DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGIES IN EDUCATION AND CHALLENGES IN ITS GOVERNANCE

Education 2047 #Blog01 (22 Mar 2020)

Close your eyes, think of these random words and relate them to the environment closest you can imagine:  batch, attendance, time-table, delivery, instructions, test, pass, inspection, examination, result, grade, fail, reject, quality, promotion, detention. A factory is built in your imagination, as these words rattle your head. Right? A stark irony that our education institutions too use similar, if not the same terms.  Yes, our academic institutions are factories that grade humans and pass or fail them. Alas! We humans, the most intelligent organisms on the planet have created a system for education, which sees, admits and processes humans as products or commodity. The content canned in books is pumped into the head of each student as instructions, to be learnt at a pace of the rest of the class. S/he is prompted to regurgitate the same, for being tested against what is there in the books and stamped fit or otherwise for upward mobility on the academic/ professional ladder. Human beings put in rat-race!

With the system in place testing a learner in what he knows (in a handful of subjects that a school and its teachers know) and not recognizing his strengths what he knows no wonder the quality of education is sliding down across the board. The students and their parents agree with it, as do the teachers, administrators and the policy makers. The faculty in the top-notch institutions agree with the deterioration and the same gets echoed by teachers in remote primary schools. If the quality is sinking all across, then something is wrong the way we look at the quality and also why we focus on it. The paradigms have changed in the knowledge era that we are in, yet we use the same lens to check the quality.  The technology is disrupting and in fact, has disrupted education and  rendered the factory model completely out of sync with the times.  But, when did it all begin in India?

Anachronistic Model of Education

On 2 February 1835, Thomas Babington Macaulay enunciated his Minute on Education aimed to reform secondary education on utilitarian lines. The objective was to create “a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect”. What came about was imposing English as the medium of instruction in secondary education, from the sixth year of schooling onwards, in place of Sanskrit or Persian till then used in the educational institutions supported by the British East India Company. This British policy had a determining the impact two aspects: (i) the content and methodology of what has been and is being taught in Indian educational institutions, and (ii) the medium of instruction through which these have been and continue to be taught. What started almost two centuries ago has perpetuated- to produce armies of drones – starting with clerks, then managers and now coders; all spawned from the instructivist or conformist mould of learning, that split schooling and education into two!

The things remained unchanged largely because there was no technological breakthrough since the printing press in the 15th century that enabled the mass production of books and the rapid dissemination of knowledge. The books came handy in the industrial age, in the form of manuals- basically a prescription to be followed religiously- by workers. The books also came handy to the teachers as repository of knowledge, content for delivery to students, to prepare questions for examinations, and to evaluate the performance of students against the book. Sage-on-the-stage with books, addressing the needs of an industrial society, has been the defining characteristic of the factory model of education.   

Schools in the 20th century were largely supply-driven institutions, primarily to cater to prepare the workforce for the factories and governments. For reasons of large number of education seekers and cost control, schooling remained impersonal, seldom tailored to the needs and skills of each child; in short, there were leashes in the education system. But in recent years, technological breakthroughs have allowed monitoring of each child’s progress individually and to use his/her data of past performance to modify and customize what follows. Yes, the polar-shift has started happening towards a learner-centric system, comes as it with an opportunity and means to unleash the full potential of every child, for the first time in human history.

A Roadmap for Education

“Realizing the full potential of every Indian” goes the vision in the roadmap of Education, that Technology Information, Forecasting & Assessment Council (TIFAC) has laid down. First-ever foresight for Education, ever attempted in India!  This emerged out of the long-term technology perspective plan for the country drawn by TIFAC, Technology Vision 2035 (TV 2035) as a response to the challenges thrown by surging Information Technology across all sectors of socio-economic importance. The time horizon for the Technology Vision 2035 exercise was chosen because it was coinciding with 200 years of Macaulay's Minutes on Education! Naturally, then the exercise would not have been complete without a document on education. More so because "quality education, livelihood and creative opportunities" was identified as one of the prerogatives that the government must assure its citizens. Also throwing weight behind the roadmap, were 11 sectors covered under TV2035- hugely technology centred and verticals by themselves. The growth of technologies in these sectors, their deployment and adoption, would not be effective unless backed by strong, modernized and responsive educational system and hence, a roadmap for education was imperative.

