Innovative use of Science & Technology to address the Societal Challenges

Present Day Advances

India is making huge strides in the fields of pharmaceutical industry, aerospace industry, nuclear
energy industry and software industry. Our government has taken a vow to put science and
technology as the top priority areas as far as financing of research and development goes.
However, the pertinent question is to find out how much these investments would translate into
quantifiable changes in lives of the people from the bottom rung of the society. Further to follow
the visionary path laid down by Dr. B.R.Ambedkar, emancipation of the marginalised is truly
possible through education which instils in us scientific inquiry and rigour, challenging the
notions of superiority based on caste, religion or place or birth. More than any material
contributions from the world of science, it is the potential of science and technology to usher a
rebirth of human thinking that makes is it the most important tool at the disposal of humankind.
Renaissance movement was an instance of science and technology bringing about an everlasting
change in the way humans perceived nature and its marvels. The lens of mysticism and divine
intervention was replaced by lens of rationality and courage to experiment.
Need for Criticism
It is only thing to be blindly optimistic and another to do avoid realistic introspection for the fear
of criticism and loss of reputation. Constructive criticism would only help the nation to move
forward by identifying its weakest links. A nation is only strong as its weakest link.
Education
The future of our education system lies in the Digital Connectivity Mission which would cover
schools across the country. This mission of the future would be connecting these schools to a
centralised knowledge base, ensuring that there is equality of opportunity in letter and spirit. An
ambitious student from a lesser know village from northeast would be able to compete with a
student from a cosmopolitan city brining the best out of both of them, adding to countrys
intellectual prosperity in the long run. Intellectual capital for the design and execution would be
provided by Indian scientific diaspora and financial capital from CSR funds and other relevant
government schemes.
Clean energy
Agriculture and Biotechnology
Health care
Scientists have been in the forefront of efforts to mitigate manmade and natural resources
through advancements in healthcare systems and better prediction systems in the disaster
management machinery. The global response time for scientists against Ebola was far lesser than

the epidemics before. HudHud was predicted earlier than the tropical cyclones that have hit the
Indian shore before.
Conclusion
At this juncture, the people of this country owe to the hard working and underappreciated
scientists who probably have set aside the lucrative offers from the private sector and to work for
the betterment of the nation. Past Indian governments have disappointingly but not surprisingly
shunned away from providing the funding that is required for high profile projects in science and
technology. Partly, this may have worked to the advantage of the nation, we have earned
ourselves a name for cost effective technologies at half or quarter of the monetary cost incurred
by other nations. But in other ways, our innovations failed to transform it into cutting edge
technologies and became restricted in terms of the scale of the project- limited in terms of
capacity and geographical reach of our innovations. Foreign diplomacy is an underexplored
channel for getting the required funding for our high profile projects.