INDIA has earned lot of fame at the national and international levels for its achievements in the field of science and technology. Today, it is one of the top countries in the world in the field of scientific research – from education to technology, the country has made a lot of progress in every field. The present literacy rate of men in India is 74.4 per cent and that of women is 65.46 per cent, whereas it was only 12 per cent 75 years ago, i.e., before Independence. We achieved success in space programmes on our own, eradicated epidemics, and made unprecedented developments in the field of IT.
Science originated in India 3,000 BC. Charaka and Sushruta in the field of medical science, Aryabhatta, Brahmagupta, and Aryabhatta II in astronomy and mathematics, and Nagarjuna’s discoveries in chemistry have made important contributions. Surgery, discovered by Maharishi Sushruta, was one of the greatest achievements of science in India in ancient times.
The world today considers him the ‘Father of Surgery’. From ancient achievements to the launch of Chandrayaan, India has a long history of successes. Due to these achievements, India has moved from the 81st to the 40th position in the Global Innovation Index 2022. According to the Science and Engineering Indicators 2022 report of the National Science Foundation of America, India ranks third in the world in the field of scientific publications.
In the race for modern scientific discoveries, there is significant contribution from India’s Jagdish Chandra Bose, Prafulla Chandra Rai, CV Raman, Satyendranath Bose, Meghnad Saha, Prashant Chandra Mahalanobis, Srinivasa Ramanujan and Hargovind Khorana in the fields of botany, physics, mathematics, chemistry, mechanics, medical science, astronomy.
The name of former President APJ Abdul Kalam, can be specially mentioned who is famous as ‘Missile Man’. In this field, he completely changed the picture of India.
The development of Indian scientific tradition stopped a bit after the arrival of the Mughals, but many texts based on ancient Indian science were translated into Arabic and Persian in that period. After the Mughals, various scientific developments took place during the English rule in India.
The most powerful country in the modern era is the one that has strengthened its defence sector. According to ‘Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’, nine countries, including India, have nuclear weapons in the world. The three armies of self-reliant India have no match today.
Today, we are not only using Artificial Intelligence in the field of defence but are also exporting weapons to other countries. The 21st century is the age of information, and scientists in India have set records in this field too. Optical fibre, WiFi or 5G, supercomputers, quantum computing, e-governance, digital economy, e-learning, or weather forecasting – India is on top of it all. Science and technology also have an important place and contribution to make in the development of modern India.
In order to make India the world’s science and technology powerhouse, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Government has made many important changes in scientific infrastructure and policies. Now students are being encouraged to go to the Atal Tinkering Labs from sixth grade itself, and then, as soon as they leave college, they get an ecosystem of incubation and startups ready to build a self-reliant India.
