Down the Memory Lane Recalling India's Nation – Building Exercise
by Ashok Parthasarathi, IndiaLICS Working Paper Series, IndiaLICS, 2018.
In this paper the author recollects his journey of the 50 years – started at the age of 27 and still going strong at the age of 77. He argues that since independence, all the governments in India, irrespective of their political affiliations, have always been supportive to scientific and technological development of the country. While some governments were passionate about 'science', some others could keep a commendable balance between 'science' and 'technology'. Describing 'technology' as a commercial commodity, he highlights how the first prime minister of the country, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru was obsessed with 'science'. The first Indian government, with Mr. Nehru as its head, was largely committed to science and scientific development of the country. Mr. Nehru took the initiative to draft the Science Policy Resolution of 1958. However, in the resolution, there was so much emphasis on 'science' that the word 'technology' was mentioned only once! The author mentions some of the legendary contributions of a number of celebrated Indian scientists towards scientific and technological development of the country. For instance, he talked about the contributions of Professor C.V. Raman, Dr. Homi Bhabha, and Dr. Satish Dhawan. Dr. Satish Dhawan, although still remains a relatively silent name in science and technology in India, was one of the pioneers in Indian space science. The paper apprises him as a great visionary and acknowledges the launch of all the satellites in the country up till now as visions of him.
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