International Centre for Technology Equalisation (ICTEq)
On 10 December 2014, a meeting of RSTS general body resolved to establish a centre with the above name. Looking back into history, technology has been the key factor behind human civilization through enhancement of the quality of life. In the ancient world people used to disseminate knowledge freely, contributing to a growth and spread of human civilization. In the recent past, however, through a selfish desire to reap the benefit of an innovation to oneself, a concepts of known as ‘patent rights’, intellectual property rights, etc., have been introduced which has been the key factor for creating the economic disparity among human beings, which has gone out of any reasonable proportions in the recent times.
Modern policymakers have thought of the deprived human beings as simply a pair of hands each that can be exploited, much to the liking of the benefited elites, while providing bare subsistence in return. We have never thought that each human being has a brain, an intellectual mechanism, through which s/he can come out of almost any crisis, unless of course, inhibited by the more powerful of their peers.
Again those who sincerely want a remedy of this unfortunate scenario, mostly talk about poverty alleviation. This coupled with the above mentioned twisted viewpoint of the policymakers can make people slaves of labour in the name of poverty alleviation, even with hard earned resources pulled up with good meaning intentions. The slogan should be, “Enhancement of the quality of life”, and poverty alleviation will automatically happen as a consequence.
Technology, as mentioned before, has been a key player in the creation of the human divide, and so it should be the prime target in any efforts to close the divide. Again, because of the large technology gap that exists today between the First and the Third World, it would be virtually impossible for a technologist from the First World to understand the situation in the Third World well, and to provide sustainable solutions. Many such attempts in the past have failed. Therefore, the effort should be initiated by the people in the Third World themselves, with support of different kinds from the First World.