Science and Technology (S&T) have created phenomenal impact in shaping the lifestyle of man throughout the world. In every sphere of human activity of human endeavor, S&T play a crucial role and it is because of science and technology that the earth is often being referred to as “global village”.

In 1947, when India became sovereign Independent State, most of the consumer goods were imported. This was the starting point of our developmental efforts. In 1951, when the First Five Year Plan was launched, our emphasis was on import substitution and by the end of Seventh Five Year Plan, that is, after 40 years of planned development, we have reached a stage when we can claim to produce practically everything we neo within the country. Thus the regime of planning, which began four decades ago with a glorious vision of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s resurgent India, is striding firmly on the path of progress. In this context the use of S&T as an instrument of growth and social change becomes an important strategy. Therefore to derive maximum benefit from limited resources, S&T must be brought to the main theme of economic planning in the agricultural, industrial and services sectors.

Our accomplishments in high technology areas such as nuclear and space sciences, electronics and defence research have been highly commendable. Similarly, in other sectors such as agriculture, biotechnology, oceanography, engineering, medical and many other sciences, we have made remarkable progress. Our R&D inputs in the industrial developments have not been very spectacular, but we do have evolved many technological packages, which are either being commercialized, or are on the verge of making a breakthrough. Furthermore in the newly emerging key areas such as microelectronics, informatics, telematics, new materials, renewable energy sources, our efforts have been praiseworthy. A large base has been created in all the areas of S&T including the industrial research, which must be expanded, modernized and utilized fully.

Today, in spite of all the liberalized policies and other measures adopted by the world community the question arises as to whether India would be able to break the technological barriers created by the advanced countries. Thus India may find an access to only such technologies, which are becoming obsolete in the western countries. The same story is being repeated for our space program. The example of cryogenic engine is too well known to all of you.

New Horizons

The criteria for selecting challenging areas of technology should be set forth explicitly based on the demand from the industry and the services sectors while at the same time taking into account that the industries are gradually shifting from the high-tech side to multitech side. Of the various facts who cross technology interactions are developing, mention may be made microelectronics, fiber optics, lasers biotechnology, computer-integrated manufacturing of instruments new material etc.

Microelectronics

This technology has grown highly sophisticated in just one decade. Microelectronics is an interactive technology having strong linkages with materials technology, testing equipment, precision manufacturing etc. The integration of circuits has reached the VLSI (very large scale integration) level (1000 to one lakh components per chip) in the mid 80s and currently, the levels of integration has touched 100 million devices on a chip in the 1990s. The evolution of higher scales of integration has brought down the prices of the circuits drastically.

In the computing systems, a high bit microprocessor which consists of one or a few large scale integrated (LSI) circuits performing all mathematical functions along with the control unit is also a fast improving area. 1990s will see 256 bit microprocessors and optical processors, which would be able to integrate communication and computing in an astonishing fashion.

The technology gap between India and the developed countries in the field of microelectronics is increasing, belt in component design, chip fabrication or system development based on chips etc. Semi Conductor Complex Ltd. (SCL) and Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL) are the only two major organisations engaged in manufacturing of a few micro-electronic components.

Fibre Optics

 Rapid developments fibre optics technology in the last one and half decade have led to increasing commercial availability of a range of systems and devices. It has opened up avenues for a newer mode of communicating voice, data, picture, text, replacing coaxial cable or line of sight path.

In India, since the last year of the Seventh Plan, transmission network, based on optical fibre systems, have started emerging as one of the important routes for national communication. About 30% of the current transmission projects are based on optic fibres. In the last 3 years, the on land connectivity has been of a high order. Light as a carrier can carry as high as 10,000 gigabits/sec of the data, which is equivalent to a more than a billion telephonic conversations. Like all communication links, the fibre optics links also demand design and development of transmitters, transmission media and receivers. Systems such as the local telephones have a large number of terminals (transmitters and receivers) and operate over relatively short distances. Such systems too can be hybridized with light wave technology, using a light source with simple inex-pensive coupling mechanism-known as optical interconnects; while wide band long haul communication links would require high power coherent laser sources.

