“In 1947, when India got independence, there were only a few scientific institutes like the Indian Institute of Science and Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research and 17 universities. The new country had many problems,” says Shekhar Mande, former director general of the CSIR.
As we celebrate Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, it is only fair that we look at India's development story from the perspective of science. “Our priority was to identify areas of research and develop places where these researches could be conducted. The government began by setting up Indian Institutes of Technology, and a string of national laboratories,” he says.
Mande put together for THE WEEK some of the top solutions that Indian scientists found for specific Indian challenges, often where even western scientists gave up.
Implementing democracy
When India went to polls for the first time, the Election Commission was stumped. How could it ensure that there was only one vote per voter, and that people didn't go to multiple booths and vote?
CSIR's National Physical Laboratory in New Delhi came up with the solution. It developed the indelible ink, which is put on the finger of every voter after the vote is cast. The ink, silver nitrate, stains the skin, and remains on it for several days. The technology was transferred to Mysore Ink and Varnish Limited, and it still manufactures the ink for every election in India. This ink is even exported to other countries.
By the 1990s, as the size of the population grew, the paper ballots became cumbersome. There needed to be a system which would record votes and count them quickly, and more efficiently. Two scientists from IIT Bombay, A.G. Rao and Ravi Poovaiah, developed the electronic voting machine or EVM, which has transformed the electoral process. These machines, too, have been exported.
Indian national calendar
In a country with such diversity, there was bound to be diversity in fixing dates of festivals. Almost every community had its own local calendar. While the Gregorian calendar is used, India needed an accurate calendar for fixing dates for festivals like Diwali and Holi. The Calendar Reform Committee under astrophysicist Meghnad Saha studied around 30 regional calendars after which they scientifically updated the Saka calendar, integrating a myriad local sentiments. Usage started officially at 1 Chaitra 1879, Saka Era, or March 22, 1957. The Indian national calendar is a national identity symbol, just like the Indian national bird( peacock), national animal (tiger) and flower (lotus).
Staving off hunger
Most of us know that the Green Revolution, started in the 1960s under the scientific leadership of M.S. Swaminathan, finally made India food sufficient. Developing high-yield variety crops was one part of the challenge to become food sufficient. However, agriculture was revolutionised by two other inputs, too.
India needed low-cost tractors to mechanise farming. So far, it was importing such farm machinery from the UK. CSIR's Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute developed these tractors, which were famously called the Swaraj tractors.
At the same time, Hindustan Insecticide Ltd began manufacturing a host of agri pesticides, without which the green revolution may not have taken off.
Atomic energy
Of course, we know of the two big blasts at Pokhran which told the world we have the N-bomb. That is one aspect of our nuclear energy; the other is powering the needs of India. From generating electricity to developing nuclear medicine treatment, there is a lot that Indian nuclear scientists, following the trail blazed by Homi Bhabha, have achieved.
Saving children
At the time of independence, the infant and child mortality rates were very high (164 and 258 per 1,000 live births respectively). A major cause for this was malnutrition. Indian children needed milk. While milk production was slowly rising, the problem was maintaining the cold chain for transport, without which the milk would go bad. The best way was to serve powdered milk. However, top scientists from leading dairy nations like Switzerland and New Zealand said it was impossible to turn buffalo milk (the primary milk source in India) into powdered form because of its high fat content. Indian scientists took up the challenge. Scientists at Central Food Technology Research Institute in Mysore were leaders in developing technology to separate the fat from the milk and convert the rest into powder, which was an excellent baby food. The fat was converted into butter. The technology was transferred to Amul. This breakthrough happened a few years before Operation Flood was launched and it went a long way in adding value to the milk collection through cooperatives.
More to hide
When India became independent, it had no leather industry. All it produced was raw hide and skin, almost all of which was exported to the UK, where it was the raw material for a thriving leather industry. In 1947, there were 25,000 Indians working in the hide and skin sector. The Central Leather Research Institute in Chennai has worked diligently in developing indigenous technology for processing leather and scaling up production on the value chain. Today, the leather industry in India employs 45 lakh people, and rakes in six billion dollars in exports annually.
Pharmacy of the world
India needed cheap drugs to save its people. It was a poor country, where the need for medicines was great and the supply restricted by cost. The chemical industry and pharma sectors got working, and the focus was on generic drugs. Today, India has reached a stage where it exports generic drugs to the whole world, including developed countries like the USA. The speed with which India developed the low cost rapid antigen Covid test, or the Feluda test, again was a gamechanger in the battle against Covid-19.
Vaccinator of the world
This, again, was a developmental need in a country where preventable illnesses were very high, leaving children dead or debilitated. The BCG was the first programme for mass immunisation against TB, and as more diseases came under the universal vaccination programme, the need for vaccines rose majorly. The pharma sector has surpassed itself, and now, over 60 per cent children across the world are vaccinated with a Made in India vaccine. Covaxin is the latest example of an indigenously developed vaccine which is saving lives.
Off to space
India needed to harness space technology for its myriad developmental needs, and this outlook, crafted by Vikram Sarabhai, remains central to India's space mission. Whether it is weather watching, railway gates or traffic monitoring, the list of space applications is only growing. Though funding has never been a problem with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the scientists began developing low cost technology. Left isolated after its nuclear tests, India developed much of its space technology itself. Its workhorse, the PSLV, put a probe into the distant Martian orbit. India continues to be a leader in frugal space technology, and is the go-to country for launching small satellites now.
Biojet fuel
In August 2018, Spicejet flew the country's first biojet fuel flight from Dehradun to Delhi. Biojet fuel is a green aviation fuel, developed from plant sources like biomass, jatropha and other non-edible plant oils. It is the fuel of the future, and India is among the few to have developed this technology. The technology was developed in Dehradun-based Indian Institute of Petroleum. The Indian Air Force is likely to use this fuel in its flight, too.
Shekhar Mande | Aayush Goel
Now, as India begins its march towards its centenary, what are the challenges for the next 25 years? Mande lists these, too.
Transforming healthcare
We need to digitise healthcare. We need to sync healthcare services with automation. We need to develop low cost biomedical instrumentation (like robotic arm for surgeries) to reduce cost of providing healthcare.
Aligning with Industry 4.0
The new industrial revolution is afoot. India has to align its industries to the new technologies like automated manufacturing, advanced robotics and artificial intelligence.
Urban mobility
Indian science has to come up with solutions for affordable, mass urban mobility that eases commuting, reduces pollution and traffic congestions.
Climate change mitigation
With climate change events occurring rapidly and having disastrous impacts, scientists have to focus on mitigation and management of these events.
Back to villages
We need technological solutions to improve rural life and livelihood, so that the urban migration can be slowed, if not reversed.
