0 n August 15, 2018, Na rendra Modi
thundered from the ramparts of the
Red Fort that he doesn't believe in
drawing a li ne on butter but on
stone "Hum makkhan par nahi,
patthar par /akeer kheenchne vaa/e
hain". PM Modi should know . After
all, he has made a habit of doing
t hat t hrough the better part of his
minutely scrutinised public life since
2002 . However, not even PM Modi
could have prepared for the sort of
"rock" 2020 would prove to be. The
Covid pandemic st ruck and brought
SHASHANKA
--
SHEKHARPANDA the whole world, including Bharat to
a halt, lit erally, for weeks on end .
Mlic•stmeaist;a
CliffllilaFdowt..Kilc'S But when fate w hispers to a war-
rior that a storm is coming, only the
truest of warriors can say t hat "they
are t he storm" and prove it. On 12th
16 ORGANISER Januao 30, 2022
May 2020, he was perhaps t he only
Head of State in the whole world to
talk of finding 'Apada mein Avsar'
(opportunity in adversity) amidst
the pandemic.
PM Madi worked along with his
whole team that inclu ded thousands
of doctors and health workers to
control the pandem ic and simulta-
neously launched the "Atma Nirbhar
Bharat Abhiyan" (ANBA), unveiling a
20 lac crore fiscal stimulus economic
package. If one parsed the package
cl osely, (a deta iled exercise is
beyond t he scope of t his article), it
mostly aimed at the lower rung of
the pyramid - urban migrants and
far mers, followed by citizen-con-
sumers and MSMEs, and not the big
industries or corporations. The lat-
 COVER STORY/INNOVATIVE REPUBLIC

ter became the indirect beneficiaries of the themselves speak of the ball of innovation that
package. In a w ay, t his was a 'push-up' eco- has been set roll ing like never before.
nomic package rather t han the usua l 't rickle- The idea of innovation is inextricably linked
down' package - a novelty of sorts or perhaps to Bharat 's relative performance (rank) on the
even a fresh paradigm that interlocked socia l- world stage on important national perfor-
ism with robust economic growth and systemic mance indicators. A look at their status from
industrial rejuvenation. 2014 t o the present day gives a t elling and con-
In launching ANBA, PM Modi finally gave an sistent picture that corroborates the spade-
unprecedented push to a long-standing policy work done by the Mod i government. The table
of not j ust the BJP but of t he RSS, as well as below gives the comparison across many such
focusing on the development of "Swadeshi". indicators:
The logical corollary to it is f ocussing on indige- It is clear from the above table that India has
nous development of tech- improved its ranking on criti-
nology - innovation . Be that ca l parameters that impact
as it may, most of the eco- THERE IS APARADIGM SHIFT innovation either directly or
nomic policies of the Modi IN THE LEVEL OF DISCOURSE, indirectly.
government since 26 May WHICH SHOWS THAT BOTH Also, India also remains
2014 have been focused on the economy wit h the high-
setting the wheels of inno-
THE ABILITY AND THE est real growt h rate.
vation churning. One of t he WILLING NESS FOR RISK- India's intellectual proper-
most t elling features of the TAKING IS ON THE RISE. ty build-up is witnessing
Modi government has been UNDER PM MODI, THE accelerated buoyancy. In
in fo llowing a ' Whole-of- 2021 IIT Kanpur filed a
Government' approach,
INDIAN ELEPHANT IS record-breaking 107 patents,
t ransparent ly and openly, LEARNING TO DANCE AND breaking its 2019 record of
instead of piecemeal, ad- THE INDIAN TIGER IS FINALLY 76 patents. IIT Kanpur also
hoe in itiatives with limited PROWLING, GROWLING, AND reported an exceptional
vision, reminiscent of the technology transfer rate of
BITING HARDER THAN EVER
UPA era; and t hen making 15.2% to indust ry part ners
sure that those mega BEFO RE from the pat ents filed.
schemes are actually expe- Apart from these indica-
rienced by the people, rather than rema ining tors, the real proof of the pudding comes from
on paper as a mere piece of legislation. the visibly brisk movement being witnessed in
Many of these pol icies have now taken the start -up scene. India today is home to the
shape as mega indust ria l-economic move- thi rd-largest ecosystem of startups in the
ments t hat have begun to creat e and bui ld an world with 51 startups, right behind USA (396)
invaluable repository of skill and experience. and Ch ina (277) and ahead even of developed
Schemes such as "Smart Cities", "Swachh nations, such as UK (32) and Germany (18) .
Bharat " "Namami Gange" "Digital India"
I I I
Moreover, 2021 has seen a veritable explosion
"Ease of Doing Business", "Jan Ohan", "PM Jay" in the number of unicorns in India. While 2018,
or "Ayushman Bharat", "Ayushman Bharat 2019, and 2020 saw 8, 9, and 11 unicorns
Digital Mission", "GATI-Shakti" are at various respectively, the year 2021 witnessed 41 uni-
stages of planning, execution, and develop- corns, a whooping jump of almost 300% in just
ment . The giant strides made on these fronts one year. Till 2013, Indian un icorns were an

