The MIT-India program, under the leadership of Tuli Banerjee and Deepti Nijhawan,  hosted a one-day conference “Emergent India” on September 21, 2007 with more than thirty experts in the areas of energy, education, cultural exchange, microfinance and urban planning.

Dean of Engineering Subra Suresh opened the event and talked about the long standing relationship between MIT and India. The first Indian to graduate from MIT was Siren Chandra Gupta, exactly 100 years ago, in 1907. Dr. Bramha Prakash, D.Sc 1940, started the nuclear research program in India. Another alumnus later started the Indian Institute of Metals. Finally, MIT faculty helped in establishing IIT Kanpur and IIM Calcutta.

Adi Godrej, Class of 1963, Chairman Godrej Group, gave the opening address. Capitalism is working for India. It is now the fourth largest economy after US, China and Japan. India’s economy is consumption led rather than investment led in China. This is driven by the new found confidence amongst the population, away form the socialist attitude. The housing and construction market is already a $75B industry growing at 20% per year. With more than 7 million cell phones sold every month, mobile telephony is booming. Even though capital productivity in India is very high, infrastructure and power are limiting further growth. However, the biggest bottleneck is education. “There is a serious shortage of well educated talent,” said Godrej.

“India faces a perfect storm of energy challenges, and we will need a multiplicity of solutions to solve the problems. These include Energy Supply and Demand (tripling by 2050), Energy and Security (disruptions in oil supply), and Energy and Environment (release of carbon dioxide and other pollutants),” said Ernest Moniz, Director of MIT Energy Initiative. Gregory Stephanopoulos, Professor of Chemical Engineering, focused on the conversion of biomass to biofuel, the availability of biomass, transportation of biomass to bio-refinaries, extraction of sugar and toxicity of butanol as some of the challenges in that area. Kirit Parikh, Head of Energy and Planning Commission, India, in his comprehensive assessment said, “Solar, hydro along with in-situ coal gasification are the only viable options for India.”

In India, similar to that in China, faculties have heavier teaching loads as compared to their counterparts in the US. This takes times away from research and hinders competitiveness of Indian industries. Finally, understanding and relating poverty, low immunization rates, high absentee rates among doctors, nurses, teachers and remote school administrators is important in overcoming the challenges facing India. Desh Deshpande, CEO, Sycamore Networks, gave the closing address.  

|