Education is possibly the only sector which leads to new technology and at the same time, gets impacted by new technology. Also, it is the one which faces maximum resistance when it comes to the implementation of technologies and ironically from the teachers who are responsible for producing the change-makers! Therefore, the roadmap from TIFAC looks at education in a much more comprehensive manner not only by focusing on future technologies but also looking at the changes which are getting induced in human behaviours attitudes and inclinations and reasons for learning.  Let’s see the technologies shaping and disrupting education space.

Technologies impacting education in future

All technologies are basically assistive in nature, they augment the capabilities of humans and tremendously expand the resources. When harnessed properly, technologies can significantly improve human lives and make them better citizens of the world. The internet and mobile telephony have disrupted education and rendered it- globalized, democratized, inclusive and affordable.  The books allowed a learner to proceed linearly- forward or backward and thus imposed a restriction. In contrast, each web-page with hyperlinks embedded in it, allows a learner to dive into a new world just like a free roving human mind. The technology thus allows access to what a learner wants instead of books which have been dictating the learners. Let’s catch a glimpse of technologies in the offing, in not such a distant future.   

The ingress of hand-held devices like tablets, mobile phones into the education system is already visible but has to spread to actually unleash the potential of flipped-classrooms and blended-learning in a big way in India. The versatility of tablets will increase further with mobile apps become popular for providing access to educational content, facilitating testing and assessment, supporting management functions, financial transactions- over the internet. The wearable technology will further add to the capabilities of the tablets through wired/ wireless interfaces. Several MOOC providers have already developed their own apps for tablets to allow access to their material on-the-go. This personalization gets further advanced as these hand-held devices allow tracking one’s own performance and improve on learning objectives through learning analytics. Also, gaming and gamification are being supported by these tablets, taking care of the needs of learners in a wholesome manner.   

 

A lot more changes are expected if we push our time-frame by a decade or so. Developments in Artificial Intelligence will allow Natural Language Interpretation and Machine Translation to advance further and reduce the linguistic barriers at least in the written text.  The advances in Internet technologies like Cloud computing, 4G& 5G communications and Mesh Networking, will transform the classrooms on the one hand and make the virtual learning environments less virtual on the other. Modular computers, with flexible screens and context-aware, will make every other panel learner’s desk- smart and almost weightless; access to educational material and performance of educational transactions will be without the use of papers, through haptic interfaces and gestures. The sensation of depth in virtual and tactile experiences for experiential learning will be addressed by volumetric screens and Internet of things. All these technologies will liquidate ‘distance’ in distance education on the one hand, and take conventional education to distant places on the other. Thus, the shift from real classrooms to virtual classrooms, availability of language-neutral books, more engaging game-based experiential learning and highly personalized self-directed education would become common.  With these progressions, MOOCs and remote-labs would get integrated and also mainstreamed as will be game-based learning. Adaptive learning and testing will emerge as a defining characteristic of personalized or learner-directed education that appears to be the future.           

In a slightly distant future but not beyond our horizons, new experiences in education can be foreseen. Real-time translation would liquidate all linguistic barriers and learning would start becoming language neutral. It will be possible to join courses and classes with the medium of instruction losing meaning. Synchronous teaching-learning in any language would be possible. With advances in photonics, computational photography, holography etc. and the emergence of quantum computing, the virtual spaces would start becoming immersive and offer near-real experiences. This would take experiential learning to new heights. In short, all spatio-temporal-lingual concerns in education will be taken care of. As such, it will be possible to enrich the experience by creating virtual artefacts, tools, learning points/ spaces and integrating them in learning processes.  MOOCs will no longer be taken by learners but will emerge at built around a learner’s need and capacity, packed with an immersive experience. Educational walk-throughs allowing learners to have immersive experiences of historical events, remote locations, hostile settings, physical/ chemical/ biological changes etc. will become common. Reputation metrics as a substitute for institutional certifications or degrees may emerge, as education would become A4- “anyone, anytime, anywhere & any language”.