January 30, 2022 ORGANISER 11

unheard-of phenomenon . It has been predict-
ed that the number of unicorns in India is likely
to jump to 150 by 2025.
There is a paradigm shift in the level of dis-
course, which shows that both the ability and
the will ingness for risk-taking are on the rise.
Under PM Modi, the Indian elephant is finally
learning to dance and the Indian tiger is prowl-
ing, growling, and biting harder than ever
before. No wonder PM Mod i has declared 16th
January as "National Start -up Day". On the first
National Start-up Day, the Union Commerce
Minister, Shri Piyush Goya l struck the right
strategic chord, when he exhorted startups to
focus "on 5 areas to take innovat ion to the
next level--Develop solutions & content in
lndic languages, encourage products & solu-
tions that have a larger social & economic
out Western support, progress is simply impos-
sible. Hence, the charm of "Harvard" and " Ivy
League" - which is a civilizat ional climb-down
for Bharat, home to universities like Nalanda
and Takshila, amongst many others, that were
the world's biggest of their era .
Note that the idea of Atma Nirbharta is a
notch below that of another catchphrase but a
move in that di rection : "Vishwa Guru Bharat".
The fact that PM Modi has chosen the slogan
of At ma Nirbharta shows an acut e awareness
that the approach needs t o be graded and it
needs to defer to the national context and
mood. Considering the fact that indigenous
innovation has been neglect ed (as evidenced
by "Bra in Drain", achieving self-reliance should
be the first objective, before conj uring lofty
ideals as ou r clarion call.

Parameter 2013 2021

HISTORICAL, STRATEGIC, CULTURAL AND
Human Development Index
SOCIAL PERSPECTIVE ON BRAIN DRAIN
135 131 Brain Drain is t he primary nemesis of innova-
CorruptionPerception Index 94 86 tion and therefore the dreams of an "Aatma
Ease of DoingBusiness 132 63 (2020) Nirbha r Bharat". If you r best people jettison
out of the nation and work for your colonial
Global Financial Centers Index 66 54 competitors, then you can kiss your dreams of
Global Innovations Index 66 46 leading the world of scient ific innovation a per-
manent goodbye. Your intellectual property
Global Peace Index 141 135
would dim inish and your start -ups would be no
Global Terrorism Index 4 18 match for global competition, because the
(higher therank, the better)
most cutting-edge science, research, and
Patents filed 20,945 37,880 (2020) development would be happening away from
Trademarks filed 204,982 418,560 (2020) your shore. Consequent ly, you r economic and
milita ry power would decl ine, and you'd watch
Industrial Designs filed 7,010 11,849 (2020)
helplessly as your overt and covert enemies
steal a march over you and you'd watch the
impact.". writ ing of the preface to your own colon isa-
It's not as if Bharat has not recognised the tion. This is what we learn as much from world
need for self-reliance earlier. The pre-indepen- history and that of our own .
dence Swadeshi movement is an example. The In 1963, the term "Brain Drain" was coined
Green Revolution of 1968 made us se lf-reliant by the British Royal Society to denote the fl ight
in agriculture production. However, the Green of scientific talent from Europe to United
Revolution had critical support from the Ford States of America. It is widely acknowledged
Foundation. It was perhaps believed that with- now that Bharat saw a similar Bra in Drain con-

