The Mashelkar Affair

As an architect of India's knowledge policy, an eminent scientist, chief of India's elite scientific research organisation CSIR, Mashelkar should have known better. Hot on the heels of his own acceptance of plagiarism in his report on Intellectual property rights (about which I blogged a few days ago) Mashelkar has been accused this time by a British IPR expert Dutfield about verbatim copyin of his 1996 paper in Mashelkar's 2004 book "Intellectual Property and Competitive Strategies in the 21st Century" which he co-authored with Shahid Ali Khan. Both the authors deny this. It seems retirement has not started on a happy note for Mashelkar. I am sure we will hear more about this affair.

 

Dutfield on his part is disappointed that Mashelkar himself never bothered to call and acknowledge the violation of his copyright. "I guess, I was not important enough to Mashelkar, or this issue was not deemed important enough for him to apologise to me directly".
Given his own experience, how does he see the controversy surrounding the withdrawal of the latest Mashelkar committee report?
Dutfield said: "I don't want to brand Mashelkar as a plagiarist, at least until there is more evidence than we have. But what I would say is that he is sloppy and irresponsible in the sense of using ghost writers to do his work for him, not checking what is published in his name, and of then blaming these people when it goes wrong".

 

Source:Mashelkar book not all his own?-India-NEWS-The Times of India

PUNJAB State Assembly Elections 2006 Results and Trends Information

 The elections to the Punjab assembly in India were historical because of the extreme competition and high voter turnout (76%). NDTV go it spot-on about a Akali win as did CNN-IBN/CSDS exit poll on vote shares. Yesterday the results indicated tight races in all the constituencies bar a few. Many stalwarts lost but the biggest winner was the Akali-BJP combine who regained power after five years. Congress-I gained a lot of seats in the Malwa belt - something that will worry Mr. Badal - the octogenranian Akali leader who starts a record fourth term in Office. BJP is the biggest winner in terms of seats gained. They benefitted out o this election wonderfully. Congress must set its house in order - sack Amrinder, deal with internal disensions and be a constructive opposition. Akali Dal must accomodate BJP properly, think about regaining Malwa, refrain from the politics of vendettta and give a clean administration - Punjabis deserve it after five years of sometimes high-handed rule from Amrinder Singh & his coterie.

Based on information from the Election Commission of India, who did an excellent job at updating the results constantly throughout yesterday, here is a link to the Election Map (based on Google Maps API).

Link: http://www.baljitgrewal.com-a.googlepages.com/mapInfo.html

 

Indiadaily.com - Root cause of outsourcing and H1B abuse is the disrespect for scientists and engineers in America and Euro Zone

A great point. When will the day come in the West when really meritorious make it to top positions. 

the President of India is the country’s top most space scientist. He was chosen president because of his scientific and technical achievements. When will that day come in America or Euro Zone?

Source: Indiadaily.com - Root cause of outsourcing and H1B abuse is the disrespect for scientists and engineers in America and Euro Zone

Ian Miles' Blogs

Ian Miles Blogger Profile has links to his many topical blogs.
Ian Miles is a Professor of Technological Innovation and Social Change at Manchester University's ESRC Centre for Research on Innovation and Competition. He maintains many blogs with a lot of information about knowledge economy and information society issues. Some of the links are:
1. Online Publications http://ianspublicationsonline.blogspot.com)
2. A list of blogs (on services, foresight and futures, technology and society) is at Ian Miles Blogs - http://milesblogs.blogspot.com
3. A blog about his KEIS course at Manchester Univ.

India's top knowledge policy technocrat accepts plagiarism in his report.

It happens only in India. Mr Mashelkar is still one of the key figures in India's knowledge policy. Plagiarism in a report of a panel headed by him is a serious issue but one which in keeping with India's policy culture will be swept under the carpet.

IndianExpress.com :: ‘Plagiarism’ in his panel’s report, Mashelkar tells Govt to withdraw it

Mashelkar, former Director General of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has asked the government to “withdraw” a report written by a panel he headed after a crucial paragraph on patent law was found to have been copied ad verbatim from other sources, without any attribution.

Mashelkar, considered the force behind the the country’s progress on intellectual property and patent issues, submitted this 56-page report on December 29 last year, his last day in office after a 30-year-long illustrious tenure.

Source: IndianExpress.com :: ‘Plagiarism’ in his panel’s report, Mashelkar tells Govt to withdraw it

On Richard Florida's blog: "The Creativity Exchange: Poetry of Cities"

 This post is about a poem by Pier Giorgiho Di Cicco on creativity.

All this to say, that a knowledge economy depends on knowing the roots of creativity.
A knowledge economy is more than information. It  isn't seduced into the quick harvest. It doesn't barge on insight before insight has had a chance to flower. A knowledge economy understands that the outsourcing of design is at an end, if the design of the architecture between citizens isn't attended to.