The emergence of technologies like Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Brain-Computer Interface (BCI), Real-time Translation (RT), 3-D Printing and Block-chain (BC) and their combinations are posed to several unthinkable possibilities. Literacy will have to be completely redefined and understood as how noted futurist Alvin Toffler puts it “he illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn”. With complete control over what is to be learnt by a learner to AI, language barriers liquidated by RT, the learning material and content presented in the form of IVR, assessments powered by BCI, hands-on experience enhanced by 3-D printers experiential and a cover of trust provided by BC, all of them just around a learner- the changes are unimaginable. 

 

The end of teachers, as we know them today is a distinct possibility, at least in higher education, repositioning them as pathfinders, navigators, counsellors and confidants in the service to learners. The books are set to become vestigial for the education system, accelerated by the climate change concerns and this trend also signals the end of reading, writing already threatened by texting! BCI may also hit hard on reading and of course, bypass listening/ speaking. Instant translation of text and speech will end linguistic barriers. Further, “adaptive” systems which will become less and less expensive and more and more widely available, are a pointer to end of grades/ classes, each learner has to struggle through, competing with peers. With all these technologies and of course, an enabling eco-system and policies, education is all set for a complete changeover, with the focus shifting from improving quality (of a product) to unleashing the full potential (of a human). With some technologies on exponential trajectory rather than linear, education is set to be under tremendous pressure and in a state of flux, this, in turn, opens up challenges for governance. 

Future Challenges in Governance 

Education is not just about the intellectual transactions that happen in academic institutions but it has a range of other processes, systems and institutions in its ambit. For this reason, administration, management and governance of systems and institutions in the education sector become extremely important. Administration is essentially about procedures and is therefore important in all public institutions. Unfortunately, the system now in place for administration were designed for an industrial age with layers of bureaucracy to ensure compliances. Owing to the emphasis on normality and routine that tend to maintain the status quo, the systems are bereft of novelty and innovation. Technologies like mobile telephony, cloud, RFID, apps, block-chain etc. can immensely accelerate the pace of administrative actions and make them transparent.

Management of education is the process of planning, organizing, directing and controlling the activities of academic institutions. This is achieved by utilizing human and material resources in a manner so as to effectively and efficiently accomplish the functions of teaching, research, training and extension work. A great deal of management functions is being done using technology, aided and accelerated by the internet. Communicating, sharing, archiving and retrieval of information has become so fast and dependable that most management functions are prone to automation promising speed, fairness and transparency.

Block-chain technology that is taking the financial sector by storm is already tipped to take away the offices of Registrar and their equivalents in schools and colleges.   If the internet transformed the way we shared information and connected, the block-chain will redefine we exchange value and whom we trust. This is all the more important when much of the education will happen online, also lifelong and life-wide (learning and personal development in real contexts and authentic settings), naturally learners yearning for learning in a trustful environment. With this technology not only the educational transactions will become trustworthy, but also setting up digital lockers holding students' credentials will become faster, with student reports automatically getting uploaded with validation processes in place.

Governance reflects in the quality of administration and management. It translates into putting in place- standards, information on performance, incentives for good performance, and also accountability. Technologies that can lead to quality governance in the education sector include cloud computing, mobile apps, digital identity, RFID, real-time translation, data analytics and block-chain. Advancements in these technologies can ensure us- safe, secure and authentic database vaults, digitization and storage of personal and public records, advanced forensics, advanced biometrics for digital identity and human independent decision support systems- promising to make governance in education more transparent, speedy and effective.

Technology for revamping education

For education, as we have just seen, technology has the potential to touch almost every aspect of it- slaying the traditional bottlenecks of inclusivity, infrastructure, economics and geography. The education systems hitherto, were designed to provide the information already available, to equip the students to grapple with similar situations in future. However, with democratization and easy access to education, and the rapid changes across sectors, induced by technologies, some galloping at the exponential rate, the system has to empower learners to shape the unpredictable future. Thus, education of the future will all be about how to learn and not what to learn and, scales tilted more in favour of innovation than invention. This paradigm shift would mean a radical change in the role of teachers who are considered the cornerstone, dwindling of the rigidity in academic institutions, and revisiting the structures and policies in governance. 

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The author is a Scientist with Technology Information, Forecasting & Assessment Council (TIFAC), currently on deputation to All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)

(The views are personal)
nrjsaxena@gmail.com

TIFAC'S TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP FOR EDUCATION 2035 (HIGHLIGHTS)

Technology Information, Forecasting & Assessment Council (TIFAC), India's technology think tank, released a roadmap for Education, prepared under its Technology Vision 2035 exercise.

