Innovations in Science and Technology can Compensate for Economic Disparities by S. Aravamudhan 1 1 Department of Chemistry, North Eastern Hill University,

Innovations in Science and Technology can Compensate for Economic Disparities

by

S. Aravamudhan1

1Department of Chemistry, North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, 793022, Email: [email protected]

National Seminar on“POVERTY, INEQUALITY AND HEALTH IN INDIA WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE

TO NORTH-EAST INDIA”

Organised byNORTH-EASTERN HILL UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS SHILLONG, INDIA, 793022in collaboration with

INDIAN STATISTICAL INSTITUTE, KOLKATA

03/05/23 1Dr.S. Aravamudhan NEHU Shillong

03/05/23 Dr.S. Aravamudhan NEHU Shillong 2

POVERTY, INEQUALITY AND HEALTH IN INDIA WITHSPECIAL REFERENCE TO NORTH-EAST INDIA

Poverty: Economic Disparity

Inequality: Discrimination on the basis of Gender, Cast and Creed

Health (ill health) is a factor which is attributable to Malnutrition and Poverty & lack of Hygiene; the cause for which can be inadequate provisionsdue to unemployment; Poverty and Illiteracy.

Disparity, Discrimination ,Unemployment and Illiteracy are all given due importance in themeasures taken by National Government, SocialOrganizations and International Agencies Concerned with strategies for the growth and development of Nations.

How Science and Technology can play a rolein the developmental processes is not a new subjectand has often been the subject for discussion.

Such of those who are trying to find remedial measures to the problem of Disparities in Society are In some way or the other have been responsible for set back in the society due to disparities.

Hence it is also necessary to provide compensation for the set back in the growth and development.

New Scientific and Discoveries can bring about benefits to humanity, and may result in economic benefits to varying extents in appropriate cases.

Innovations are not such totally new discoveries but are novel methods devised for the local needs with the already known and well established principles and laws of nature. It results in modifications and changes which suits the regional, local needs. Such changes would rely on the local wisdom and would make the best use of what is good in the traditional ways.


Thus restoring the prestige of the people by recognizing the sensibilities of traditional practices is the innovation referred to. This does more to good to the people than compensating them financially on humanitarian considerations. The NATIONAL INNOVATION awards are usually given to such people who have voluntarily changed and modified implements, who have for more efficient consumption of fuels etc., most of it for the rural local consumptions and not really to result in manufacturing machinery with a huge turn over and profit margins.

By visiting Innovation Award Pavilions at the Venue of Indian Science Congress Sessions one can get to know more about the consequences of these innovations.



A DEFINITION FOR INNOVATION from a book: Innovation is often the product of necessity tempered with desperation. In some cases the necessity to overcome the constraint of inadequate resources leads to alternate approaches.

It is somewhat similar factors which result in disparities as well.


The Value addition process to the natural resources by manufacture of Goods by Technology could be the Innovation referred in Certain contexts; If a manufacturing concern manufactures a product because of the demand in the market (which is the viable profit motive) then, the kind of optimizations for affordability and with certain minimum standard set for quality would be governed by how innovative the strategy is Refer DrCh-Snap-0

Enhancing the efficiency of value addition to natural resources (raw materials being utilized by manufacturing sectors to produce materials for domestic consumption) is achieved by what may be termed as process innovation (Chidambaram, 2012).

The two perspectives as in texts above for what innovation “could be” or “is” seem so widely different that neither one of the two can probably have any impact on the other..

The innovation that academic researchers speak of has to do with what they do in the laboratories at the benches and working tables. Does this directly ameliorate disparities of any kind?

The other kind of innovation being talked about is which the National Leaders and policy makers and the funding agencies talk about, which is meant for the peoples awareness and can reflect at the public consumption front.


Similar to the micro- and macro- concepts in financing and generally in Economics ?


Most often the two kind of references to Innovation in Science and Technology do not turn out to be one and the same

A new term came into usage from around year 1993 in connection with the research pertaining to medical sciences, as it has been pointed out in the editorial of Everyman’s Science, Vol. XLIX No.4 Oct.’14-Nov.’14; and that is

“TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH”

. In the present century translational research is defined as the research that involves moving knowledge and discovery gained from the basic sciences to its application in clinical and community settings.

Thus Translational research is also occasionally summarized as “bench-to-bedside” and “bedside-to-community”

This aspect is well borne out in the interview with Sangeetha Reddy of Apollo Hospitals which is available as internet resource to view in the category of video upload in http://www.youtube.com. The iinnovative measures at Apollo Hospitals covers the Insurance methods to bring the advanced medical facilities to affordable level to the average income strata.

An important aspect of translational research is to develop cost effective treatment strategies and prevention methods

The other aspect is kind of reverse movement: Such research is aimed at enhancing the adoption of best practices in the community.

03/05/23 03:59 PM 9

Everyman’s ScienceA Publication of Indian Science Congress Association , Kolkata

Vol. XLVIII No.5 Dec ’13-Jan ‘14

EditorialBy Ashok Kumar Saxena

“INNOVATIONS IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FOR

INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT”

The highest possible stage in Human Culture is when Recognize `that we ought to

control our thoughts-Charles Darwin

Gender differences and caste basis (mostly attributable to traditional practices, and remedially require better literacy and adult education: Aravamudhan, 2006) are typical factors which build up the bias (Aravamudhan, 2005), resulting in inequality.

DRCh 24th Minute through to 25th [Snap-1 24th min] --- [Snap-2 25:47] DrChHuman Development Index correlates Strongly Female Literacy - The higher the Female Literacy the better developed is the Nation.Page 254 Conclusions in Aravamudhan 2006 : Aravamudhan, 2006:http://aravamudhan-s.ucoz.com/BDRay_Felicitation_Volume.html#AravamudhanIndividual’s independence (question of equality of opportunity) for exposure to the Phenomena around transforming into regulated movements (individuals acquire differences in their movements)




Above is a video clip of 1 minute duration; which is to be downloaded from the hot link below and saved in your PC. http://www.ugc-inno-nehu.com/ns-economics/drch-140.wmv Set up the sound system and click on the image above to play the clip

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Innovations in Science and Technology can Compensate for Economic Disparities by S. Aravamudhan 1 1 Department of Chemistry, North Eastern Hill University,