FINAL FRONTIER

More funds and the Modi government’s push in the sector have seen India take big strides in science and technology. Combined with the consistent success in space exploration, it makes for a heady story

Any significant success in science and technology in India is always about looking up,” says a senior scientist at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). She is caustic when she says that little of impact happens in domains other than aeronautics and space research even with ‘Make in India’. The redeeming feature is that India is among the top five nations in the field of space exploration. Currently, with 27 satellites operational and India’s progress in space technology established, many avenues have opened up for generating revenue including launching satellites for SAARC nations and offering space facilities for use to other countries. There are other tangible gains. Loss of lives in tropical cyclones in the past four years came down to less than a hundred compared to the thousands in the previous decade, establishing how our scientific capability has helped minimise losses during natural calamities.

In cutting-edge science, too, our scientists are not far behind. The gravitational waves discovery in 2017 has been hailed worldwide as a fundamental scientific pathbreaker of recent times. Those at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru, and Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences, Nainital, have contributed to this. About 40 scientists from 13 Indian institutions are part of the LIGO-Virgo discovery paper on gravitational waves in the journal Physical Review Letters. The Centre has now approved the LIGO-India detector to be funded by the Department of Atomic Energy and the Department of Science & Technology.

The country was ranked the top exporter in information and communication technology (ICT) services and second in innovation quality in 2017. India’s gross expenditure on R&D increased to Rs 110,489.6 crore ($16.3 billion) in 2016-17. The engineering R&D (ER&D) globalisation and services market reached Rs 151,160.6 crore ($22.3 billion) in 2016. The country accounts for 27 per cent of Asia’s new innovation centres and has been ranked top innovation destination in Asia and second in the world for new innovation centres, according to a Capgemini report.

But to be globally competitive, several futuristic areas have to be explored. Work has begun on a National Mission on Cyber Physical Systems and formulating programmes on a Deep Ocean Mission. Looking ahead, India has established itself as a key player in environmental negotiations with the prime minister himself playing a key role in the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and setting up of an International Solar Alliance to combat the challenges posed by climate change.