Science, Technology and Innovation Policy in India in the Era of Economic Reform

In the pre-economic reform era, the question of scientific and technological development in India had a central role in the general debate on the country’s development strategy, whether in policy-oriented discussions, in academic considerations or in discussions in the public and political arena. Unusually, compared to several other contentious issues, science and technology was the subject of a rather broad consensus that, barring a few notable exceptions, drew support from across the political spectrum and from many strands of public and political opinion. The exception was of course the Gandhian critique that originated in a foundational critique of industrial technology and industrial production. But barring this critique it was generally agreed that science and technology were one of the key elements of national economic growth and the general improvement of the material conditions of the population. Indeed the role envisaged for science and technology in national life went well beyond an instrumental view of science and technology in any purely economic view of development. Science and scientific temper were, in a view most elegantly articulated by Nehru, indispensable to the development of a new ethos and world-view that would privilege rationality and a critical attitude.