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Information Explosion, Knowledge-Creation and the Need for a Vision in IIT Education

I tried to "smuggle" in the need for "a vision" in a discussion on our PG programmes in a Senate meeting. It is now incumbent on me to take the next step, which is to highlight the urgency for a (new) vision in the new millennium. Let me select, in particular, three articles from Directions, Vol. 2, No. 6 as my point of departure. These articles are `Cover Story,' `Viewpoints,' and `Special Feature'. Did you find any linkage between the three? I did.

A.K.Sharma unwittingly draws attention to a much wider problem of information explosion. I can add many more examples of information explosion besides the information on population explosion. Universities are gradually becoming bankrupt in more senses than one. Their economic bankruptcy is directly related to the economic bankruptcy of state after state. Information on the extent of corruption, though meagre, is widely available, informally as well as formally. More accurate information is available on crimes, rapes, dowry deaths, etc. Within the universe of science and technology, enough information is available on the harmful effects of many products, processes and designs which are resulting from what Sachchidanand calls "knowledge creation". Some knowledge creators in the realm of science and technology repented their contributions to fundamental knowledge, but the genie - gunpowder and atomic bomb - cannot be bottled back by post-facto repentance. What is the response to this fromthe academia, the policy makers and the industrialists?

Sachchidanand focuses on a lower level of knowledge-creation - interaction between academia and industry. He says: "For academia, technology development amounts to conceptualization and execution coupled with validation at the laboratory level. For industry, the interest lies in translating the laboratory validated concept into a commercial proposition, where the most important considerations are those of economic viability" (p.4). Economic viability is a minimal, though basic, consideration. The goal of all industrial activity is an insatiable lust for profits.

This brings me to the fundamental problem of the effects of the so-called knowledge-creation for man, society, environment and finally the cosmos. Many scientists have been drawing attention to the damage being wrought by such knowledge-creation. Still more and more of such follies are repeated. The worst sufferers are of course the developing societies.

Let us, for example, consider the social, political and economic consequences of the revolutionary thrust in information technology. Whether or not the behind-the-scene academia has benefitted from it, those in the IT industry and business have been reaping unimaginable profits. Their share prices have been zooming; the related entertainment industry is also harvesting its share. This is all fine, but what are the consequences for the society?

The ripple effect of IT revolution in India has promoted the car industry. Pharmaceuticals are also in the lime light, partly due to the population explosion but largely due to the rising number of ailments caused by industry and even by the modern medicine.

Other industries, not only in Kanpur but also in Ahmedabad and Bombay, are languishing. Millions of workers have been retrenched, or are about to be retrenched. In a recent personal communication, B.K. Kedia, the most successful top management man of Raymonds, wrote to me: "The good condition of industry you read about is only in the newspapers. To me the scenario is pretty dim" (26.11.99). There are many, many social, political and economic side effects of this paradoxical industrial development coupled with decay which cannot and need not be detailed here.

Gupta Bhaya, in one sense, hits the bull's eye when he says: "Our research problems should be home-grown, the instruments should be home-built, the problems need not be what is most fashionable in the West at a particular time" (p.6). Let me reminisce at this point my participation in a UN workshop on technology assessment held in Geneva sometime in the seventies. A Polish participant at the Conference recalled how he had visited village after village in India to find out personally about the kind of jobs people did in the Indian villages, the kinds of implements and tools they used, and the kind of time and toil they spent on their work. On the basis of this knowledge he succeeded in developing a few small scale technologies. That is how home grown problems dawn on technologists. Both the faculty and the students require appropriate sensitization. "Intellectual honesty," suggested by Mohapatra, in my view, requires one's honest commitment to the society and the vast poor masses who have also imperceptibly contributed to our label "intellectual."

Finally, "the role of graduate school in the Humanities and Social Sciences" to which Gupta Bhaya draws our attention. As the first regular faculty member of the HSS at IIT Kanpur with the privilege of having served the IIT from 1963 to 1990, I can recount both the contributions and the mistakes, of commission as well as omission, that we made, but for the purposes of this note the exercise is uncalled for. P.K. Kelkar, in contrast to Norman Dahl, had twin roles for the HSS in mind as reflected in his hiring of a philosopher (Dr. R. Prasad), a psychologist (Dr. K.K. Singh) and a sociologist (myself). Underlying both these roles was the ultimate goal - holistic education - in the

backdrop of C.P. Snow's thesis of the two cultures. Imparting of management skills as the third goal emerged later in the day under the pressure of the notion of "relevance". It may be highlighted at this point that PG students in the science and technology departments were never the targets of such a scheme. Down the lines the goals have also been blurred even at the UG level.

I am convinced that in the final analysis all these issues are linked with the problem of a proper vision for IIT education, with the problem, for example, of envisaging a role for theory and fundamental research as well as for their applications to industry, taking into account their consequences for man, society, environment and the cosmos. At the beginning of the new millennium, let us also take account of the underlying vision, or of the lack of it, in the twentieth century knowledge explosion, its progressive compartmentalization and its attendant consequences. If the decks have to be cleared, let us muster courage and explore other possible visions. The HSS Department could play a pivotal role in this task.

K.N. Sharma

Professor of Sociology (Retd.)

9/76, Arya Nagar

Kanpur 208 002

Phone: (0512) 291348

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