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Background
Development perspectives in the indian
economy
Technology
policy
R&D
and self-reliance
India's technological capability: an
international comparison
Case-studies
Factors in technological development
Concluding
remarks
Notes
Post-independence Indian policy makers recognized early the role of science and technology (S&T) self-reliance in endogenous economic development. In fact, a Scientific Policy Resolution was adopted by the Indian Parliament as early as 1958, and the basic premise of the second Five-Year Plan (1956-1961) was that the acquisition of capital goods-making capability was vital for long-term self-reliant economic development. Since then, Indian planning and policies have gradually evolved to develop local S&T capabilities.
The present analysis has been conducted in two stages. First, technological policies and their outcomes over the post-independence period are studied within the overall development framework. Next, case-studies are presented for four manufacturing industries: machine tools, coal-based thermal power equipment, petroleum refining, and chemical fertilizers. Each of these industries is intensive in its use of scarce resources, namely capital, skills, and technology, and has many linkages with other sectors.
In this study, S&T self-reliance refers to the ability to apply knowledge for national development, making no distinction between the two constituent elements, science and technology. It is used here to mean not autarchy or self-sufficiency in technology but an autonomous capability to apply technology - whether local or imported - for national development.