Scientific innovations needed to meet global challenges: Kapil Sibal

New frontiers of science will have to be conquered to overcome challenges posed to humans in the 21st century and nations will have to collaborate to achieve the goal, Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal today said.

"The solutions of the past cannot resolve the challenges of the present...If we have to succeed and conquer these challenges, we will need to break new barriers of science," Sibal said.

He was addressing a meet on Building Communities, Bridging Continents in Chandigarh.

Sibal said the challenges of the present century were very complex and related to the basic needs of individuals such as eradication of hunger, right to food, water, education, employment and global warming.

Giving the example of how water shortage was going to increase in future, he said the existing population of the global community at 6.2 billion consumes 19 billion tonnes of water annually, more than what the planet generates.

"By 2050 when the population is set to touch 8.9-9.2 billion, we will be in the midst of a crisis," he said.

"We are short of food, water and energy and the way we are plundering earth, we will disturb the delicate balance of nature," Sibal said.

Stating that water-intensive agricultural activities are unsustainable, the HRD minister said there is need for new technology to encourage farming with the use of less water.

"We have to realise that we cannot afford to continue producing agricultural commodities the way we have been doing over the years," he said, giving the example of how rice and wheat crops guzzle a lot of water.

"What then is the solution? Obviously, we have to cross and conquer new frontiers of science," he said, adding that we will need to produce seeds that will consume less water and have new technology to increase productivity.

Sibal also gave the example of how humans had, over the last 300 years, consumed a limited resource like coal which takes millions of years to form.

"Now nature will not accept such things...the root cause and genesis of global warming is the result of this delicate balance getting disturbed," he said.

The minister stressed that the global community will have to collaborate to meet the challenge of depleting natural resources which are very essential for the survival of inhabitants of the earth.

"In the 21st century, no one country has the solution. There has to be collaboration and dialogue among communities across continents because the challenges facing us are not limited to one part of the world," he said.