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Task force recommends knowledge index

A task force set up by India's Planning Commission has recommended an index to map the country's digital divide as part of a strategy to transform the country into a knowledge superpower.

The Knowledge Development Index would be an indicator of the country's ability to generate, absorb and disseminate knowledge and convert it into wealth, K C Pant, commission deputy chairman and chairman of the Knowledge Task Force, said at a news conference in New Delhi on Friday.

"We missed the industrial revolution, but we have no intention of losing out on opportunities presented by a knowledge-driven world," Pant said.

The 13-member task force has in its report recommended permitting Internet telephony, which has not been legalized by India on account of security fears. A Cabinet Committee for Knowledge Society has also been recommended for evolving policy and monitoring India's progress in the sector. The prime minister is to decide the members of this committee.

The report was submitted to the prime minister Thursday and, according to panel member Ashok Parthasarathi, was the world's first report on knowledge economy by any government, especially in a developing country.

The report lays down a roadmap for societal transformation and generation of resources through knowledge. The panel worked on the foundation that India would need more than 3 million knowledge workers by 2010.

The panel had interacted with more than 2,500 people in the country and dealt with around 20,000 pages of comments to come up with this report, Pant said.

Admitting that most of the recommendations were old or already under implementation, Pant asserted that the idea of this report was to dwell on connectivity.

"There is an element of analysis that makes it more than an academic exercise."

On the Knowledge Development Index, the director general of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, R.A Mashelkar, said: "The United Nations Development Program has a technology development index on similar lines. India ranks a poor 63rd in the index, lower than even countries like Zimbabwe and Cyprus. But they have used indicators like usage of electricity which is faulty. We propose quantitative indicators to arrive at more accurate figures."

The report points out that the existing performance index of gross domestic product and import-export ratio may not be enough to judge a nation's prosperity in a knowledge society.

The task force underscores the need to have several more Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institutes of Management and Indian Institutes of Information Technology to meet the demand for quality manpower. It also highlights the need to improve connectivity and infrastructure to improve lives.

An educational development finance corporation has been suggested by the panel, which also recommends permitting all universities to fix their own fees according to the quality of education imparted.

Indo-Asian News Service

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