PM warns against blindly aping dev model of rich world

Hyderabad, Oct 19 (PTI) Warning that development model
followed by industrialised nations has the potential to
threaten the existence of developing countries, Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh today said that there was a need for exploring
a more sustainable path for growth.
Inaugurating the annual meeting of the Academy of
Sciences for the Developing World here, Singh said the sharing
of intellectual property rights was a major a roadblock in
collaborative research efforts for commercial applications.
"We need to address this problem head on", he said.
The Prime Minister said that the developing world faces a
common challenges like combating tropical diseases,
transforming traditional agriculture and predicting and
tackling natural disasters.
"These problems of under-development do not receive
adequate attention in the advanced industrialised countries.
Nor should we expect others to solve our problems," he said.
"We have seen how the path of development followed by
industrialised countries has the potential to threaten our
existence and way of life. If we can find a path that does not
unduly constrain our ability to deal effectively and quickly
with basic challenges of development, we should follow it in
our enlightened self-interest," he said.
However, the developing world is constrained by the lack
of well-organised systems and critical mass of expertise in
scientific establishments, he said, adding that these
countries need to invest more in science and technology.
Referring to the problem of IPR sharing, he said that
the approach of 'open source' is being tried now in the
software world and in the field of drug discovery.
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
(CSIR) launched an Open Source Drug Discovery project
which may freely be used by any participant.
Government has committed USD 40 million towards this
project and an equivalent amount would be raised from
international agencies and philanthropists, he said.
The Prime Minister said India has been a strong advocate
of South-South Cooperation on challenges facing the developing
world. The India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) forum provides a
unique framework of cooperation among the three major
democracies from three different continents.
Under the IBSA framework there has been a series of
collaborative activities in science and technology including
in ocean research, agriculture, climate change and nano-
technology, he said. MORE PTI MS
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