Towards a Socially Consistent Science and Technology Policy

The development of science and technology (S&T) in India is widely believed to have not quite lived up to the high expectations in the Scientific Policy Resolution of 1958. To paraphrase a major scientist, it has had tall peaks towering over some much more modest achievements. This article traces some of these shortcomings to the divergence between the direction which the S&T policies have advocated and the socio-economic road the country has taken. Based on an analysis of this divergence, the article argues for a new Science and Technology Policy based on a much broader conception of technology.