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I am not a nanotechnologist, nor am I a scientist or a micro biologist, but a simple banker with a passion to explore possibilities towards an economically-inclusive society in Sri Lanka in my life time. I am also passionate about science and technology and in particular look at the possibilities in the future through the development of nanotechnology.
I am interested to see how we can adopt the concepts and ideas that evolve with the development of science and technology that work on the best practices for sustainable economic development which could benefit society at large.
The emergence of nanotechnology heralds a significant transformation of the world we live in, the way do things and how we relate to people and planet. The word nano is identified with the reference to nanometer. A nanometer is a metric unit of measure equal to one billionth of a meter. Nanotechnology is essentially engagement and manipulation of matter on atomic, molecular and super molecular scale. Just to give an indication of measure of nano, a single drop of water contains one hundred billion atoms.
Living up to the full potential by filling empty spaces
A nanotechnologist has identified that in the human bones there is significant empty spaces and if a process could be devised to inject pure diamond fibres into those empty spaces in the human bone structure, the bone strength would surpass steel. Through nanotechnology and with the assistance of nano robots the rest of human body could also be infused with diamond fabric and the nanotechnologist affirms the future possibility of having diamond-based body reinforcement which will give supper human ability.
With this super human ability one could jump from a high rise building and walk away unscathed. I believe this could be possible when the nano technologist creates nano robots that could be tasked with many assignments, even foreseeing the impossible in the field of medicine where damaged hearts could be rebuilt atom by atom by sending nano robots to the human heart.
In an evolving economic ecosystem, size and shape is immaterial
Speaking of our current possibilities and based on the nano technological ideas and planned scientific experiments, it is pertinent to look and relate to the entities of economical ecosystem of Sri Lanka that could be infused with economic diamond fibres to give the much-needed impetus to power economic inclusivity in Sri Lankan society.
There are many experts and pundits from time to time who come up with ideas like “downsizing,” “upsizing,” “right sizing” and “tightening belts,” etc., without recognising the way the entities of economic ecosystems work.
Like in the natural ecosystem community of living organisms and non-living components that co-exist interacting as a system, in an economic ecosystem too there are many entities of different shapes and sizes that can co-exist, interacting as a powerful system. Similarly as in a natural ecosystem there is enough room in an economic ecosystem for entities of different shapes to co-exist with every entity having its own unique role to play.
Infusion of economic diamond fibre to empty spaces of economic organisms
In an economic ecosystem there are large public and private sector entities which have significant roles to play, there are also small and medium sizes and of course micro size entities which are tasked for survival whilst thriving and adding value to society at large. Recognising there are opportunities for micro and small economic entities to evolve and grow into small, medium and large entities, the continuous emergence and survival of micro and small economic entities is a natural reality in an economic ecosystem.
If there is too much tampering in a natural ecosystem to create organisms that thrive by virtue of size, this would bring imbalance to an ecosystem. Therefore recognising and creating a conducive environment for micro, small and medium level economic entities to survive and thrive are paramount for any vibrant and living economic ecosystem. It is not the size and shape of each entity that matters but economic super strength and ability that matters irrespective of shape and size.
To reiterate, a nano technologist has found that in the human bone structure and the body there are empty spaces that need to be infused with diamond fibre to live to the full potential possible. Similarly entities in an economic ecosystem if looked within will identify significant empty spaces that that need to be infused with knowledge, technology, efficiency and productivity that would be able to deliver returns of unprecedented value.
Role of economic nano robots
Like a single atom joined together with another atom creates the molecule and thereafter the cell, leading to the organism of human body, as per the nano technologist, the creation of nano robots is to bring more harmony among atoms joining together instead of breaking apart, resulting in decay and death.
In a economic ecosystem, economic nano robots have a key role in identifying the empty spaces that need to be infused with knowledge, technology, efficiency and productivity in each economic entity, whether they be public or private, micro, small, medium, large or mega. There has to be a total transformational thinking that would trigger economic empowerment and value addition in comparison to traditional methods and practices adapted previously in a non nano technological economic ecosystem.
Infusion of energy to pressure points instead of benchmarking
It is a well-adopted practice among the many private and public sector economic entities to do business with economic benchmarking to showcase the achieved performances. But as the old saying goes, “one must compare apples with apples”. In a business benchmarking has its merits and demerits and one must not get carried away as this is the only way to excel in performance as each economic entity in a economic ecosystem has its unique make up.
We have seen some private sector corporate entity leaders adopting unscientific approaches like trying to fix a cheetah head to an elephant body in order to achieve a quick fix with speed and flexibility. While recognising existence of economic cheetahs with great flexibility and speed, there exist also majestic economic elephants that have a unique role with grace and greater stability too.
We are living in a time of numerous hybrid models being in operation to create greater efficiency but for creating more dynamic, sustainable and living economic ecosystem what matters is strengthening each individual economic organism by infusing energy required to empty spaces that generally give way under pressure.
Unique example of infusion of power to pressure points to achieve the impossible
In an economic ecosystem seeing it from the eyes of a nano technological economist, there are many possibilities, not by changing the size and the shape of the entity but by infusing energy and power of knowledge, technology, efficiency and productivity to empty spaces in the organisms of each entity.
One of the greatest examples of our recent and most impossible achievement was how President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa together with the chiefs of the armed forces Sri Lanka defeated the ruthless LTTE terrorist outfit within a matter of a few years. This they did by infusing the energy and power to points that matter.
There are many public institutions in the country that should not change their size and shape or even advocate privatisation but follow the example of the strategy adopted by the Defence Secretary in infusing energy and power to empty spaces. This could juxtapose like the empty spaces of the human bone structure and body being infused with diamond fibre to give super human ability for these public entities to achieve greater economic successes.
Many possibilities in the age of small, micro and nano
We are living in an age of small things. Decades ago a mainframe computer needed the space of a large building but today a micro chip can store information and data of thousands of libraries and a computer could be a handheld device. Moving from small and micro we are in the reality of the age of nano technology.
In the light of this thinking, leaders of the public and private sector should change their understanding of how a natural ecosystem survives and thrives and adopt the concepts relevant to nano technology to drive near impossible performances for their respective entities in the economic ecosystem and sustainably empower millions of Sri Lankan society for economic enrichment.
(The writer is the Chairman of Asia’s largest micro finance network BWTP. He is also the Chairman of Lanka Financial Services for Underserved Settlements (LFSUS) and serves on the of boards number of national and international financial institutions that advocate and practice financial inclusion. The thoughts and the comments expressed here are his own in no way connected to the organisations he represent. He can be reached via [email protected] or [email protected])
