HEADLINES
JOBS
DISCUSS
POLICY POLICE
ARCHIVES

Scientists warn of technological colonialism

Speaking in unison at the dedication of PARAM 10000 supercomputer to the nation here yesterday, the scientists said advanced countries are discouraging aspiring countries from developing high technologies on the premise that they were already available.

T O D A Y

• Requiem for APVAN • Dell job for Infosys • Jagmohan adamant • Tech colonialism

However at critical times access to these technologies is barred in the name of dual use, they pointed out.

PARAM 10000, developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, is the fastest supercomputer developed in Asia, barring Japan.

The development of the supercomputer by India after being denied the supply of US-made Cray supercomputer had once and for all proved that the country would never give in to technological blackmail, the scientists said.

Professor C N R Rao of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, CDAC Executive Director R K Arora, former executive director of CDAC Dr Vijay Bhatkar and Director General of the National Informatics Centre N Sheshagiri strongly advocated that the country build a research and development base rather than opt for imported technologies.

Professor C N R Rao said PARAM 10000, which is scaleable to tera FLOP computing speeds, has put India in an enviable position as this advanced technology is available only in a few developed countries in the world.

The National PARAM Supercomputing Facility that would provide countrywide access to a wide spectrum of users is going to be a boon for scientists and engineers, he said.

The supercomputing facility was dedicated to the nation on the CDAC's 12th foundation day.

Department of Electronics Secretary Ravindra Gupta, who was the chief guest, said the DoE planned to make NPSF one of the most advanced supercomputing centres in the world.

He said the facility is equipped with a number of user terminals and peripherals connected through high-speed links to enable remote access. The DoE had plans to set up more software technology parks and the one coming up at Pune would be ready by the end of next month.

''Unless PC penetration takes place in all walks of life, we cannot achieve our goals,'' Gupta said adding that electronic governance and electronic commerce must soon take over the present setup to keep pace with the advanced world.

Minister for External Affairs and Electronics Jaswant Singh, in his message sent to CDAC, said the government has already approved the third mission, the next generation high performance in computing and communication technology.

He lauded the CDAC for accomplishing the mission one and mission two and unveiling its supercomputer PARAM 10000.

R K Arora said the CDAC has come a long way from being an R&D institution to growing into an organisation par excellence, comparable with any institution of high calibre in the world.

He said CDAC had already begun work on its mission three to produce the next millennium supercomputers.

CDAC had set up a task force to make itself fully Y2K compliant by September this year, he said. Free multilingual content creation facility had also been launched to help language users to achieve goals set out in information technology, he added.

C N R Rao said CDAC should strive to protect excellence and build up a community of technocrats to move up in the information technology sector. R&D efforts should be a continuous process, so as to keep pace with advances in frontier areas of science, he added.

UNI

Tell us what you think