Science and Technology in India

The progress made in the field of Science and Technology in India today is enviable. The architect, Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru had a vision, not merely of scientists and of laboratories, but of the broader horizons and its social relevance; of the unity between the community of scientists and scientific needs of the community and of the transformation functions of science in society.

We have laid much emphasis on the development of science and technology as a major instrument for achieving national goals of self-reliance and socioeconomic progress. The Scientific Policy Resolution adopted by our Parliament on March 4, 1958 laid stress on Government responsibility to secure for the people, the benefits from acquisition of scientific knowledge and practical application of research. The policy of the Government, is to encourage individuals and collective initiative for dissemination of knowledge and faster programmed to train scientific personnel to fulfill country's needs in the diverse fields of agriculture, industry defense, education, space, information technology oceanography etc.

The contributions in scientific and technological research have induced a phenomenal transformation in Indian agriculture from subsistence level into commercial farming. India occupies a premier position amongst the oilseed producing countries of the world. Research efforts have been intensified to bring out crop varieties tolerant to drought conditions, resistant to pests and diseased and responsive to the use of agriculture, its capacity to withstand droughts and natural calamities and the near attainment of the goal of food self sufficiency by the country are the tributes to the untiring efforts of the agricultural scientists as well as millions of farmers with progressing thought.

Over the years, a strong science and technology infrastructure base has been established in our country. This covers a chain of national laboratories, specialized centers, various research and development and academic institutions training centers, etc., which continuously provide expertise, technically trained man power and technological support to industry. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research with its network of laboratories and research institutions is a major instrument of scientific and industrial research under state auspices and supports research in universities and other centers of learning.

Telecommunications is a critical part of infrastructure and one that is becoming important, given the trend of globalization and the shift to a knowledge based economy. Until 1994, telecommunication services under government monopoly made tardy progress. Although telecommunication expanded fairly rapidly, under this arrangement, it was recognized that capacities must expand much more rapidly and competition also be introduced to improve the quality of services and encourage induction of new technology. Telecommunication has become especially important in recent years because of the enormous growth of information technology and its potential impact on rest of the economy. India is perceived to have a special comparative advantage in information technology or in IT enabled services, both of which depend critically on high quality. Telecommunication has also become extremely important for a wide range of rural activities and this importance will only increase as the process of diversification of rural economic opportunities gains momentum. Universal service obligation must therefore, be insisted upon for all providers of telecom services.

India has joined a select club of six advanced countries with the Pune based Center for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) developing the country's first super compute "Param". The indigenous built 64 NODEC super computer is capable of reaching peak power of 100 mega flops. Param promises the creating of a seamless computing platform for super computing at an affordable price in the international context.

India recognized the importance of atomic energy quite early and the Atomic Energy Commission was set up in August 1948 to look after atomic energy activities in the country. India today is the seventh country in the world and the first developing nation to have the distinction of mastering fast breeder technology.

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is responsible for the planning, execution and management of space research activities. The ISRO, which has its head quarters in Bangalore, provides rockets and laboratory facilities to scientists belonging to different organizations in India for conducting approved space science experiments. The Indian Remote Sensing Satellites have helped in extensive mapping of our natural resources and voluminous data generated through these are used in a variety of fields. Even the developed countries including the U.S. have started buying the data collected by the IRS. It is a matter of pride that India became the 14th nation in the world on April 3, 1984 to have sent a man into space. Rakesh Sharma, was India's first man in space. Similarly, Dr. Kalpana Chawla, an Indian American woman became the first Indian woman to go into the space on November 19, 1997 on a 16 day mission on NASA, Columbia shuttle as a Mission Specialist of study the outer atmosphere of the Sun. Unfortunately, she died on a latter mission on her return to earth.

Technology is used as a tool to give India a competitive position in the new global economy. For example, Indian exports today derive their comparative advantage through resources and labor rather than differentiation and, technology. Therefore, major thrust is being given to increasing India's share in high-tech products, deriving value from technology - led exports and export of technology. Full articulation of research is being given into various policies and programmed covering economics, energy and other socioeconomic sectors.

Behind Science and Technology

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Staring at this fourteen inch size screen in front of me, I was smiling sheepishly and at the same time unusually amused, it is not my first time, nor second or even going to be the last time I will use a video cam, but today's case is a different issue, maybe is it because of the picture quality it portrayed or the coverage it gave? I was goaded to dismantle the tool so as to see what it was composed of, which I did and to my amazement I saw only chips all connected to a panel and this increased my curiosity as I wondered more what could be responsible for the effective functioning of this device, capturing an image and displaying on a screen exactly as it is.

Sounds awkward? Actually I have really been having serious and diverted thought about this, right since beyond the scope of science and technology. In this our age of science and technology, one would see it as a state of ignorance and naivety to find that someone is still actually thinking towards this line of thought, doubting the existence of machines, functions of computers, cell phones, radio sets, TV sets, wireless devices like the Bluetooth and the WLAN which is commonly known as the Wireless Local Area Network, and also not forgetting to mention the widely used wireless society, The Internet. But in case you still want to castigate this write up I still ask that you actually complete the remaining part of this article and put it into thought.

