SANS RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Trying to find out professionals, friends, relatives and acquaintances having research and development bent of mind can turn out to be an uphill task. This is a topic we don’t discuss, even in the 21st century, in a world driven by data and artificial intelligence. That we seem to be losing our scientific temper is a travesty of modern existence, while being simultaneously forced into the all sorts of mass scale technology, from What’sApp to the cloud. The nature of society we have meticulously created in last decade or so, has made us unfit to inhabit this world. We are creating life challenging issues for ourselves on a day to day basis, with no end in sight.

Scientific temper, research and development are deeply connected and to it, is today’s world. There is no way we can live without it. Life sans research and development cannot happen anymore. Whichever country has tried doing it, has ended up nowhere. If you cannot do it yourself, somebody will have to do it for you. If that is also not the case, you should have the capability to validate the R&D done by a third party, known or unknown. The roller coaster ride of yesteryears can be treated just as a fairy tale now. The knee jerk response in the present pandemic is a perfect example. If primary research was done, findings deduced, however preliminary, it would have delivered different results.

Till today we have not been able to crack the Lockdown Formula. And with scientific temper also missing simultaneously, we don’t have the endurance, perseverance and the foresight to follow through decisions taken. Every model has been proven wrong so far. There has to some issue with the model or the implementation. Science and R&D dictates the impact, administrative decisions cannot. The cart cannot be put before the horse. The research on wearing of masks is blatantly being made fun of by persons of the stature of the heads of countries. What message does it send, at a time, when the world is facing its worst existential crisis of the modern age.

Sans R&D, nothing can either grow or survive and is equally relevant to every sector, vocation, geography and population. Sentiments and emotions and playing to the gallery has brought us to the brink of disaster and it can take us beyond this as well, if we don’t make amends. Research and development not happening in institutions created for this purpose is like fence eating the crop. Statistical modelling to data sciences to AI can certainly throw up facts, correlations and predictions way beyond the spikes and percentages. The capability to create dynamic R&D models depending on the dire necessity for usage and decision making can become the game changers, in the grim situations like the present one. Common sense understanding, gut feeling, fake confidence and being a soothsayer cannot take us anywhere. Time to change gears.

SANS RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT, EVERY STEP TAKEN, ONE WILL HAVE TO REPENT.
Sanjay Sahay

Home is where the life is!