Source: The Creativity Exchange: Poetry of Cities

Link: Stephen Downs Presentation titled, "Toward a New Knowledge Society"

 There is a flash-based presentation by Downes (Flash URL)

 

Zimbabwe tops Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka in ICT Opportunity, according to ITU at LIRNEasia

 

The ITU has just released Measuring the Information Society 2007: ICT Opportunity Index and World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators. This report includes the annual data on basic telecom indicators, which many rely on for research, writing and policy formulation. Contrary to the title, the data are from 2005, but still, this is one of the few sources of comprehensive data where all countries are represented.

This particular report also ranks countries by something called the ICT Opportunity Index. According to this ranking, Zimbabwe (Rank = 127) has greater ICT opportunities than Pakistan (139), India (133) and Sri Lanka (128).

Source: Zimbabwe tops Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka in ICT Opportunity, according to ITU at LIRNEasia

The 3rd Waseda University World ranking on E-Government 2007

Top 15 countries ranked by development of e-government. The full report is here. Interesting to note that Malaysia fares better than New Zealand. Malaysian government websites do not look very pretty as compared to NZ but they seem to be more effective in terms of governmental commitment to e-governance, public uptake, range of services and so on. The indicators employed in the rank include those relating to network preparedness, online applications such e-tax, e-voting, e-tender etc., management optimisation, role of CIO, homepage quality, and promotion of e-government.


Rank Country
1 U.S.A.
2 Singapore
3 Canada
4 Japan
4 Korea
6 Australia
7 Finland
8 Taiwan
9 U.K.
10 Sweden
11 Germany
12 France
12 Hong Kong
14 Italy
15 Malaysia
15 New Zealand

Website of the Day: CSPO - Consortium For Science, Policy & Outcomes.

 CSPO is a research consortium in Arizona State University. It brings together under one umbrella "university-wide faculty appointments, faculty affiliates, staff, programs and projects". This page shown below is directly related to my topic.

"Knowledge Flows and Knowledge Collectives:

Understanding the Role of Science and Technology Policies in Development

Volume 1: Knowledge Flows, Innovation, and Learning in Developing Countries
Complete Volume 1
Introduction - D. Sarewitz
Section 1 - S. Feinson
National Innovation Systems Overview and Country Cases
Section 2 - B. Sampat
Recent Changes in Patent Policy and the "Privatization" of Knowledge
Section 3 - G. Foladori
Can PPPs in Health Cope with Social Needs?
Section 4 - A. Gupta
The Role of Knowledge Flows in Bridging North-South Technological Divides
Section 5 - G. Zachary
Black Star: Ghana, Information Technology and Development in Africa
Volume 2: Public Value Mapping for Scientific Research
Complete Volume 2

Section 1 - B. Bozeman
Public Value Mapping of Science Outcomes: Theory and Method
Section 2 - M. Gaughan
Public Value Mapping Breast Cancer Case Studies
Section 3 - A. Gupta
Public Value Mapping in a Developing Country Context"

Source: CSPO - Consortium For Science, Policy & Outcomes - CSPO Ideas - Knowledge Flow

GramIT: Taking outsourcing to rural India

Promoted by the Byrraju Foundation, of Mr. BR Raju - founder of Satyam Computer Services, a major player in Indian IT industry, GramIT (translation Village IT) is an innovative strategy to bridge the digital divide and extend the rewards of BPO to rural India. The foundation has adopted 158 villages for development projects, according to IT Business Canada, a technology news website.

Today's Link: India Rising @ BBC

India Rising Program Archive

BBC Special Report Series 2007 features "India Rising"

Copyright: BBC

Many indian newspapers and even news channels carried reports based on BBC's india rising feature. BBC has over the years provided very good coverage of issues pertaining to India and "India Rising" should be seen in that light. Other international broadcasters, notably CNN in 2004 tried to showcase india in a week of special reports ("Eye on India") about India but neither was it comprehensive nor incisive.

Today's Link: MaRS Blog

From MaRS Blog: How to capture tacit knowledge? by Veronika @ MaRS

 

We live in the knowledge world, perform in the knowledge economy – but what do we mean by “knowledge”? For most people knowledge is fact-based, written in books and discussed at conferences. This is “explicit” knowledge.

However, if you try to examine what you actually do every day, I bet that over 50% is stuff that would fall into the category of “tacit” knowledge. The term was introduced by Michael Polanyi in “The Tacit Dimension”, and describes the fact that “we can know more than we can tell.” He termed this pre-logical phase of knowing “tacit knowledge.”

There is a link to John Seely Brown's online article "Learning, Working & Playing in the Digital Age"

MaRS is a Toronto, Canada based "convergence innovation centre dedicated to accelerating the commercialization of new ideas and new technologies by fostering interactions of capital, science and business."

Economist: India Overheating?

 

To boost sustainable growth, India needs to clear the path ahead rather than risk running an economy beyond its safe maximum speed. Indians are understandably eager for their economy to sprint like a tiger rather than amble along like an elephant. Yet few animals have an elephant's stamina or can travel as far in a day—provided its way is not blocked.

Read more