We are living at a time of great change. Our modern world is being restructured in terms of information – its ubiquity and its multifarious applications. It is enabling the conception and realisation of new technologies and driving new behavioural trends. It is even calling us to reconsider old questions about who we are and where we are going. And the engine that is powering and driving this change is mathematics.
Mathematics has made seemingly impossible things possible.
• How does a satellite equipped with only a weak radio-transmitter send beautiful colour pictures to earth from hundreds of thousands of miles away, through the hostile medium of space in which radiation can essentially render the radio signal useless? It is only possible because of polynomials over finite fields and the error-correcting codes that are built using them.
• How does a search engine determine within seconds from more than billion sites on the internet, which are the relevant facts that answer your query? It is only possible because of linear algebra.
• How does a robotic vacuum cleaner figure out the shape of the room it is cleaning and the location of the power outlet, without having been shown the layout? It is only possible because of computational geometry.
• How does a vendor whom you have never met safely take your payment details through the internet in which eavesdropping is relatively easy? It is only possible because of group theory and properties of prime numbers.
Our modern world is possible only because of a plethora of such instances. Polynomials, linear algebra, computational geometry and group theory are but a few of the tools of mathematics. It is a living subject that continues to grow and develop new ideas, new techniques and new applications. It is the perennial goose that lays the golden eggs.
If we expect to maintain and even increase this pace of innovation, it is evident that we need to invest in mathematics in a significant manner. This is the thinking behind the creation of the Lodha Mathematical Sciences Institute (LMSI), the only privately-funded mathematical sciences institute in India, dedicated purely to research. It is an initiative by one of India’s charitable organisations, the Lodha Foundation, and is inspired by the philosophy of ‘Do Good, Do Well’. It is a place where minds steeped in the theory and applications of mathematics can gather and advance the subject. It is a place that will give India and the world a continuous supply of new mathematical ideas and tools to support the innovation that will be necessary to solve the most important problems facing the world and to enable all people to live meaningful and fulfilling lives.
As the only privately funded mathematics research institute in India, LMSI will have the freedom to drive an ambitious and inclusive research agenda that will strive to develop both fundamental research as well as long and short term applications. The activities of the institute will be designed so as to stimulate mathematical sciences and its applications throughout the country. Working in a complementary fashion with existing publicly funded research institutes in India and abroad, the institute will formulate fundamental research programs that will expand the frontiers of our knowledge and position India as a world leader.
In applications, the institute will formulate programmes that focus on topics such as air pollution, climate change, responsible AI and smart communities through the creation of inter-disciplinary networks of researchers. Long term, the vision of LMSI is to tap into and channel the enormous talent pool in India into mathematical innovation so as to make India a world leader in this field.
Ultimately, innovation and discovery are the seeds which, if properly planted and nurtured, will yield tremendous fruits in the form of a meaningful, purposeful and fulfilling life for all people. This is the ultimate goal of the LMSI, and it is in keeping with the mission and mandate of the Lodha Foundation of which the institute is a part.
The author is founding director, Lodha Mathematical Sciences Institute (LMSI), India’s first privately funded institute, dedicated to advancing mathematical research and education