Telecom Sector

 The demand for new telephone connections has been increasing during the past few years and in spite of providing connections at a fairly rapid rate; the waiting is growing over the years.

Technology in telecommunications is advancing very fast. With the merger of computers and telecommunications, new forms of services are becoming available which could not be even thought of a decade ago such as video-conferencing. Major part of the cost of development of new telecom system is the software and we have adequate expertise in this field. However, in the hardware areas we are still lagging far behind.

Lasers

The invention of lasers around 1960 has been one of the landmarks in the field of technological advancements. Lasers brought in several new applications such as optical communication, optical storage, optical computing and their tremendous use in medicine and surgery.

Among their applications, ophthalmology was the first area of medicine where lasers were found to be extremely useful. Today, lasers are find a wide use in almost all the areas of medicine including surgery, diagnosis etc. In the surgery of tissues, lasers have established their suitability in the high precision manipulation. Of late, the laser angioplasty has been developed and it is being increasingly practiced. Lasers have become indispensable for their use in cancer treatment.

In the industrial sector, lasers have made their mark are being regularly used for alignment and surveying, for welding drilling glazing, metal cutting, cladding and for non-destructive testing. Laser guided printers are perhaps the fastest available today.

Biotechnology

Biotechnology is the application of scientific and engineering principles to the processing of materials using biological agents to provide goods and services of economic value. While biotechnology is already being applied in the production of drugs and pharmaceutical in the effluent treatment and agricultural practices, modern biotechnology offers great potential for improving the existing processes and developing newer products. Similarly, in various areas of human health care, agriculture, animal husbandry, aquatic life forms fuels, fodder and biomass as well as energy and environment protection, biotechnology is becoming indispensable.

In the health care areas, biotechnology has the potential for producing more effective vaccines against various viral, bacterial and parasitic diseases and developing diagnostics for quick and timely detection of diseases and physiological conditions of the body. Already genetically engineers hepatitis-B vaccines recombinant human insulin, recombinant human growth hormones and recombinant interferons are commercially available. In India, the recombination hepatitis-B vaccine is being marketed.

New Materials

Advances in material science and engineering form the base of nearly all technologies that lead to economic productivity. Industrial technologies, biomedical science, electronics weapons systems, transportation, energy conversion are all dependent on materials. These bring in unique or previously us attainable properties of materials to practical reality. But increasingly, materials research is being focussed and fabricating the existing materials so as to achieve their characteristics using sign parameters.

Development of the jet engine doing the Second World War provides one example. When the first aircraft turbine was produced around 1940, it just barely ran and did not last very long. To make it into a real propulsion system, it was necessary to undertake an intensive materials development program for quite sometime. The development of higher temperature materials set rolling the development of the aircraft turbine, which in turn has paced the technology of land-based turbines for power generation.

Many important improvements in materials are also being pursued in smaller components and systems. For example, ceramic based catalytic converters; similar in concept to those used in most automobiles may provide a solution to nitrogen oxide emissions in gas turbines. Porous ceramic filters for hot gas clean up may form a key element of pressurized fluidised-bed coal plants.

Space

Significant earth bound applications of spacecraft are being realized with the launches of INSAT satellite series and the IRS remote sensing satellites viz. IRS-1A, 1B in the last one decade. These applications include communications, meteorology, resources prospecting, disaster management etc. Their developments have a direct impact on our socio-economic advancement.

The communication revolution introduced by the INSAT system has generated a great and unprecedented demand for the expansion of the vital services in the country like long distance communication, nation-wide TV, data relay, radio networking, meteorological services, computer networking etc. The successful launch of INSAT 2-B has opened new avenues in telecommunication in providing new channels for Door Darshan and many other value added services. Third generation INSAT-3C has opened new areas in the development of science and technology.

