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Delhi Sustainable Development Summit 2002
Ensuring sustainable livelihoods:

challenges for governments, corporates, and civil society at Rio+10
8 - 11 February 2002, New Delhi

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8 Feb. 2002 9 Feb. 2002 10 Feb. 2002 11 Feb. 2002
                                   
    11 February 2002: Plenary session 9
          
  
   Technological leapfrogging: the lure and the limits
        
                                 
Chairperson

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Prof. Umberto Colombo
Former Minister of Universities, Science and Technology, Italy

"Hydrogen is just right for the future."
        

          
Speaker

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Mr Somnath Bhattacharjee
Director, Energy-Environment Technology Division, TERI

"We need to adapt foreign technologies, keeping in mind the deficiencies of the local technologies"
       

                              
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Mr Eisa H Al-Majed
Director, Regional Office for Asia and the South West Pacific, World Meteorological Organization, Geneva

"A new paradigm of scientific inquiry needs to be invoked."

 

           
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Mr Shyamal Ghosh
Secretary, Ministry of Telecommunications and IT, Government of India

"One talks of death and sustainable development in the same breath."
                   

           
Speaker

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Mr Ashok Khosla
President, Development Alternatives, India

"More than half the people of this planet have been left out of the mainstream."
         

                   
Speaker

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Dr Nebojsa Nakicenovic
Project Leader, Transitions to New Technologies, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Austria

"Let us start technological learning now."
         

                    
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Dr Manju Sharma
Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India

"Biotechnology can be defined as technology that earns money from biology; it has great potential."
         

           
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Dr Hansvolker Ziegler
Chair of International Group of Funding Agencies for Global Change Research and Deputy Director-General, Environmental and Social Research, Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany

"What kind of science and technology is required for overtaking without having to catch up?"
      

                                           
Session summary
Technological leapfrogging implies skipping many, if not most, rungs of the technology development 'ladder' by directly adopting more advanced technologies. Most rural households cannot access basic energy services and rely heavily on traditional means, which adversely affect health and well being besides depleting the country's limited natural resource base. Advancement in science and technology offers unprecedented opportunities for sustainable development.

Development and commercialization of infrastructure is critical for technology to percolate to the grass roots. Affordability of and access to this technology are key to ensuring and improving livelihoods.

Technology can be incremental (reduces cost, improves performance) and radical/revolutionary (replaces traditional technology with modern).

Incremental technologies can help the small-scale sector meet present challenges of efficiency improvement and environmental compliance. Radical innovations increase people's welfare. In the IT sector, upgradation of existing wireline services to increased bandwidth and new wireless technologies for remote access could help overcome the digital divide. A new paradigm of scientific inquiry can address major global environmental issues. Satellite-based monitoring and automated data processing systems should be adapted and made affordable for developing countries.

Technological change helps improve performance, reduce cost, and mitigate adverse impacts of human activities. The ideal balanced strategy would aim at adoption of incremental changes in the short term and radical transitions in the long-term planning process. Opportunities to nurture entrepreneurial spirit and human ingenuity are essential. Appropriate legislative measures, financial support, and international cooperation are required to ensure that developing countries do not follow the developmental path traced by industrial countries.