India and World Science Essays

India and World Science Essays India and World Science Essay India and World Science Essay Introduction: In ancient and Medieval India, there was development in science and Technology. Concept of zero in Vedic literature, Astronomical Knowledge in Rig Veda (2000 BC), Civil Engineering Architectural Knowledge of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa and other ancient monuments etc, are worth to mention. However in modern India, development in scientific research can be looked broadly in the following categories. * Food Sufficiency. * Health. * Information technology. * Energy. * Science and Technology. * Food sufficiency : After achieving independence, India could bring about a Green Revolution in 1960’s. Mechanization of agriculture’s, high yielding variety of crops helps India to become the 2nd largest paddy producer and world largest producer of sugar. Development of Biotechnology recently enhances production in agricultural products. Also in Horticulture our country is at the top place in the production of mango, banana and grapes. A successive production of technology and milk cooperatives Followed by an immensely successful operation flood led India to become largest producer of milk in the world. All these are reflected in table showing gradual increase in crop production, food production, and livestock production even today. In fisheries research, Indian scientist could have a breakthrough pushing the country ahead with a Blue Revolution and become self sufficient in food production. * Health : In health sector India position is not that good even among the developing countries (Brazil, China, Iran, Pakistan, Columbia etc. )Though it has achieved a breakthrough in eradicating smallpox. Infant mortality rate is very high (about 70 per 1000) while it is about 5 per 1000. Also the percentages of population for age above 65 years is very low (4. 8%) while it is about 15% in developed countries. However Indian Pharma industry is greatly benefited from the development of bio technology in recent years and the country is ranked 4th in the world in term of production manufactures. The government has developed a number of bio-technology Park at different places in the country. Also the government has allocated a huge sum of money (Rs 5,535 crore) for the six upcoming AIIMS like institutes and up gradation of 13 existing government medical colleges to improve the health condition of the people. * Information Technology sector: IT sector, India is growing very fast. It has one of the Telecom network in Asia with fixed lines and wireless subscribers number crossing 543. 2 million by 2009. The country is ranked 12th in term of Broadband internet user, in the world. IT institutes in the country today has produce technically proficient engineers more than the IT industry can absorb. India‘s growing stature in the information age enable it to formed a close tie with USA and European union. The industry find many applications in satellite communication ,Tele medicines etc. and it contributes to 5. 9 of the country GDP and export earning as on 2009. Energy: In energy sector India is led to moved ahead to meet its requirement or complete electrification of rural areas. At present India power source come from at Thermal Power Plan(65%),Hydel Power Plan(24. 6%),Nuclear Power Plan(2. 9%) and other renewable sources like wind energy farm etc. (7. 7%) . At present the install Power generation capacity is 147000 MW by 2009. India has lot of potential fo r Hydel Power Plan but it has use only 17% of total Hydel Power potential of 150,000 MW. The figure is much bigger in other developer countries – Norway (50%), Brazil (31%). Science and Technology: In science Technology, India is in a dismal state in both number of research paper published and quality of work. In number of research paper published India ranked 20st in the world bur in quality it drop to 119 according to the report in Current Science, July 2004. It is reported that our productivity is 20 papers per million while it is 1000 per million for US. It clearly shows that our per capita productivity is very small also we have 140 Researchers per million population compares to 4,651 in US. Our shared of Global output in R D is only 1. 8 % while we have 17% of Global population. However India could develop PARAM super computer and its latest version PARAM PADMA which can make one trillion processes per second by Centre for Development of Advance Computing (C-DAC), Pun e. Such a Super Computer can only be developed by USA and JAPAN. Today India is one of the leading Nuclear Power countries to have complete infrastructures for a viable Nuclear Program. It has the expertise of Uranium Exploration, mining, extraction, enriching and recycling and management of waste materials. In space and moon expedition India have a place in the world today. It has made Chandrayaan-1 moon mission(22nd Oct 2008)for exploring the moon fully and is planning the next Chandrayaan-2 moon mission in 2012 and manned mission in 2016. Recently India successfully test fired an interceptor missile from Orissa(26th July ,2010). India could establishes a permanent researches center MAITRI at the Antarctic in 2002 to explore the continent and study more about the phenomena associated with AURORA. Now India is in eight positions in the world Science and Technology map recently, though it was 15th in 1990’s CONCLUSION: Thought India is self sufficient in food, it has to improve the health condition of the people of country and research in development in various scientific fields. Our research lay more emphasis on target oriented research in some thrust areas like defence, Atomic energy etc at the cost basic science which are backbones of scientific development. The dismal state of RD in India is due to a number of factors. * Poverty of the country which is now in a better condition after the economic reforms in 1991 leading to economics globalization. Population explosion (1. 34 Billion in 2008) increasing the population at the fastest rates 1. 3% per year (2008). * Low Literacy Rate (63. 2%). * Low Public Expenditure by the government in Health sector, Education and Research Development. To improved the scientific status of the country there is need to control population increase literacy rate more funding in Health, Education ,Research on basics sciences and technology in the country more to go ahead to meet the challenges of the future. THANK YOU