NKC-10: Knowledge commission to meet in first week of August in Delhi

NKC-10: India's National Knowledge Commission –10: Knowledge commission to meet in first week of August in New Delhi, To launch an allout attack on multiple fronts.

India's National Knowledge Commission is going to meet in the
first week of August in New Delhi to discuss issues related to
knowledge production, use and dissemination. The commission,
according to its chairperson plans "to launch an allout attack on
multiple fronts." Read an account of Amit Chanda's talk with the
chairperson, reproduced below* for convenience, at:

Chanda, Amit (2005): Talking about a knowledge revolution, The Times
of India, New Delhi, July 25, Monday, Education Times, pp 1&7,
http://epaperdaily.timesofindia.com/Daily/skins/TOI/navigator.asp?
Daily=TOIM#TOP(accessed: July 25, 2005).

Dr D.C.Misra
July 25, 2005

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*Q & A

Talking about a knowledge revolution
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Tech Czar Sam Pitroda is back as the chairman of the National
Knowledge Commission to prepare India to meet knowledge challenges in
the 21st century. Pitroda talks to Amit Chanda about his new role
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The architect of India's telecommunication revolution Sam Pitroda is
back in business. This time, Pitroda, however, will be spearheading
the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) as chairperson, constituted
by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in April this year to prepare the
country to meet knowledge challenges in the 21st century. The
commission is going to meet in the first week of August in the
Capital to discuss issues related to knowledge production, use and
dissemination.

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What is the mandate of the National Knowledge Commission?
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The commission — comprising P M Bhargava as vice-chairperson and
members Nandan Nilekani of Infosys, educationists Deepak Nayyar,
Ashok Ganguly, Andre Beteille, Jayati Ghosh and Pratap Bhanu Mehta
—
will be looking at building excellence in the educational system to
meet the knowledge challenges and increase India's competitive
advantage in fields of knowledge.We seek to promote creation of
knowledge in science and technology laboratories, improve the
management of institutions engaged in Intellectual Property Rights or
IPR and promote knowledge applications in agriculture and industry.

The committee will also promote the use of knowledge capabilities in
making the government an effective, transparent and accountable
service provider to the citizen.

The committee members have shared documents on different issues. The
three-day meeting which is going to take place in the Capital in the
first week of August will witness our future course of action and how
we are going to achieve our objectives. We will be coordinating with
concerned ministries like Ministry of HRD, Ministry of Science &
Technology, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Ministry of
Agriculture and Ministry of IT to achieve our goals. This will help
us to form an overview and then report to the Prime Minister. We plan
to develop a set of deliverables by October 2 and make public a 36-
month plan from October 2, 2005 to October 2, 2008.

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The commission will focus on matters related to management of
knowledge areas. How are you going to define the parameters?
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The focus is on creation of knowledge, its dissemination and its
utilisation in health, education and many areas. The focus will also
be on life cycle of knowledge, and how it's used when you are a
child, a youth, and old age.

We will talk about quality education which could be at primary,
secondary or higher level and how it can be linked with research and
devel opment, linkages with industry, integration and its application
in university system.

If we want to emerge as a knowledge society we also have to think
about institutions, which need to be created to accelerate the spread
of knowledge in our country. There will be focus on e-governance and
e-learning at tehsil, district and state levels. We will talk about e-
files, multiple accesses and interlinking of all departments through
single system.

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You once said that accessibility rather than density should be the
focus of telecom reforms in the country. Will you follow a similar
out-of-box thinking to bring reforms in education as well?
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The focus is on how knowledge can be used to improve lives and
provide jobs to a large number of people. For example, how knowledge
can be used to provide additional training and tools to upgrade an
electrician's skills and productivity. Twenty years ago when we
embarked on the telecom dream, everyone felt that it was like a pipe
dream. There were 20 questions asked on why telecom and not health,
education, water and many more. Our idea was to provide accessibility
to people in the form of PCO. If you plant the right seed now, the
results will only show after 20 to 30 years.

The climate is right now to bring a revolution in the management of
knowledge as well. We have to start discussing issues at local level
too. We are a country of one billion people but we do not have enough
think-tanks which can discuss issues like water, health and
education. All these issues will be discussed in detail.

The idea this time would be to pick an issue and push it forward. It
could be literacy, higher education, S&T, rural education. We plan to
launch an allout attack on multiple fronts.
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(Source: Chanda, Amit (2005): Talking about a knowledge revolution,
The Times of India, New Delhi, July 25, Monday, Education Times, pp
1&7,
http://epaperdaily.timesofindia.com/Daily/skins/TOI/navigator.asp?
Daily=TOIM#TOP (accessed: July 25, 2005)