Incidentally, 2035 would be 200 years of Macaulay's Minutes and the roadmap suggests among other things to reconfigure our Education system, and proposes "realizing the full potential of every Indian" as the vision.

The document

·    retrospects Macaulay’s Education system

·    identifies “pre-determined content” as the biggest bane of Indian education system

·    embedded in TV2035 exercise- Indian-centric (their security, prosperity & identity) rather than India-centric (GDP)

·    draws insights from 11 technology sectors of socio-economic importance

·    factors in foreseeable future technologies and their impact- on education (access, quality, skiling, assessment, and management)

·    proposes to (re)position education for preparing learners for ‘life’ and not ‘work’ and also for easier absorption of life-skills

·    suggests modular certification in higher education- facilitated through easy exit and re-entry

·    suggests mainstreaming vocational education and vocationalization of mainstream education

·    points to the liquidation of differences in curricular, non-curricular and extra-curricular aspects of education

·    projects a reinvented role for teacher- facilitator or navigator as against instructor hitherto

·    proposes a new definition for literacy circumscribing- Reading, Writing & Communication (RWC); Numeracy (NU), e/Digital Proficiency (E/DP); Visual and Symbolic Proficiency (VSP) and Civic Awareness (CA). Literacy preparing not for operating today but stay resilient to uncertainties of future

·    sees technologies unleashing education completely for the first time, making it- Anywhere, Anyone, Anytime

·    foresees University transforming into Multiversity- a tripartite pluralistic institution dealing with research, disciplinary specialization and diversification of curriculum

·    predicts that large number of new universities will be Virtual/ Meta/ Open in character

·    foresees learners seeking second/third career and also short-span careers, due to longer life-span, ease of access to education and technology triggered obsolescence

·    reflects on learner-paced, personalized education- adaptive learning and adaptive assessment

·    proposes ring-fencing teacher education to the public sector, emphasizing training of teachers for new roles

·    flags the exponential changes due to technologies that will force educational institutions, to reinvent and recalibrate themselves

Download the Roadmap from the link https://tinyurl.com/tifactv2035-education.

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SYNALLAGMATIC INDUSTRY- ACADEMIA LINKAGES

A nationwide foresight exercise has been underway for about 5 years now in TIFAC to put together Technology Vision 2035 for the country, and I have been privileged to be in the core team executing this task. A large number of meetings with experts and stakeholders including students and young trainees were organized in the course to evolve the Vision, besides resorting to the conventional foresight tools. During these meetings we expected insightful foresights into the deep future from these stakeholders and did get them, though not in full measures; but one of the common concerns that reverberated all across, was on the lack of intensive Industry-Academia (IA) linkages. Every other expert from industry or academia vociferously spoke about its need, rued about its absence and predictably, blamed the other side! Clearly there was a concern more about the present than the future, which we in TIFAC are concerned about; rightfully so, because the future is shaped by what we do today and IA linkages cannot  go off  the agenda of the immediate future. Let me use a broad-brush to bring forth my reflections, based on my first-hand experiences, on this unsettling issue.

The importance of academia- industry linkages for development of an economy, through innovation and productivity that they infuse into it, is well recognized and has been talked about ad nauseam in the country.  For industry, time is the most valuable resource with a demanding customer/ client keeping it on its toes and forcing it to marshal all its resources well, to stay competitive in the market. On the other hand, academia needs state-of-the-art infrastructure and funding, to generate new knowledge to fuel innovation, besides sourcing the skilled human resource to the industry. Constrained as it is for time and also not so strong in the basic conceptualization of problems, the industry prefers known solutions and even expects academia to be ready with them, which unfortunately the academia is not always geared for.  Academia is creativity-oriented, knowledge intensive and takes an exploratory approach in its operations and therefore, would fail to deliver if it does not enjoy autonomy. Academia manages knowledge and knowledge-products well, but isn’t really good in managing material resources and even valorizing its own knowledge products like the industry. The complementarity of industry and academia becomes more evident from the fact that  industry needs innovations as inputs from knowledge-bodies to stay productive as much as academia needs real problems to work on from industry to stay creative. Thus, it is amply clear that while two disparate entities may not stay together due to their contrasting features, they also cannot survive in isolation owing to their being both sink and source to each other and thus, locked in a perpetual cycle. 