Atomic Energy

Through sustained R&D efforts, a near total capability has been developed in the field of nuclear energy, covering the entire cycle including exploration, extraction, purification and conversion of nuclear materials, production of fuel elements for reactors, design and construction of power reactors, design and construction of power reactors and instrumentation control for units of 235 MW capacity, in the production of heavy water, health and safety instrumentation, reprocessing of spent fuels and in the production and use of radioisotopes.

Apart from the generation of electricity, which is recognised as the main contribution of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, there are other spin-offs that are increasingly making vital contributions in the field of medicine, agriculture and industry. Mention may be made of radioisotope gauges used for checking gas filling or powders in packages, leak detection in buried pipes, silt movement in navigational channels, detection of wear and tear rates in engines, food irradiation etc.

Ocean Research

Among the many challenges that face mankind in the remaining decade of the twentieth century, two stand out as of crucial importance for the very survival of man. One is the ecological problem of man’s ability to cope with an environment of his own creation, which now threatens to overwhelm him and the other is the future use of the ocean, which must be done usually.

As time passes, our dependence on the sea is rapidly increasing. Since ancient times, the sea has been used by man for two main purposes-fishing and shipping but the recent discovery of offshore oil and gas, other minerals, chemicals, drugs and energy generation has convinced every one that some of the biggest treasures of the world he hidden in the sea. Thus the ocean is called “our last frontier” and mankind is looking towards the sea as the future hope. The old saying that “the country which controls the sea, rules over the earth”, has proved to be true beyond doubt.

One of the areas in which the most spectacular advances are expected to be made by man is the ocean sector. Coastal and offshore activities are rapidly on the increase in India. During the last 12 years, our country has made notable advances in the field of ocean development, which have enhanced our prestige considerably among the other nations of the world. Large investments are being planned for the exploration and exploitation of various ocean resources such as food, chemicals, minerals, energy, transportation and tourism to improve the socio-economic conditions of the vast population. The offshore construction and operational activities have been rapidly increasing largely because of the exploration and exploitation of oil and gas.

Because of the unprecedented expansion in the scientific and technological knowledge in the developed countries, the technological and economic distance between the rich and the poor countries is widening, rather than be coming narrower. Developments in new frontier technologies, particularly telecommunications, microelectronics, laser, fibre optics, biotechnology and new materials, are ushering in a new industrial revolution. Their impact on the productivity, socio organization, wealth and power of the nations may be as profound as that of the steam engine, electrification and the internal combustion engine were in the earlier generations. The exploitation of modern scientific knowledge and technological advances is now the main source of economic growth in the developed countries. The new technologies have far reaching implications for the comparative advantage of countries in the international competition for global markets. Developing countries cannot remain silent spectators while this new industrial revolution sweeps the industrialized world.

It is to the credit of our planners and those responsible for the formulation of India’s science and technology policies that they have grasped the far-reaching implications of the technological developments, which are now on the horizon. The Seventh Five Year Plan has witnessed some highly encouraging trends in the development of national capabilities in the new frontier - technologies. However, the full utilization of the economic potential of the new technologies must be fully realized in the Eighth and subsequent Plans

Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is the study of the controlling of matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally nanotechnology deals with structures sized between 1 to 100 nanometer in at least one dimension, and involves developing materials or devices within that size.

Nanotechnology is very diverse, ranging from extensions of conventional device physics to completely new approaches based upon molecular self-assembly, from developing new materials with dimensions on the nanoscale to investigating whether we can directly control matter on the atomic scale.

There has been much debate on the future implications of nanotechnology. Nanotechnology has the potential to create many new materials and devices with a vast range of applications, such as in medicine, electronics, biomaterials and energy production. On the other hand, nanotechnology raises many of the same issues as with any introduction of new technology, including concerns about the toxicity and environmental impact of nanomaterials.