Research Directions in the Post COVID Era : A Roadmap towards Sustainable Development

The world has been going through really challenging times. And every challenging time has a lesson to teach. We may fall, but we should never fail to wake up. The episode of COVID-19 should be made an opportunity to revive the humane qualities inbuilt in our culture. Yes, I am talking about sustainability. 

I have heard from many sources that sustainable development is just  a book topic as of now. It is hard to practice in real world. Let us do a reality check. In the name of economic development, we have been heavily investing on infrastructure development. From where does the resources for such development come about? We all know that it is none other than from nature.  It is not that we are unaware of these facts, but that have just tuned our attitude towards amassing more and more. Our education system needs to ramp up to achieve behavioral changes that align with the goal of sustaining the nature. Let me now drive you through a set of possible technologies that can be used in a sustainable developmental model.

Internet Services -- infrastructure reduction

The next disruption in technology is going be on the penetration of the Internet. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a majority of companies offer the option of work from home. In education, teaching-learning process now involves online tools. In this information age, it is known that 'data is the new oil'. This is becoming more evident in the present pandemic situation. In the future transport of people is going to reduce tremendously, there will be lesser dedicated office spaces. This will bring down air pollution and cluttered roads may become a thing of the past. Telemedicine will become a prominent technology, enabling health access in remote villages through healthcare ATMs. This challenging times can become a boon for the power sector by expanding its reach for renewable.

Technology driven Agriculture -- sustainable living

Another interesting area of technology driven innovation is in agriculture. For a country to prosper its farmers need to be adequately supported. IoT technology can be used to conserve water and satellite based imagery can be adopted to identify suitable land. Smart agriculture can be employed to  reduce the time to market and can ensure best price to the farmers. Terrace farming opens wide possibilities in the urban sector. Office backyards, mostly public sector ones, are being utilized for growing vegetables. The Cochin airport claims to have grown sufficient vegetables for its employees using the recycled water used for cleaning the solar panels. A major lesson that the COVID pandemic teaches is the need to develop healthy and sustainable food habits. Vegetarianism can be practiced and followed, and thereby decreasing the violence on animals. Scientific evidence suggests that around 40% of global emissions can be reduced by shifting towards sustainable vegetarian diet. In addition to this,  healthy food habits can enable one to develop higher taste and ethical behavior. 

Soft Skill Development -- cognitive and behavioral skill 

The COVID crisis is also helping us imbibe several soft skills. There are encouraging signs to provide holistic education, that caters to developing inter-personal skills and personality development. Humanitarian thinking and inculcating eternal values should also be incorporated. This is also the time for inculcating the habit of acquiring spiritual sciences, which is otherwise mostly neglected. Social decision making has more than ever been a useful consideration in this difficult time. People, in general have attempted to obey government notifications. Another positive effect of the pandemic was on the increased enrollments for music, dance and cultural activities - which were made possible due to video conferencing and social media.

On a positive note ...

The challenges due to the pandemic has set forth time to think and reflect on several aspects of human decision making. It has provided a new direction to correct some our attitudes, and also helped us to think in a humble spirit. Let these lessons be implemented in the coming days, so that we can sustain our planet and hand over a better Earth to the generations to arrive.

Building a Culture in Research

This article stems from various aspects of research that has caught my attention, while being a graduate student at IIT Bombay. Although, India is a country with diverse culture and ancient history (dating back to vedic era), its involvement in research is still in the nascent stages. In recent years, there has been a series of strong reforms in the direction of lifting India's research output.  The manifold increase in the budgetary allocation for science and technology is a fitting example to this fact. However, scientific research cannot be progressive unless a research culture is introduced.

The Oxford  Learner's  dictionary defines the word culture as the beliefs and attitudes about something that people in a particular group or organization share. In a scientific context, research culture would mean a value system that is shared by the research community. It is a scenario where individuals work single-minded towards achieving a collective goal. ISRO's Mangalyan mission is an excellent instance where this has been demonstrated.The emphasis here was on collaborative exploration by setting aside social, regional  and language differences. No scientific advancement is possible without a sense of collective commitment and responsibility. Each scientist in that sense is accountable for the millions of taxpayers, to whom her/his services are to be delivered.

The culture of research is supported on three pillars - viz. academic institutions, industry and government agencies. Academic institutions have a major role in fostering scientific temperament through active engagement of its student community - UG, PG and PhD. Faculty members should facilitate exchange of ideas within the hierarchy of students as well as across departments. The academic environment needs to be shaped such that it encourages risk taking, allows experimentation, and accommodates failures. For instance, there can be provisions where the student is free to start a venture after completing a minimum number of credit.

Innovation is a constant companion to research. Especially this is very much true in engineering. Being an applied science, engineers try to find solutions to various problems that is of concern to the world around. In present times, it is further possible to convert the innovation to a venture and collaborate with other innovators in the area. A simple scheme to instil an innovation mindset is to encourage open discussions and pitching avenues. Apart from core subjects, engineers need to develop an open mindset to other subjects. Soft skills will be key for building successful research collaborations in the future. These include inter-personal skills as well as self management principles.

The foundations of research culture should be laid on integrity as well as social-responsibility. Ethics and values are pivotal to inculcate a holistic education, and this is more so important in research. In fact, the current educational culture of just accumulating information, needs to change.