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encyclopedia
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
The backbone of scientific research is the pool of scientific and
technical manpower. After Independence the number of higher
educational institutions has steadily grown. There are 211 (in
1993) universities with about 9,600 affiliated colleges, including
5,127 Arts, Commerce and Science colleges, 79 Agriculture &
Forestry colleges, 192 Law colleges, 612 Medical colleges, 1,504
Teacher Training colleges and 1,603 Engineering colleges.
The scientific and technical manpower increased from about
1.88 lakhs in 1950 to 40 lakhs in 1990. Nearly 2,00,000 qualified
S&T personnel are being produced annually.
Although the major thrusts in science and technology came
after Independence in 1947 the British Government in India had
taken some steps in this direction during the '30s and later during
the emergency created by the Second World War.
In the decade preceding Independence there were just 20 uni-
versities, 500 arts and science colleges and 140 colleges of profes-
sional and technical education. Eight universities offered post-
graduate courses in different branches of science and 38 engineer-
ing colleges were imparting training to nearly 3000 students annu-
ally. The total number of scientific societies was around 60, 9 for
physical sciences, 11 for medical sciences, 14 for biological sci-
ences including agriculture, 15 for engineering and technology and
10 of a general nature. The average annual turnout of post-
graduate science students was 900 and of engineering students
1000
.
As the number of scientific institutions increased the need was
,felt for periodic conferences of scientific workers at which informa-
tion on research activities could be exchanged. In January 1914 the
first session of the Indian Science Congress was held under the
Presidentship of Asutosh Mukherjee at Calcutta in the premises of
the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal. Thirty-five scientific papers
were discussed in five sections (Chemistry, Physics, Zoology,
Botany and Ethnology) and over a hundred scientists from differ-
ent parts of the country were present. In his presidential address
Asutosh Mukherjee said: "Personal association amongst scientific
men is pregnant with important consequences, not merely by a
fruitful exchange of ideas. The cultivation of science, by periodical
meetings and discussions, may bring their aims and views promi-
nently into public notice and may also, where necessary, press
them upon the attention of the Government, a contingency by no
means remote; for, as experience has shown, even the most en-
lightened governments occasionally require to be reminded of the
full extent of the paramount claims of science upon the public
funds."
Asutosh Mukherjee played a vital role in making the Calcutta
University the first institution to start post-graduate teaching and
research in 1916. As a result of his efforts some leading men of
Bengal came forward with large endowments for the purpose. By
1919 Calcutta University had post-graduate classes in physics and
applied physics, chemistry, applied mathematics and experimental
physiology.
Apart from the scientific organisations there were agencies like
the Indian Research Fund Association (1911) which later devel-
oped into the Indian Council for Medical Research; the Imperial
Council for Agricultural Research (1929) and the Board of Scien-
tific and Industrial Research (1940), the forerunner of the Council
of Scientific and Industrial Research (1942), which was estab-
lished to organise research programmes to meet the demands of
the war situation.
Soon after Independence, Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation
for the growth of science and technology. In March 1958 he moved
the Scientific Policy Resolution in Parliament. The aims of this
policy were, among others, "to foster, promote and sustain, by all
appropriate means, the cultivation of science and scientific re-
search in all its aspects pure, applied and educationally, to ensure
an adequate supply, within the country, of research scientists of
the highest quality, and to recognise their work as important com-
ponents of the strength of the nation; to ensure that the creative
talent of men and women is encouraged and finds full scope in
scientific activity; to encourage individual initiative for the acquisi-
tion and dissemination of knowledge and for the discovery of new
knowledge, in an atmosphere of academic freedom; and in general,
to secure for the people of the country all the benefits that can
accrue from the acquisition and application of scientific knowledge
as also to offer good conditions of service to scientists and accord
them an honoured position by associating scientists with the for-
mulation of policies."
Even before the adoption of the Scientific Policy Resolution,
Nehru had set up an Advisory Committee for co-ordinating various
scientific activities under his chairmanship and the Scientific Advi-
sory Committee to the Cabinet (SACC) under the chairmanship of
H.J. Bhabha to advise the Cabinet on the formulation and implem-
entation of the Government's science policy. In 1968 SACC was
replaced by the Committee on Science and Technology (COST)
with wider terms of reference and broader composition of its mem-
bers under the chairmanship of a member of the Planning Commis-
sion.
To meet the newer urges of the scientific community and of the
nation itself the Government set up the National Committee on
Science and Technology (NCST) to replace COST. The functions
of the new committee included the preparation, evaluation and up-
dating of a national science plan. A significant step was taken by
the NCST to prepare for the first time a comprehensive S&T Plan
(1974-79).
National expenditure on science and technology activities
which constitute mainly research and development expenditure and
to a small extent the supporting activities of R&D has gone up
from Rs. 4,68 crores per year in 1951 to Rs. 4000 crores in 1991.
But as a percentage of GNP S&T expenditure has increased by
only 50 times. Many developed countries spend 2% of GNP or more
on S&T.
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