18 ORGANISER January 30, 2022

 COVER STORY/INNOVATIVE REPUBLIC
comitantly al l through the decades of the
1960s up to the 1980s. This was the level of
discourse as far as "startups" and " innovation"
are concerned when Bharatiya Nationa l
Congress was ruling Bharat.
This brain drain was partial ly slowed down,
though it was far from being reversed, first by
Prime Minister PV Narsimha Rao's economic
reforms that ushered in the era of economic
liberalization at a fast pace, wh ich included
ending the macabre Nehruvian-Socialist
"license-permit" "Inspector Raj" (a reason why
brain dra in occurs} and then a few years later
by the flurry of mega, super-structural reforms
began by BJP Prime M inister Shri Atal Bihari
Vajpayee. However, brain drain still remained
a problem. Between 2000 and 2020, Bharat
saw the sharpest increase in people migrating
overseas, at nearly 10 million, according to a
report by United Nations.
Bharatiya people take a lot of pride in the
January 30, 2022 ORGANISER
fact that persons of Bharatiya origin head the
world's biggest companies like Alphabet
(Google}, Pepsi, Microsoft, Twitter, Chanel,
Adobe, IBM, Mastercard and even Only Fans.
Also, a study done by Government of Bharat in
2008 revealed that 12% scientists, 38% doctors
in USA are "Bharatiya" (or of Bharatiya origin}
and 36% of scientists are of Bharatiya origin,
adding to the sense of pride, much of wh ich is
belied and is false because of the global power
play involved. It has neither been properly
understood nor appreciated (up until now
under Pradhan Mantri Narendra Mod i} that it's
actually a pyrrhic victory.
Those corporate bigwigs are nothing more
than mere employees of t he company they
lead, often lobbying against Bharatiya inter-
ests. Those companies add to the st rategic
econom ic depth of the Western powers, tilting
the power dynam ics more and more in their
favor on the world stage and taking the bar-
19
gaInIng power away from the grasp of
Bharatvarsha .
NASA's overwhe lmingly successful
Perseverance mission launched in 2020, that's
wowing the social media on internet, has
atleast 12 scientists of Bharatiya origin, atleast
eight of wh ich were females, includ ing Swati
Mohan, who heads a very important and criti-
cal position of "Mars 2020 Guidance &
Controls Operations Lead". It is surprising
then, that her profile is not displayed promi-
nently on NASA's "Mars2020" website and one
has to dig deeper to find a mention of her!
Imagine, had they been working for ISRO,
where our space program could have been and
what heights it cou ld have reached.
As a Bharatiya, if you wish to acquaint your-
self, with how the cancer of brain drain is grue-
somely eviscerating Bharat, look no further
than "Ek Dcotor Ki Maut" (EDKM}, a movie pro-
duced by FTII in 1990, based on "Abhimanyu",
a novel by Rampada Chowdhury. EDKM pre-
sents the perfect emblematic imagery, in the
popu lar imagination, of what I call "Bharatiya
Socialism with Unscientific Nehruvian-Fabian
Cha racteristics" . EDKM depicts Dr. Dipankar
Roy, a brilliant scientist (played fabulously by
Pankaj Kapoor) and his research facing
"ostracism, bureaucratic negligence, repri-
mand, and insult, instead of recognition" , as
Wikipedia puts it. Consequently, deeply frus-
t rated and unable to bear the resultant loss
and pa in, Dr. Dipankar commits suicide.
If you th ink it's a fictional take on Nehruvian
Social ism, th ink again. The movie was based on
the life of Dr. Subhash Mukhopadhyaya, a real-
life brilliant scientist who, in 1978, developed
the world's second and Bharat's first child
using in-vitro fertilization, 67 days after the
world's first developed in London! Dr. Subhash
and his brilliant achievements, came in the
face of odds, instead of being glorified, as he
was hounded and harassed by the then West
Bengal state gover nment (Commun ists had
20 ORGANISER January 30, 2022
just seized power from Congress for the first
time) and Bharatiya Government (Rajiv Gandhi
was the Prime M inister) and "not allowed to
share his achievements with the international
scientific community. Dejected, he committed
suicide on 19 June 1981." (Wikipedia).
Dr. Muhopadhyaya is not alone. On 11
January this year, news of a substantia l medi-
cal research breakthrough hit globa l news
headlines. In a ra re medical feat, a 57-yea r-old
US man was transplanted with a pig's heart.
Only that this wasn't actual ly the world's first.
In 1997, Dr. Dhaniram Baruah, a Bharatiya sci-
entist had beaten the Americans by a quarter
of a century. However, the patient later died of
infection. The then Assam government jai led
and "tortured" Dr. Baruah . Dr. Baruah is now
paralyzed .
India's policy discourse has for long been
driven by Nehruvian-Socialism that was fixated
with the "Poverty Line" . This fixation has led us
to miss catching the next wave of industrial
evolution, from agriculture to manufacturing
to the internet.
CONCLUSION
Thankfully we are finally ta lking in these terms.
We need to calcify systems and processes so
that the next major scientific breakthrough led
unicorn spr ings up in India. At some point,
Bharatvarsha would have to start thinking in
terms of reversing the brain drain. We have a
very robust, intelligent, and productive diaspo-
ra across the world working in cutting-edge
technology areas.
Bharatvarsha has led the world in pure
sciences, mathematics, navigation in the past
and given the world gems such as Ayurveda
and Yoga, not to mention the ph ilosophical
depth of the Upanishads, amongst
Dharmashastra. Then, we were the wo rld's
largest economy, by far.
There is no reason we can' t do that all over
again. ■