As a professor at Columbia University, USA, I have the privilege of mentoring students from all around the world. From this position, what I have come to believe is that a nation’s greatest resource is neither its wealth nor its infrastructure. It is the curiosity, imagination and courage of its young people.
Among the many students I have worked with, those from India have consistently stood out. They are among the brightest, most hardworking and intellectually fearless young scientists I have encountered. I often tell my colleagues that once an Indian student understands the importance of a challenge, they become like bulldogs with a bone; they refuse to let go until they find a solution.
These students are helping transform agriculture, medicine, disease surveillance, environmental monitoring and weather prediction with their innovations. At a time when Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence are reshaping every aspect of society, they are helping build the knowledge and technologies that will define our future in agriculture, pharmacy, human health, space technologies, and environmental monitoring.
That is why the images of students facing police action during what appeared to be peaceful protests in Delhi’s Jantar Mantar were so deeply disturbing. When I looked at those young faces, I did not see protesters. I saw future physicians, engineers, scientists and innovators whose discoveries may one day improve millions of lives.
In this age of artificial intelligence, nations compete not only for capital but for talent. We simply cannot afford to diminish, intimidate or silence the very generation whose ideas may help feed the world, combat disease, protect our environment and solve challenges we cannot yet imagine.
The greatest investment any nation can make is not in concrete or steel, buildings and roads but in the minds of its young people. Those minds deserve respect, protection and the freedom to think and express themselves.
JOAQUIM GOES, US
