This commentary is based on the keynote address delivered at the Golden Jubilee of the Department of Library and Information Science, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India. It is one of the oldest LIS programmes in the region, and was inspired by the late Professor SR Ranganathan who envisaged the information sciences as an engine to growth and development. Alas, information science programmes have not made the intended impact in India that the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) have. This has been the case with most developing economies. Why? The following commentary attributes this to an era of missed opportunities.
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