one of superior talents, not of populist tone as we

see the case with our centres of higher learning today!