India Must Upkeep Scientific Activities in South Asia
With most of India’s neighbours sinking into one economic crisis or another, it behoves us to help them out of their quagmires, including through science and technology (S&T) interventions.
Many countries across the globe are in severe economic distress, and unfortunately, many of them are in our neighbourhood. The economic distress has been generated for a variety of accumulated reasons which include, compromised national polity, unaccounted populist favours, high levels of corruption across governance hierarchy, absence of robust revenue generation, high levels of indebtedness, exorbitant expenditure on vanity projects, skewed dependence on few sectors of economy, and of course the COVID-19 global pandemic and the crisis emanating due to the conflict in Ukraine and fall of Afghanistan.
COVID-19 has a unique role in causing global economic distress. The mitigatory full-scale and partial lockdowns that lasted for several weeks in various parts of the world had crippled numerous sectors, particularly travel, tourism, manufacturing, property, and logistics globally. Although economic activities have resumed now in 2022, the world is still reeling from the after-effects of economic lockdowns. Since February this year, the crisis emanating from the invasion of Ukraine and the fall of Afghanistan has sent global geopolitics into a tizzy. The rearrangement of the global order, widening fault lines between the US and Russia, and the US and China, has resulted in a surge in power prices in Europe, as well as disruptions to agriculture and semiconductor supply chains, creating turbulence in numerous resilient economies worldwide. However, those countries with weaker economies are showing signs of defaulting and potentially going bankrupt. The impending bankruptcies are triggering political chaos and potentially leading to regime change in these countries. And in such circumstances, these countries are vulnerable to non-state actors taking charge of their socio-economic domains.
INDIAN ECONOMY AND THE NEIGHBOURHOOD
Numerous international financial institutions and think tanks predict that India will remain a bright spot in the international financial landscape for the foreseeable future. Its innovation, human development, and other socio-economic indices will perform better than most economies of comparable sizes. These positive forecasts for India have emerged against the backdrop of a thriving middle class, pragmatic national policymaking, and foresighted national leadership. These may also be the reasons why India is well-positioned to withstand the looming global economic crisis. However, India has undergone significant changes in the past few years of the Narendra Modi administration. The nation is no longer reclusive and inward-looking. It very well realises that its sphere of influence stretches into the far reaches of East, Central and West Asia. The status of a global manufacturing hub that India is working so purposefully to achieve requires the country to develop and maintain new connectivity links. However, with an economically weak, politically vulnerable, and socially unrestful neighbourhood, India’s ambitions and the world’s expectations from India cannot be met. Not many in India’s neighbourhood are able to withstand the global economic crisis, and their continued fragility may send India’s as well as the world’s long-term interests into a vortex.
The economic situation in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, the Maldives, Afghanistan, and Nepal is dire to varying degrees and for various reasons. These woes will not be resolved soon and stem from the short-sighted national leadership, sizable external debt traps, massive trade deficits, excessive dependence on a few economic sectors, minimal manufacturing, and excessive political interference by non-Indian entities, fueling antagonistic sentiments against India in these countries. As crisis mitigation takes precedence, these factors have pushed science and technology among the lowest priorities for these nations. What does that do to their long-term outlook? Can science and technology help countries avoid crises? Are they contrivances of only good times?
PRIORITIZE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY DURING ECONOMIC CRISES
Firstly, we must recognise that retaining an educated and skilled population poses a tremendous challenge during times of economic crisis. Large tracts of such a trained population are often forced to demote to unskilled jobs, while others migrate to the greener pastures of economically resilient nations. The governments of these nations, if they have their hearts in the right place, are focused on addressing immediate crises, such as curbing inflation, restoring stable supplies of utilities and essential goods, and making fuel and power costs more affordable. These issues are challenging to address, and resuming economic normalcy is a tall order. Therefore, such nations are not in a position to allocate financial resources for science and technology, and whatever little is allocated is further drastically curtailed. If their heart is not in the right place, the road to normalcy becomes as rare as getting two eclipses in two consecutive days.
Commercial enterprises, militaries, and governments drive science and technology in an economically and socially stable nation. With nearly empty pockets, countries facing economic crises are known to shut down almost all research and development activities. The lack of scientific research and quality tertiary education further entrenches such nations in a socio-economic quagmire.