It is also clear that in the widest perspective, both these entities have an important role to play for us as individuals- who  look for a better life, secured livelihood and safe living and also the nations- that look for a robust economy to ensure fulfillment of all the entitlements due to their citizens. Therefore, an interaction between the two assumes importance in fulfilling the socioeconomic imperatives besides their existence for each other. A macro-perspective from the prism of interactions between the two entities suggests  that the developed economies are characterized by strong linkages between industry and academia, the under-developed by the absence of it and developing ones by ‘make and break’ of it!

Realizing the importance of this complementing relationship, several initiatives have been taken world over to promote linkages between industry and academia and fuel the economy. Some of the prominent ones catering to diverse needs of the two include Calit2 (California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology) in USA, Magnet & Magneton program (Israel), Fraunhoffer Society (Germany), European Framework Programs, Industry Research Centers & Hsinchu Science Park (Taiwan) etc. Some of them involving the academia directly include: Microsoft- Cisco- Intel- University of Melbourne,  BP’s Energy Biosciences Institute- University of California Berkeley,  Audi’s Ingolstadt Institute of TU Munich, IBM- ETH Zurich, SKF- Imperial College London,  IBM- Imperial College London,  GE Global Research Munich, Siemens- TU Berlin- MIT, Nokia- Aalto University; these stand out as notable examples of IA interactions. Yet another example of such an interaction with sharp focus on innovation is Demola, which is an international organization that facilitates co-creation projects between university students and companies, either locally or internationally.  The trends from these countries suggest that I-A linkages are focused sharply on innovation, innovation systems and entrepreneurship. This is in contrast with the developing economies where they struggle to bring industry and academia face-to-face.

Let’s turn inwards and one finds that in India too, several initiatives pivoted around academia- industry linkages have been taken, mediated by the government in the past; like NMITLI (New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative) and SBIRI (Small Business Innovation Research Initiative) basically for technology development/ pre-commercial R&D; HGT (Home Grown Technology) and PATSER (Programme aimed at Technological Self Reliance) aimed at technology transfer and upscaling (Early Stage); and  technology incubation in academic institutions (STEPs, TBIs) and TDB (Technology Development Board) with an eye on technology commercialization; besides several initatives from DST, DBT, DSIR etc or their autonomous bodies in the recent years. Then, there are likes of IIPC (Industry-Institute Partnership Cells) and NAFETIC (National Facilities In Engineering & Technology with Industrial Collaboration) of AICTE and Mission REACH of TIFAC- focusing on improving the quality of education by involving industry.

Most initiatives are modeled, with government serving as third- strand in the triple-helix (of Industry- Academia- Government) not only to prevent the industry and academia linkages from cracking but also liquidate the  trust deficit. These initiatives have been taken to stir-up and intensify interactions between industry and academia, keeping in view long-term interests, to enhance their role and contribution to the economy  of country. Varying degrees of successes have been reported under these programmes, pointing towards gaps or shortfalls. Some of these programmes have been withdrawn, some recast but the successful ones hardly scaled-up. Clearly, there are some problems that fail the trio and need to be fixed, but starting from the roots.

At least in the Indian context, one finds reluctance in industry and academia to step into each other’s turf as the biggest stumbling block and usually it requires a third agency to bring them closer. But the alliance often remain unsealed, because of the two different languages they speak and are unintelligible to each other. Even if they get engaged formally, in most cases the collapse of the alliance is imminent and gets hastened because the contact is usually at one level. The collaboration remains only in mind and at best in papers- in the absence of a permanent structure and no follow-ups. A look into most failed linkages, would indicate that resources invested- time, funds and people were sub-critical and also the reasons were never documented as ‘lessons learnt’, out of fear of audits. Even the personal visits and correspondence remain inadequate to keep the ties afloat. In the post project evaluations, the failure in IA linkages is generally attributed to a technical point, but if carefully analyzed it would either be poor management of the affairs or inadequacy of resources- both non-technical and hence, not insoluble!  In the absence of any tangible incentives for getting out of their comfort-zones and grab industry’s confidence, the faculty allow their own potential to be under-exploited. Alas! The two sides, let the bridge burn and watch the camaraderie go up in smoke; only to whimper in some industry-academia conclave.

