In the popular Bollywood movie Three Idiots, the professor of physics asks his class to define a machine. Most students use technical terms taught in the book — technically correct, and impressive but without making sense to the common man. One student who enjoys science says that a machine reduces human efforts. Although the professor does not like such a simple definition, everyone in the class, including the audience, understands and claps.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s efforts have been to encourage scientists to work to ease human efforts and multiply results. It is his firm belief that science can find solutions to most human problems. This is something he has believed ever since when he was young. This is his scientific spirit of asking questions and applying logic that led him to revolt against caste discrimination. He wrote and directed a play Piloo Phool when he was a mere 14 years old. In this, he had questioned the reason for the society discriminating against Dalits.
A rare audio tape has surfaced when Modi as a young man is addressing one of the meetings of the RSS in 1984. He spoke of achievements of Indian scientists but regretted that the country was not able to match the pace of development. The passion with which he spoke showed that he wanted solutions and was not merely satisfied with pointing out the problems.
Modi was the general secretary in-charge for Haryana before becoming the chief minister of Gujarat. As a young pracharak, he surprised the then state general secretary Manohar Lal Khattar (currently, chief minister of Haryana) when he reached the office at Rohtak along with a computer. Khattar thought it was a television set because he had not seen a computer. Nobody had actually thought of using computers to organise offices and communicate better. Modi told them that this was the future and the party must learn to use it if it had to march ahead with time and stay relevant. He used to sit on computers for hours to access knowledge and communicate with people.
He was always technology savvy, something that had often been an issue of criticism in the inner BJP and RSS circle of the earlier time that did not appreciate the use of mobile phones, Internet or such modern gadgets. He took a session at the state executive to teach members how to use the Internet for effective communication.
The entire country is aware of how he used the Internet and social media to reach people first as chief minister when he wanted to communicate with people and then during his campaign in 2014. His love for technology and social media made him very popular with the youth of the country. One should not forget that he had even experimented with using Hologram Technology to address public rallies. His Mann Ki Baat monthly reflections on people and his country is the result of his multi-way interactions with people.
Whether in expanding the organisational support base or in infusing new energy, Modi has always believed in trusting the youth. This was his success mantra when he undertook various tasks as party general secretary and then as the chief minister of Gujarat. His focus on youths and their abilities to find solutions for the problems facing the country has increased many times now that he is the Prime Minister.
It is not without reason that the government has been conducting Hackathons to find innovative solutions to improve governance. He has called the efforts as “Jai Anushandhan” that would take India to the top of the world. Here the best of technological minds come together to devise solution-oriented projects.
The Prime Minister has been supporting the Indian start-up ecosystem by encouraging youths and innovations. Opening a company today is just a click away and compliances have been reduced. Banks have been given instructions to give easy access to loans for such start-ups. Nobody believed sometime back that India would witness a Unicorn revolution. Made in India is making India self-reliant in defence. We are producing fighter aircrafts that are being sought after by other countries. We are making our own bullet-proof jackets. India was ranked 81 in the Global Innovation Index in 2015. It came to the 40th position in 2022.
This has happened because the Prime Minister believes in the power of youths and the power of science and technology. The task of the political leadership has been to bring them together. His lab-to-land experiment was a tremendous success in Gujarat where the state witnessed unprecedented growth in agriculture. His focus on each drop more crop through drip irrigation enriched farmers. When late Sushma Swaraj had visited Israel and wanted to see some of the projects of drip irrigation, she was told by the Israelis to visit Gujarat that had successfully implemented the technology.
The Prime Minister understands technology and has been using IT (Information Technology) to check corruption and bring the government to the doorsteps of people. Whether getting a passport or a driving license one has to undergo a very transparent system where one does not need to pay a bribe.
It is one’s trust in technology to find solutions that define whether one has the scientific temper or not. One need not be a technocrat for this. It is this that proposes problems and leads to solutions through logical steps. Data mining and data analysis have made this possible. Modi had often spoken about actionable intelligence based on data analysis.
If the world is going to face an energy crisis, one needs to tap solar energy. This simple solution needed to have a firm backup of belief based on logic. There would be a time when fossil fuels would deplete completely. How would humans survive? India came up with the idea and got firm support of France to form an International Solar Alliance (ISA) to provide solutions to climate change issues. The ISA, which has 123 countries, seeks to make solar energy easily available to people across the world at affordable cost. This has opened up a window of new opportunities.
While addressing the 108th Indian Science Congress via video conference, the Prime Minister gave a call to focus on research and find quick solutions to medical challenges such as fighting diseases, finding solutions to waste management and safeguarding the environment. But he also emphasised that the goal of sustainable development must lead to the empowerment of women. He suggested that the country should move from science for empowerment of women to empowering science by contributions from women. Modi believes that if you empower a woman, you empower the whole family and the nation.
The writer is the convener of the media relations department of the BJP and represents the party as a spokesperson on TV debates. He has authored the book ‘Narendra Modi: The Game Changer’. The views expressed are personal.
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