Technology at the Core: Science and Technology with Indira Gandhi

Basic Approach

This is a book on science and technology policy ¿making in India during the Indira Gandhi years. It also chronicles facets of Indira Gandhi¿s decision-making in building a massive and diversified superstructure of scientific and technological capability and capacity. The author highlights key decisions, decisions, incidents and players outside the prime minister¿s secretariat (including the author¿s interactions with her) during her second primeministership. It mentions how science and technology policies were made during the second wave of scientific development in India, starting in the late 1960s, which was a result of a fortuitous confluence of personalities, political alignments, and economic and social conditions at a crucial juncture in modern Indian emphasis on indigenous development of science and technology. It was also a time for a systematic and comprehensive look into the ways of making science and technology policies that were cohesive and integrated well with decision-making at all levels of governance ¿centre, state and local.
The mix of personalities, anecdotes, processes, institutions and challenges makes for an interesting intriguing and informative book.

Table of Contents

1. My Years in the Department of Atomic Energy
1. In the Department of Atomic Energy (1967-70)
2. In the Prime Minister¿s Secretariat
1. Joining the Prime Minister¿s Secretariat
2. The National Committee on Science and Technology and The Science and Technology Plan
3. Electronics
4. Atomic Energy
5. Space
6. Defence
7. Council of Scientific and Industrial Research
8. Industrial Technology
9. Agricultural Research
10. Environment
3. In the Department of Electronics
1. Mrs. Gandhi¿s Second Term as Prime Minister
2. The Technology Acquisition Contract for Remote Telesupervisory and Telecontrol Systems
3. The Semiconductor complex
4. The National Silicon Facility
4. Some Reflections
1. Scientists and Civil Servants in the Government
2. Mrs. Indira Gandhi : A Few Personal Vignettes

About the Authors

Ashok Parthasarathi is a physicist, electronics engineer and S&T Policy analyst. He has held senior positions in the Government of India, including Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Renewable Energy and Scientific & Industrial Research. He was Science Adviser to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He has been the Government of India¿s delegate to meetings of UNCTAD, UNE and WIPO. He has provided consultancy fir UN agencies and prepared reports on the acquisition, transfer and development of industrial technologies. He built up the Centre for Studies in Science Policy at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi- the only such centre in South Asia. He has published over 100 papers on issues of S&T policy, and planning and management and has co- edited two books, Pugwash on Self-Reliance (1978) and Scientific Co-operation for Development: Search for New Directions (1988).