Prof. Amartya Sen delivered the valedictory keynote on how IITs, IITians and PanIIT can Inspire, Innovate, and Transform India into a global superpower.

It was a pleasure listening to the views of Nobel Prize winner Prof Amartya Sen. He was the only speaker who received a standing welcome. The hall (SAC) was jam packed – we had to move around to find empty seats.

Dr Ajit Ranade (Group Chief Economist at Aditya Birla Group), welcomed and introduced Prof Sen. Dr Ajit’s introduction about Prof Sen was rambunctious. Some of the interesting points from the introduction:

1. Rabindranath Tagore is said to have given Amartya Sen his name (”Amartya” meaning “immortal”)
2. Dr Manmohan Singh was fellow to Prof Sent at Cambridge University
3. Prof Sen received Bharat Ratan, India’s highest civilian award in 1999
4. Many of the statements made by Prof Sen are considered conventional wisdom today. E.g. ‘Famine is not caused by the shortage of the food but by the lack of purchasing power’

Prof Sen’s 75^th birthday (which was on Nov 3, 2008) was celebrated again in the traditional Indian style (he was honoured with Tilak and Shawl) at the PanIIT 2008 conference.

Prof Amartya Sen started his talk by acknowledging the history and contribution of the IIT movement, which was started in 1951 by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Pandit Nehru always believed that ‘Education’ must be the foundation for India’s progress and IITs contribution to the nation building is a testimony to that.

Talking on the role of IIT system in the nation building, he reiterated the theme of the PanIIT 2008 conference:

“Inspire. Innovate. Transform”

He also highlighted and raised concerns about fundamental problems of India – hunger, illiteracy, lack of medical care. He shared his astonishment on the current state of these issues in India. Talking on the potential of IIT System and IIT Alumni, he stated that Technology can and should play its deserved role in solving these issues.

Prof Sen advocated an approach to problems based on ‘nyaya’ rather than ‘neethi’. He described ‘neethi’ as a mere set of rules and ‘nyaya’ as the fair outcome and realization of the benefits of law. Talking further on this approach, he gave the example of argument between Arjuna and Krishna in the Geeta. Finally, Arjuna lost the argument. He said that the ‘Matsyanayaya’ (i.e. the big fish eating small fishes) should be prevented in order to ensure justice and equality.

Prof Sen said that IITs had not only achieved in terms of technology, but also ushered in a culture of ‘getting things done’. He said that the country needs the contribution from the IIT System and IITians at a lower level, at the level of schools and primary health care. With innovativeness, intelligence, sympathy and, utlimiately, humanity, there is a lot that IITians (students, alumni and facultly), and those trained and influenced by them can do.

Prof Sen’s Valedictory note was then followed by engaging Q & A. Of course time couldn’t justice to the huge number of questions, which were being asked by the people who were delighted to hear his views.

An appropriate parallel was drawn before the introduction to Prof Sen’s session – if PanIIT 2008 were a 50 over match and the sessions by Prof C K Prahalad & Tata CEOs, by Prof Stephen Cohen & Prof Kishore Mahbubani represented the slog overs, the speech by Prof Amartya Sen was the winning shot.