Dear Das:
A long distance hello from one Kharkhowa creative professional to another. You
may remember we met at your lab. at IIT-G
a number of years back, mutually introduced by my namesake, Dr. Chandan
Mahanta, your fellow professor.
It was by fluke that I came to receive your mail. I opted out of the e-mail
group 'assamonline' a number of years back for a number
of reasons. But somehow, I do end up receiving mail from the group every now
and then. For once I am glad I got to see your post
from this list because I feel strongly about the issue, on more than one level.
That is why I am also posting this note to 'assamnet', the
e-mail group that I maintain connections with.
First off allow me to congratulate, like I did when I first saw the prototype
in your lab, for your Dipbahan tricycle rickshaw, what, about 5 years back?
I thought you and your team of colleagues, students and grad. students who may
have been involved were doing an excellent job. Being an architect
and also having been exposed to NID way back in 1967 and later being a
colleague and partner with a graphic/product designer here in St. Louis, USA
, I appreciate the value of modern product design, something that was sorely
missing in India. You and your team therefore are filling a very critical
gap in the country's higher education in the area of CREATIVE designs.
With this background, when I read your note, I was taken aback by what has been
going on with Dipbahan. I will be the first to acknowledge here,
that in affairs such as this, there are many layers of issues, events, facts
and even fictions, of which I am sure I am quite ignorant. But the fact of your
and your IIT colleagues' original creative ownership of the design is
indisputable as far as I am concerned, because I saw it personally, under
development
at your lab. That is why I am mincing no words in declaring that a gross
violation of professional ethics has taken place here.
Having said that, let us examine Pradip Sarmah's role here: I don't know him,
although I heard the name in association with the modern tricycle rickshaw
design. I assumed that he was working with you and your team at IIT-G and
thought it was a good thing that the product has found its way to the
market and in a good way at that, to enable needy drivers to become owners. I
won't attempt to deny Sarmah due credit in helping bring the rickshaw to
the needy drivers. But IF he did it in the way you describe here, it is
thoroughly unprofessional and dishonorable.
This brings us to the question of intellectual property rights. I feel strongly
about it, because I too have been a victim of theft of creative work by people
who one would not expect from. Unless India can establish and enforce, fairly
and in a timely manner, protection for rights to creative work, little of
it will emerge. The country will always remain a copier and stealer of others'
creations. Not a pretty thought for an emerging power.
But I realize, as I am sure you do, that protection of property rights of
creative works is an extremely difficult issue. Even in countries like USA,
where patent laws and intellectual property rights are widely enforced. That is
in part because more often than not, more than one person may be
involved in these efforts. For example, in the case of Dipbahan too, there may
have others involved: Your colleagues, under-grad. students, grad students
and so forth. They too have right to be acknowledged, given credit for their
contributions. Then comes the issue of IIT's investments in the development
of the product design. IIT being a public entity, ultimately the property
rights belong to the people. I am sure that is why you co-operated with Sarmah
in the beginning. That was the honorable and professional, thing to do. And it
would have behooved Dr. Sarmah, himself a professional, to act
accordingly.
I hope the people of Assam (and India) and their well-wishers and supporters
abroad, including the so-called NRAs, would help rectify the wrongs
that have been committed. I encourage Dr. Sarmah to rise to the occasion and do
the right things.
Best.
Chandan K. Mahanta
President
Mahanta Associates, PC
Architects
St. Louis, Missouri
USA.
On Sep 19, 2011, at 8:47 AM, da...@iitg.ernet.in wrote:
Dear all,
Greetings from Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IIT Guwahati). I am
Amarendra Kumar Das, presently Professor and Head, Department of Design, IIT
Guwahati. It has come to our notice from local news papers in Assam India
regarding laureate of The Tech Awards 2011. I have reproduced the text of the
news item below.
“DR. Pradip Kumar Sarmah, the founder of Rickshaw bank was today named as a
laureate of The Tech Awards 2011, one of 15 global innovators recognized each
year for applying technology to benefit humanity and spark global change. The
Tech Awards, a signature program of The Tech Museum, and presented by Applied
Materials, Inc.,
