KOCHI: Union Minister of State for Tourism Alphons Kannanthanam, who is known to speak his mind, on Tuesday was at it again. Irked by the thin attendance at the International Symposium on Remote Sensing for Ecosystem Analysis and Fisheries, Kannanthanam did not mince words while lashing out at the current state of research in the country.The minister who arrived at the CMFRI here to inaugurate the second day’s session was peeved at the sight of unoccupied seats.
“Several symposiums turn out to be holidays. I don’t know whether these conferences serve any purpose. We have dozens of research institutions and brilliant researchers, but do the fruits of the research percolate to the common man? Has the common man benefited from these research? The last time it happened was during the Green Revolution which helped to improve agricultural output. You may have done a lot of research, but the life of the fisherman has become all the more worse,” he said.
According to Kannanthanam, while serving as the state’s Higher Education Secretary and Commissioner for Entrance Examinations in 2000 during his IAS days, he had noticed majority of the research papers were ‘cut and paste’ jobs. Foreign countries are using software to check plagiarism in research work. A research work , or a thesis should benefit the society or at least widen the horizons of knowledge, he said.
Urging the scientific community to invent technology to forewarn fishermen about cyclones and other natural disasters, Kannanthanam said several hundred lives could be saved if the information could be passed onto the fishermen in time.
“ It is over a month since Ockhi struck. But several hundred fishermen are still missing. There is a dispute between the state and the Centre with regard to the timing of the alert issued. Though we are global leaders in satellite technology, we don’t have credible information to alert the fishermen in case of natural disasters. This is one point the researchers should ponder on. All research work should benefit the common man,” he said.
As to how the government has used technology to help the common man, Kannanthanam said 300 million bank accounts were opened in the last three years and `2.40 lakh crore was credited to the accounts of the poor. When the Narendra Modi Government assumed power in 2014, 67 per cent of Indians did not have toilets. Now, 69 per cent households have toilets and by 2019 every family will have a toilet, he said. Every village in the country will have power by 2019 and housing for all will be achieved by 2022, he said. Earlier, CMFRI director A Gopalakrishnan welcomed the minister.