Science and technologies are the best means of transforming society, says an Indian priest-scientist.
In a recent Indian federal budget, much support is given by the government for technology-driven agro-business. The regulation and review of the farm, animal, and vegetable cultivation are regulated by technology, says Father Mathew Chandrankunnel, a scientist and philosopher.
Recently, he was appointed at Maharashtra Institute of Technology (MIT), an Engineering and Technology University.
He said, “Drones and sensors all regulate feed and water distribution. At all levels, advanced technology is applied.
“Since it’s a technological university, all these cutting-edge technologies will be taught to the students so that they can employ them in the village farmlands and produce more with less agricultural staff. In livestock, embryo transfer, and other advanced technology could be employed,” Chandrankunnel says.
People are migrating to the cities due to unsustainable farming, and in the cities, slums are increasing, and only technology could contain this exodus. Smart villages and smart cities together can only sustain humanity and especially in India as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi showed us that villages are the hearts of India, explained Chandrankunnel, a member of Carmelite of Mary Immaculate (CMI) congregation.
He will serve as the distinguished professor and advisor, advanced research and technology, at MIT, Pune in the southern Indian state of Maharashtra.
MIT was established four decades ago. With a large number of students, it has various institutions.
“My new mission goes along with my passion and expertise on science, technology, Quantum Mechanics, computing, Informatics, and philosophy,” Chandrankunnel told RVA News.
On March 15, he was welcomed by the MIT as distinguished professor and advisor to Advanced Research Centre of Science and Technology, especially by the Dean of Engineering, Prof Dr. Prasad Khandeker, pro-vice-chancellor with the gifts of a picture of the great saint Jnaneshwar (a 13th-century Indian Marathi poet and philosopher), shawl and the prayer for world peace.
“It is an honour to be part of such a reputed university and engineering division,” he said.
“With the blessing of my CMI superiors, I have taken up this new position at a secular technical university,” the priest said.
On December 31, 2021, he completed his five-year term as the director of the Ecumenical Christian Centre (ECC) at Bengaluru, the capital of the southern Indian state of Karnataka. Rev Dr. M A Thomas, a Marthoma pastor, established ECC.
The 63-year-old Chandrankunnel was the first Catholic priest to head the ECC, started by a visionary priest of the Mar Thoma Church in 1963.
He used to teach philosophy of science at Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram, a Catholic theology seminary, and Christ University, both run by his congregation in Bengaluru.
Chandrankunnel has written many books, such as “Philosophy of Quantum mechanics” and “Ascent to Truth: The Physics, philosophy, and Religion of Galileo Galilei.”
He joined the CMI religious order’s Kottayam province in 1973. He was ordained a priest in the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church on May 5, 1987. In the 1990s, he worked in Telangana and lived with the members of Maoism, an ideology of violence in service of equality, to understand their movement.
The scientist and philosopher got his doctorate on the interpretational problems in Quantum Mechanics from the University of Leuven, Belgium, in 1998.
He finished his post-doctoral research at Harvard and worked on “Scientific Cosmological Theories and Its Acceptance by the Church” in 2007.
Radio Veritas Asia (RVA), a media platform of the Catholic Church, aims to share Christ. RVA started in 1969 as a continental Catholic radio station to serve Asian countries in their respective local language, thus earning the tag “the Voice of Asian Christianity.” Responding to the emerging context, RVA embraced media platforms to connect with the global Asian audience via its 21 language websites and various social media platforms.
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