Positive mind set

Dr R A Mashelkar says :

When Jamshedji Tata wanted to put up the steel plant, one British gentleman  had said, "if you are able to produce steel, I will eat every pound of it" I am sure this British gentleman would have got indigestion because of the way then TISCO and now Tata Steel has moved. And it's not only that. Today Tatas have acquired Corus, a British steel company.  So we are producing steel right in the backyard of Britain now!  All possible due to the change in the "national mind set".

 

 Let me talk about this mindset further. Lots of people call me a dangerous optimist. Many a times, I have said things, which people did not believe at that time. For example, in 1995 I gave Thapar Memorial Lecture in Delhi and the title of my lecture was India's Emergence as a Global R&D Platform - Opportunities and Challenges.  Dr. Manmohan Singh, the then Finance Minister presided over the lecture. What I had said at that time, 13 years ago, was that India would become a major Global R&D hub. I said there will not be product based competition. Because product would be just be an intermediary  in the market place, which would draw value for the enterprise from the market.  It was going to be the skill based competition, what skills you bring together, how quickly you bring together, how you assemble them, how you use them to synthesise something entirely new, smarter, faster, cheaper than your competitor. And that is beginning to be true now and you can see skill based competition coming all around.

 

People don't talk about history of science, they talk about geography of science, geography of science shifting to Asia Pacific. All these changes are beginning to happen. I have an undying optimism in life, which manifests in many different ways. If you show me a glass that is half empty I would look at the half full part of it. If I go into darkness, instead of cursing the darkness, I will be the first person to run to find a candle. How would you develop such a mindset? It is extremely important that we do that because with positive mind set what you can achieve is unbelievable, they can be truly transformational.