So I am still staring at the chips in the camcorder, my thoughts wondered as I scrutinized every inch and component of the microchip one could easily observe the bewilderment visibly expressed on my face.

Now many thoughts were racing through my mind, how did this little component sum up to a device that can capture my image perfectly or let's say a little or less perfectly and transfer to a screen? I seem to be asking myself that question alone as I looked round me to realize no one was actually there to give me the answer. At first it looked absurd then when I had started to check if really I was seeing myself or just an image programmed on the cam. but alas what a thought, as I was really quick in condemning that line of thought as I recalled several times I have stood in front of the mirror, and moreover there were up to 6Billion people in the world and I imagined the producers of this device must have considered that and so I wondered how the hell were the chances that they could actually programmed the cam to display a variety of 6Billion different faces at different locations and tell the cam to know when and how to display any at the right time.

Now I stared at the screen itself, a 14inch built box, with an LCD display. How the hell was it able to show my picture? It stared at me, although can't recognize if I was actually looking at it or at the image in the screen. I started to recall that this device is in the category of device that are called computers and are used to perform many meta-physical (I call them meta-physical because I doubt their physical function) operations and command. Now my thoughts were starting to deviate, the Internet! Recall several occasions when I have sat in front of this system and browsed the internet, sending messages, pictures, multimedia files across to people miles away from me and funnily enough they receive I, chatting with different persons in chat rooms, and now am really beginning to doubt if they are all real. So how were these messages sent to the receivers, how were the operations performed? That is where my major ambiguity lay. Just by pressing a remote, you tell a television set to power on and off, change to a different channel. Just by pressing a remote you tell the engine of a car to start, just by tapping some keys on a keyboard you send messages across to many people living miles and very long distances in different geographical locations, Now my most confusing wonder arises, "are there no messenger who actually carry out this messages?" that I typed a "Z" button here and someone in USA sees it and replies me, I pick up my phone and dial a number and someone somewhere claiming to possess a device identified by that number picks up and we start talking, transferring voices over a little device, being aided by a card they call a micro sim card claiming it's a microchip, or a radio device?. Is it just like that? Well we were made to believe that this mechanism are the effect of the wireless communication, well this is just a term they use to define it, but I believe there is more to that than the just "Wireless Communication".

I wouldn't want to go further, this is just an ambiguity troubling the mind of a young chap who really want to find answers, I thought presenting this question to other individuals and people who possibly could have more experience and knowledge than I so maybe help could actually come, because I still believe that sometimes two heads could actually be better than one.

IMAGINE

Imagine an opposite world, a world where there may be a possibility of waking up one morning and find out that we have been dreaming. Dreaming that we really may not be existing, dreaming that the food we eat, the house we live in, our parents, siblings and loved ones weren't really there, just imagine.

The Uses For Scientific Digital Imaging

Scientific digital imaging systems have revolutionized many branches of science and medicine. Precision imaging, at the micro and macro level, now allow us to look farther and deeper into the world around us than we have ever have before. Debates in fields as diverse as philosophy and physics are being answered, questions that have puzzled mankind for centuries. Digital imagining is revolutionizing the sciences, including medicine, and our understanding of the world we live in

Micro imagining has allowed the smallest things to leap into focus. Cellular studies in biology and medicine can now be captured digitally and recorded for analysis. The ability to peer into the underlying structure of cells has opened the door to scientific discovery of how cells split, grow and die.

Engineers working with underwater cameras spied under an arctic glacier and were surprised to find a submerged range of mountains that possibly no one had suspected existed. Further exploration has continued on Antarctica and in places on Earth where no one suspected life could survive. With super sensitive cameras, scientists can now record animals in the wild using motion detectors, creating images that have not been captured before for studies about wildlife conservation.

From a macro point of view, astrophysics use digital images and sophisticated computer applications to look at the night sky with new eyes. With the use of advanced telescopes, they are unraveling the mysteries of the faraway stars. They have discovered light from the Big Bang, now thirteen billion light years away from Earth. Microwave radiation and gamma waves are also possible to view with digital images, though they exist out of the spectrum of light that the human eye can see.

With these amazing images, scientists can determine if galaxies are moving toward us or away by the red or blue shift in the light. This has increased our understanding that we live in an expanding universe, not a static one and provided insight into the nature of gravity on a large scale.

For centuries, philosophers debated the nature of consciousness. Now, science is chiming in as neurologists have the ability to watch the brain in action. The separation, made by Rene Descartes in his book Meditations in 1641, for example of the mind from the brain, with contact occurring via the pineal gland is not holding up well to scientific scrutiny.

Doctors now use digital imagining to examine their patients. This is used by surgeons to determine when to operate. Neonatal imagining can help doctors diagnose medical conditions while a child is still in the uterus. Dentists also use sophisticated images to evaluate the health of the bones for the jaw.

So, from outer galaxies to the chair in the dentist office, Scientific Digital Imaging is changing the way science understands the universe around us. Life can now be examined at a cellular level, contributing to our understanding of medicine and genetics. The inaccessible place on the planet have come into view. With advances continuing, this may be just the tip of the iceberg of discovery.