Annual Report 2010 - Comsats

FOREWORD
By far the most poignant question that confronts
the overwhelming majority of mankind is to know
when the benefits of human development would
be accessible all over the globe, in a reasonably
equitable manner. Unfortunately, much of the
South continues to remain devoid of decent living
conditions available to its vast populations. There
are strong indications that Millennium
Development Goals would not be achieved
uniformly throughout the world. Amid this bleak
landscape, there are islands of prosperity, within
and across nations that have continued to flourish
over the last hundred years. There, the
extravagant life-styles are deeply ingrained,
unmindful of the deprivation faced by humanity at large. The status quo obviously
suits some countries, which also happen to be the ones that control the world
power structure in the form of international institutions, monetary systems, trading
bodies, energy resources and powerful military establishments. It is an open secret
that the rise of rich and strong nations in the modern world can be attributed to their
steadfast devotion to the development of Science and Technology. This recipe can
be seen to give the same results wherever adopted with seriousness, such as in
Japan, S. Korea and China.
It is, therefore, most logical to seek S&T development across the countries of the
South as a means of achieving the ultimate goal of socio-economic development.
There is no easy route for this to happen. The success would depend upon how far
an individual country can overcome internal and external impediments. That is why
the fundamental question of when the world would be, more or less, uniformly
developed is not easy to answer. As seen in the past, the progress would be nonuniform
and time-scales would be widely different, depending on how strong the
commitment is and how much resources are made available by a country’s
leadership, to create the technology savvy society. No progress can be expected if
there is lack of political will and unwillingness to embark upon a long and strenuous
journey. The circumstances that can further hamper any progress are well-known,
such as the adverse effects of climate change, diminishing fossil-fuel resources,
increasing world population, inadequate food and water supplies and continued
specter of military adventurism by states and terrorism by non-state actors.
Annual Report
2010
Fortunately, there are enough reasons to be optimistic about the world’s future.
The human ingenuity, if directed in the right direction, can bring about
unprecedented positive changes. The tools of Science and Technology can be
effectively employed to mitigate environmental degradation; harness new and
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