“Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi is one of the originators of the concept of sustainable consumption. Concerned thinkers have long insisted that for a technology to be ecologically viable it must meet the criterion of sustainable production. This criterion brings environmental concerns into the process of development of technologies; but, sustainable production can be reduced to merely a set of design, engineering and managerial requirements that need to be built into a technology. The concept of sustainable consumption lifts the environmental argument to the plain of ethics and morality; to the plain where Indian civilisation seeks to regulate and discipline material culture, the plain at which Mahatma Gandhi formulated his response to the West.

During his tenure as the Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Science and Technology (S&T), and Ocean Development from 1998 to 2004, Dr. Joshi spoke at several national and international forums about sustainable consumption. He also lectured on other issues concerning Indian S&T including: integrating modern and the Indian civilisational streams of science and technology; applying S&T for enhancing national defence-preparedness and generating material wealth; bringing together social and natural sciences; helping Indian S&T establishment enter into strategic alliances with similar establishments of other nations; and, in general, turning S&T into an effective instrument of national resurgence. This compilation presents some of the important speeches that he has delivered on these diverse aspects of our S&T effort.

The book is divided into the following sections:

•  Science Religion and Spirituality

•  Science Technology and Sustainable Consumption

•  Science and Welfare

•  Excellence in Science for World Leadership

•  Science for World Peace and International Cooperation

These lectures have been compiled and edited by
J. K. Bajaj and M. D. Srinivas

SCIENCE SUSTAINABILITY AND
INDIAN NATIONAL RESURGENCE
pp.xxxii+246 hard-bound, ISBN 81-86041-24-9, Rs. 400/-