India’s neighbourhood is in tremendous economic distress. However, each of their distresses has native attributes. Afghanistan’s science and technology pursuits have collapsed not only because of the financial crisis but also the socio-political and ideological unwillingness of the current dispensation, the Taliban, to support any science and technology. Sri Lanka’s case is one of severe economic mismanagement and exploitative leadership, preceded by years of civil war. Nepal’s research pursuits are limited to a few domains, and despite a select group of universities, there is a stark absence of research culture. Myanmar’s science and technology pursuits are hindered by international sanctions imposed on the junta and its low human development indices. The Maldives is restricted by its sparse archipelago geography and over-dependence on tourism and fishing. Pakistan’s military generals primarily control their nation’s science and technology pursuits. They run the country as a client-state, a launchpad of terrorism, as they siphon off the public exchequer with little or no accountability. There is a tremendous dearth of scientific and technological research in these countries.
ENGAGING WITH FELLOW SOUTH ASIAN NATIONS
There are sparse chances that the human development indices of these countries will grow anytime soon. Moreover, suppose India fails to address the HDI factor in these countries. In that case, we will be surrounded by near-perennial chaos and interference from great powers that are not residents of this neighbourhood. In a rare scenario, even if these countries ask for India’s assistance tomorrow, New Delhi will have to deal with a cauldron of unskilled workforce arriving on our shores and borders. The real threat is when non-state actors recruit a skilled workforce to meet their nefarious goals.
What does India expect from its neighbourhood? The broad answers encompass peace, stability, prosperity, high human development, environmental performance indices, resilience to climate change and disasters, and national leadership in countries that share similar values and commitments. However, India will likely not sermonise or dictate terms to these countries. Most of them have been under the influence of non-Indian entities competing with India, who have fed them with the narrative that India is the big brother they must stay away from. This narrative does not affect India; however, India would only assist in defending its interests. India is no threat to these countries but is the second-largest beneficiary of their prosperity and progress. Yet, India cannot wait for these countries to ask for help. It must proactively take a few initiatives; assistance in science and technology is the first step.
On a broad level, India should formulate a strategy to attract promising scientists and young researchers from neighbouring countries to its universities. We can expect a few hundred scientists, especially from applied sciences and technology development domains, from each country to choose India for their career progression. Such scientists could play ambassadorial roles by assisting in the development of capacities in their home countries and strengthening people-to-people diplomacy.
Second, the Indian government should consider adopting promising yet underdeveloped research institutions in the neighbourhood by offering research grants to domains where the neighbouring country has inherent advantages. For instance, India can consider supporting research and development in traditional medicine and biodiversity in Nepal and Myanmar. Likewise, it can support research in marine sciences in the Maldives and Sri Lanka. In Afghanistan, India can contemplate supporting competencies in geology and agriculture.
Third, India must engage in multilateral partnerships, especially with financial mechanisms tied to the Global North, to enhance socio-economic indicators in these countries. India can help these countries set realistic HDI targets and effectively utilise science and technology domains to achieve them.
Fourth, and on a defensive front, India’s science diplomacy for the neighbourhood must be more equitable than that of an altruistic or possessive ‘big brother’. It must ensure that the hand of science diplomacy it offers to these countries is not only for their benefit but also for India’s benefit. India would not want social, cultural, and financial instability in its neighbourhood. To that end, India must set achievable targets, with each country achieving tangible goals through mutual assistance. India must be clear that it does not want to suffer from a ‘boiling frog’ syndrome, where it is given the mentoring charge of the neighbourhood when it is least prepared for it. It certainly does not want a large-scale influx of unskilled labour into India, but rather for their home countries to be the first choice of these potential migrants.
South Asia is in a predicament that only India could troubleshoot. Our ancient civilizational linkages with these countries will play out well. But the times are upon us that compel us to stop marvelling about our shared past and commit resolutely to our shared future. South Asia is nearly 25% of the world’s population, and it is India’s responsibility to look after its own interests and those of its neighbours as well.
The original piece blog was published in the July 2022 edition of Science India.
