Industrial Research (CSIR) under Dr. Mashelkar’s leadership was to take up the initial findings of the Bank’s report.

Introducing all three members of the panel in order of appearance, he started with T. S. R. Subramanian, who has retired following a distinguished, 37-year career with the government of India during which he had held its highest civil-service position, Cabinet Secretary to the government of India. Then would come Dr. Dahlman, currently Luce Professor of International Affairs and Information Technology at Georgetown University, who had distinguished himself during more than 25 years at the World Bank, where he and Dr. Patel had been colleagues. The final presenter was to be Surinder Kapur, who was participating in the capacities of both chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s Mission for Innovation in Manufacturing and of founder chairman and managing director of the Sona Group. Dr. Patel assured the audience that what Dr. Kapur had to say about the group’s activities would be very exciting and especially germane to the topic of how innovative technology’s impact can be scaled up to reach large numbers of people on the ground.

Dr. Patel suggested that each of the speakers take no more than 15 to 20 minutes, so that time was certain to remain for questions from the floor. With that, he invited Mr. Subramanian to the podium.

T. S. R. Subramanian

Government of India (retired)

Thanking Dr. Patel and greeting his fellow presenters and the audience, Mr. Subramanian said he would begin where Mr. Ahluwalia had left off by addressing areas for further action. The broad theme for the present panel could be the subject of numerous separate presentations, each of which might approach it from a different direction: by considering questions of national versus state government; urban versus rural; industrial, service, or agrarian policy; even regional and subregional development. Additionally, it could be addressed from the point of view of the entire framework of government policy, comprising policies of the central and state governments alike, or by asking whether the policies of the state governments were in conformity with those of the central government. He proposed to touch, however briefly, on some of these areas.

For the benefit of those lacking familiarity with the Indian system of governance, Mr. Subramanian noted that, as in the United States, the Indian Constitution clearly demarcates the powers and responsibilities of the central government from those of the state governments. Most of what touches the average citizen, including law and order, education, public health, and rural development, is in the purview of the states. Much of the reform to date had related to areas