Technology the 'Golden Key' for Planetary Sustainability: India at UN

As the world observed Earth Day, India said technology held the "golden key" to planetary sustainability and concerns over intellectual property rights should not stand in the way of the world body taking up the issue of sharing it.

Permanent Representative Asoke Kumar Mukerji said Wednesday, "Without a collaborative approach on international cooperation on technology development, transfer and diffusion, the global achievement of sustainable development will remain a mirage."

"The global nature of the challenges that we confront makes it imperative that a public goods approach to global resources is matched by an equally constructive approach to technology cooperation," he added.

"Technology cooperation is not a zero sum game," he said, and it should not be kept off discussions because of "exaggerated fears about Intellectual Property Rights or mandatory technology transfer requirements."

Mukerji said that to give an impetus to development and deployment of technology for sustainable development, the UN could look at a proposal for creating an Advanced Research Project Agency for Sustainable Development (ARPA-SD) that was made by Prof. Ambuj Sagar of India and Mr. Arun Majumdar of Google and Stanford University.