Dr. R. A. Mashelkar, a national research professor from India, is currrently the president of the Global Research Alliance, a network of publicly funded research and development institutes from Asia-Pacific, Europe and the U.S. with over 60,000 scientists.
He is to be a keynote speaker at the 21st Georgia Tech Global Business Forum and the 6th USA India Business Summit to be held this week, Oct. 19-20, in Atlanta.
In post-liberalized India, Dr. Mashelkar has played a critical role in shaping India’s science and technology policies. He also is on the board of directors of many companies including Tata Motors Ltd., Hindustan Unilever Ltd. and GenNext Ventures.
He has received from the Indian government three of the highest civilian honors for his contribution to nation building. He also has received honorary doctorates from 30 universities and is only the third Indian engineer to have been elected as a fellow of the Royal Society, London in the 20th century.
A chemical engineer, he served as the director general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) India with 38 laboratories and about 20,000 employees for more than 11 years.
An interview with Global Atlanta follows that includes Dr. Mashelkar’s views towards the challenges presented by climate change, population trends, the future of the automobile industry, globalization and workforce development.
Global Atlanta: Climate change is often cited as the world’s greatest challenge and the largest threat to human life in the future. Do you agree? If so, what should be done? Even if you don’t agree, what should be done?
Dr. Mashelkar: Climate change is for real. And it is not a local or a national challenge. It is a global challenge. So we need global actions.
What could these be?
The first is that we must make a paradigm shift in our thinking, namely shifting the end objective from ‘sustainable development’ to ‘sustainable consumption’. As Mahatma Gandhi had said ‘there is enough for everyone’s need but not for every one’s greed’.
And I know that it is not going to be easy, as it means self discipline, sacrifice, life style change, behavioral transformation….
Second, we must learn to get more from less for more people, not just for more profit. This means balancing people, planet and prosperity, not just profit, and mind you, it is not prosperity for some, it is prosperity for all.
Third, green growth using clean tech will have to be embedded as a strategy by all governments, all businesses and all societies around the world.
Global Atlanta: The populations of many emerging countries has led to large proportions of young people who aren’t properly trained to find jobs in industrial societies. What should be done in terms of preparing young people with appropriate skills for their survival in the future?
Dr. Mashelkar: It is not just an issue of the emerging economies, it is the challenge for the developed economies too.
Emergence of disruptive technologies like advanced automation of knowledge work, artificial intelligence, etc is going to bring in huge changes.
In terms of the large-scale, mass-produced economy, the utility of low-skill human workers is rapidly diminishing, as many blue-collar jobs (e.g., in manufacturing) and white-collar jobs (e.g., processing insurance paperwork) can be handled much more efficiently.
There is a special problem for emerging economies. Advanced but affordable and intelligent robotics will add a new twist to the global redistribution of manufacturing; if a robot can operate as cheaply in Detroit as in Chennai in India or Dhaka in Bangladesh, then why pay to ship materials and finished goods around the world?
Digital technologies have displaced many jobs involving routine tasks such as those in accounting, payroll, and clerical work, forcing many of those workers to take more poorly paid positions or simply abandon the workforce. Increasing automation of manufacturing has eliminated many middle-class jobs over the past decades. So moving up the value chain will be the only option!
And this can be done by riding on the wave of newly emerging technologies, like, just as an example, 3D printing, which democratizes manufacturing.
In my own city of Pune, we see this happen. A thousand-plus rag packers have started a movement. They have developed the skills of segregating HDPE plastic. A low cost indigenously developed 3D printing machine makes customized and sophisticated parts out of this HDPE plastic. Selling rags would have given them 40 Indian rupees per kg. Selling these customized products gives them more than 2000 Indian rupees per kg!
So the challenge finally is all about rethinking, re-skilling and reinventing!
Global Atlanta: Major cities around the world are plagued by highway systems that can’t handle today’s traffic patterns. How do you foresee the future of the auto industry and autos in general?
Dr. Mashelkar: The first change that is going to influence the auto industry is that arising out of the emergence of sharing economy, where a customer is going more for access rather than for ownership of a car.
From zero jobs manufacturing autonomous vehicles to 10 million jobs in the next 10-15 years.
The repercussions of moving to driverless cars can have a domino effect on a range of ancillary industries which influence the auto industry, such as the automobile insurance market, automotive finance market, parking industry, and the automotive aftermarket with a suppressed demand for these services.
Autonomous cars will change the dynamics of manufacturing in the automotive industry itself. The Daimler, Ford, BMW, Volkswagen, Toyota, and General Motors will not necessarily be the vendors we’ll be thinking of in the future. If autonomous vehicles mean highly advanced computers on wheels, then they will be dominated by the tech firms like Tesla, Google, and Apple. At the same time the likes of Uber will change the way cars need to be designed and manufactured.
So the answer to the question is a simple one. The future for the auto industry will be driven by some truly disruptive technological and business model innovations.
Global Atlanta: Do you see globalization as a positive or a negative in the world? If positive, in what ways? If negative, in what ways?
Dr. Mashelkar: I am a scientist. I talked about and championed globalization of R &D, when I took over as the director of National Chemical Laboratory in 1989, almost 25 years ago!
And I practiced it to an extent that the National Chemical Laboratory of India was converted into a fully globalized International Chemical Laboratory, which partnered with the Du Ponts, Dows, Procter & Gambles and GEs of this world!
So I have been a great supporter of globalization. But I have been also a champion of what one would like to see more commitment as ‘inclusive globalization’, where the benefit of globalization is not reaped by only some privileged few, but by all.
For instance, all my life I have worked hard to convert the debate of ‘Intellectual rights of the poor’ vs the ‘rights of the poor’ to a more meaningful and inclusive debate on ‘ Intellectual property rights’ and the ‘rights of the poor’.
I am a strong believer that globalization should create a better world for all of us, not just for some of us!
Global Atlanta: Do you consider the preservation of archaeological sites important and the allocation of resources for their preservation a good use of these resources?
Dr. Mashelkar: Yes, I do believe strongly in this. I find the stories of human evolution as the most inspiring stories of all the stories that I have heard from my childhood. Some one has said ‘ I will only think of the future because that is where I am going to spend the rest of my life.’ That is absolutely true. But the strength lies in ‘thinking’ of the future but ‘learning’ from the past. And that is where every dollar that is spent in preserving the past and in building the future is the only way forward, at least to my mind!
Global Atlanta: If you had one wish that would immediately come true, what would that be?
Dr. Mashelkar: I would love to see a day, before I breathe my last, when I see that there is a smile on the face of each of the seven billion people on this earth, not just a a few of us, as is the case today!
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