“National development and national security are two sides of the same coin. All development boils down to Human Development Index (HDI) and youngsters should aim at ensuring a place for the Indian HDI in the top 10 in the world,” Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India R. Chidambaram has said.
He was delivering the Dr. P. Brahmayya Sastry Memorial Oration after receiving the first Dr. T. Ravi Raju Award at a programme organised here on Wednesday.
“A higher HDI will result in higher quality of life,” Dr. Chidambaram said.
Underlining the importance of indigenisation of medical equipment, the distinguished physicist said it was unfortunate that even simple and routinely used instruments were being imported.
There were, however, exceptions such as ‘Bhabhatron’ and HDR brachytherapy instruments designed by Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC ).
He called for shedding addiction to branded imported products that were coming in the way of developing indigenous diagnostic and therapeutic medical devices.
Female literacy
Referring to the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, he said: “I prefer female literacy to adult literacy. But female literacy is unfortunately lower than male literacy. Female literacy correlates strongly with infant mortality. The per capita GDP and per capita consumption of electricity are also strongly correlated,” he said.
“Nuclear power plants generate about 11 % of the world’s electricity and one-third of the world’s low carbon electricity. India is a leader in the nuclear energy sector. The recent relaxation by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) would boost the use of nuclear energy for sustainable development in various areas like radio pharmaceutical, diagnosis, and therapy,” Dr. Chidambaram said.
The National Knowledge Network (NKN), being implemented by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), was connecting 1,700 major institutions, including Andhra Medical College (AMC). The NKN e-classroom was providing collaborative digital diagnosis.
Vice-Chancellor of Dr. NTR University of Health Sciences T. Ravi Raju recalled the contribution of Dr. Brahmayya Sastry to research during his illustrious career in the Physiology Department. His humane approach to his students was worthy of emulation. When one of his students, Dr. Desi Raju, had bagged the prestigious Dr. Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar Award, Dr. Brahmayya Sastry celebrated the success. AMC principal P.V. Sudhakar said that Dr. T. Ravi Raju Award was instituted by one of his students. Dr. Chalasani, a cardiologist in the US.
Superintendent of King George Hospital G. Arjuna spoke.