Unfortunately, even the government mediated initiatives in most cases fail to generate an impact that is envisaged before their launch.  It needs to be understood and appreciated that success or failure of such programmes cannot be measured at the end of project duration- typically of three years. A broader vision of overall programme and its objectives would point out that even the failures in projects (which could be due to technology, people involved, policy framework or management, etc.) contribute to its success, but only if they are not seen from the prisms of accountant. Therefore, the evaluation of both- proposals (before onset) and projects (after completion) need different yardstick, as public-private partnerships are a different ball game altogether and need a different set of rules; persisting with old set of rules on a new board will continue failing the players.  

On a practical note, we need to have a 'sustainable relationship' between the two sides; elements of which cannot be identified and appreciated by entities other than these two. For this, it is necessary that two sides value each other's importance and strength, understand each other's needs, give space to each other and to top it all, start believing in each other. The alliance should not be just for mutual convenience, but also be mutually obligatory i.e. synallagmatic, so that there is a 'purpose' for staying together.  The relationship should lead to a win-win situation for both and this should also be a reason for them to sustain the relationship. Anything that can be a cause of loss should be promptly eliminated lest it affect the relationship. And yes, success of such relationships largely depends on the attitude and mindset of people who make and mind them. Industry and academia should be careful in choosing or appropriately grooming them. They must have powerful vision and this should be non-negotiable. It is important that ‘what do I get’ relegates to the back, paving way for ’what does my organization get’ to come in front.  

Lastly, forging and fostering industry-academia linkages should not be seen as a project- starting with a proposal and closing with Fund Utilization Certificate but as ‘management of change’  with hand-holding of industry and academia stretching well past the high-point in their interaction and right up to celebrations. The mediating, if any, entity has to be more patient, accommodating, far-sighted and progressive; more so if it is the government because its stakes are the highest- “making investment on behalf of the people”, as late Prof. P.V. Indiresan, Ex-Director IIT-Madras often said while speaking on this topic.

[published in CSI Communications, Vol 39, Issue No. 8, November 2015]

Search: The New Age Must Have Skill

It is no longer possible for anyone to stay in the digital world, without knowing how to 'search'. With the sea of information that one is confronted with after hitting the search button, it is important to be able to hit on the right information. It’s like finding needle in haystack! This certainly requires skills which are entirely different from conventional search tools.

Many netizens, at the most know the use of features like string search, Boolean operators, calculation and conversion. Most are unaware of site operators, search by filetype, image search, the gear on SERPs (Search Engine Results Page) etc. and even combining them.  Anyone who is proficient in searching would conclude that searching in the cyberspace is not a science, it is an art! Science works in the background, but the search results appearing in the front depend on how well the search tools are chosen, used or combined.

It is certain that skills of searching are ‘must have’  for all those in educational domain. To be high on digital literacy, it is important that a person acquires proficiency in search, else is certain to get overwhelmed by the information overload. Poor ability may blunt the capability of judging information and even mute creativity of a learner.

Thus, there is a strong case for students being imparted skills in searching from the early stages itself and along with other skills. This will ensure that this skill gets deep-rooted in them (like skills of reading and writing), keeps them focused in the face of information deluge, does not curb their ability to be  imaginative while learning and also stay independent learners lifelong.

Search-based games could be a way to teach the students- the science and art of searching in cyberspace. Assignments requiring use of historical/ past data could be another way to push students to search and hone their skills in judging the information. To encourage students to use calculator/ conversions, projects that call for routine monitoring of parameters could be designed and they could be asked to present reports in different units. For image searching, jigsaw puzzles (-creating them or completing them) can be quite useful.

Interestingly, the growing need of proficiency in search can well have the focus again on librarians who are skillful in searching but have been relegated in the academic landscape. Proficient in searches as they are, librarians can play a vital role in imparting the much needed skills in the student in the class-rooms itself. Librarians, are you listening?

So, if all these years "research" was about finding answers, it is "search" now. Better search than research (Better late than never) !

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Dr. Neeraj Saxena is a Scientist with Technology Information, Forecasting & Assessment Council (TIFAC)