Progress of Science in Post-independent India

Progress of Science in Post-Independent India

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The foundations of India’s scientific development were laid in the post-Independence period. The founding fathers realised early on that if India was to develop holistically, it had to invest in science and technology. This article traces the growth of India’s scientific and technological institutions — from the CSIR laboratories and the IITs to nuclear energy, space research, and agricultural science — a theme of importance for the UPSC History Optional syllabus on post-Independence India.

Nehru’s Vision for Science and the “Temples of Modern India”

• India’s leaders were convinced that science and technology were crucial to solving the country’s problems. As early as January 1938, Nehru told the Indian Science Congress: “It was science alone that could solve these problems of hunger and poverty, of sanitation and illiteracy, of superstition and deadening custom and tradition, of vast resources running to waste, of a rich country inhabited by starving people.”
  • This view was reiterated in the Scientific Policy Resolution, passed by the Lok Sabha in 1958, acknowledging the role of science and technology in the country’s economic, social, and cultural advancement.
• After 1947, Nehru also became aware of the critical role that scientific research and technology would play in India’s defence.
• The “Temples of Modern India” were not limited to dams and plants but also included institutions of higher learning, particularly scientific institutions — without which it would not have been possible to create the highly trained manpower, scientists, and engineers needed to work in PSEs or otherwise contribute to India’s socio-economic transformation and self-reliance.

Scientific Policy Resolution (1958)

• India’s first science policy, it largely emphasised basic research across almost every field of science.
• It also placed emphasis on developing and making available the basic infrastructure needed for scientific research.

National Physical Laboratory (NPL)

• As part of the effort to promote self-sustaining scientific and technological growth, NPL is one of the earliest national laboratories set up under the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR).
  • Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation stone of NPL on 4 January 1947; Dr. K.S. Krishnan was its first Director.
  • The laboratory’s main aim is to strengthen and advance physics-based research and development for the overall growth of science and technology in the country.
• This was followed, during the Nehru years, by the setting up of a network of seventeen national laboratories, specialising in different areas of research.

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)

• Established by the Government of India in September 1942 as an autonomous body, CSIR has emerged as India’s largest research and development organisation, with activities spanning aerospace engineering, structural engineering, ocean sciences, life sciences, metallurgy, chemicals, mining, food, petroleum, leather, and environmental science.
• In 1943, the governing body of CSIR approved a proposal by Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar — undertaken on the initiative of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru — to establish five national laboratories:
  • National Chemical Laboratory
  • National Physical Laboratory
  • Fuel Research Station
  • Glass & Ceramics Research Institute
  • National Metallurgical Laboratory
• In 1944, in addition to its annual budget of INR 1 million, CSIR received a grant of INR 10 million for establishing these laboratories, while the Tata Industrial House donated INR 2 million for the chemical, metallurgical, and fuel research laboratories.
• The foundations of these five laboratories were laid in stages: the Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute at Kolkata was the first, in December 1945; the National Metallurgical Laboratory at Jamshedpur followed in November 1946; and the National Chemical Laboratory at Pune was the last, on 6 April 1947. All five establishments were completed by 1950.
• To underscore the importance of science and scientific research, Nehru himself assumed the chairmanship of the CSIR, which guided and financed the national laboratories and other scientific institutions.
  • The Council’s research programmes are directed towards the effective utilisation of the country’s natural resources and the development of new processes and products for economic progress, and it continues to play a leading role in fulfilling the technology missions set by the government.
• A Department of Scientific Research was also created under Nehru.

Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs)

• Urgent steps were taken to organise the training of technical personnel sorely needed by the country.
  • After the end of the Second World War, and before India gained independence, Sir Ardeshir Dalal of the Viceroy’s Executive Council foresaw that India’s future prosperity would depend not so much on capital as on technology, and accordingly proposed the setting up of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.
  • To staff these laboratories, he persuaded the US government to offer hundreds of doctoral fellowships under the Technology Cooperation Mission (TCM) programme. However, realising that such steps could not sustain India’s long-run development after Independence, he conceptualised institutes that would train the required workforce within the country itself.
• In 1946, Sir Jogendra Singh of the Viceroy’s Executive Council set up a committee to consider the creation of Higher Technical Institutions for India’s post-war industrial development.
  • This 22-member committee, headed by Nalini Ranjan Sarkar, recommended establishing such institutions across various parts of India, along the lines of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with affiliated secondary institutions.
• The first Indian Institute of Technology was founded in May 1950 at the site of the Hijli Detention Camp in Kharagpur, West Bengal.
  • The name “Indian Institute of Technology” was adopted before the institute’s formal inauguration on 18 August 1951 by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.
  • On 15 September 1956, Parliament passed the Indian Institute of Technology (Kharagpur) Act, declaring it an Institute of National Importance.
  • At IIT Kharagpur’s first convocation address in 1956, Nehru said: “Here in the place of that Hijli Detention Camp stands the fine monument of India, representing India’s urges, India’s future in the making. This picture seems to me symbolical of the changes that are coming to India.”
• On the Sarkar Committee’s recommendations, four further campuses were established — at Bombay (1958), Madras (1959), Kanpur (1959), and Delhi (1961) — their locations deliberately scattered across India to prevent regional imbalance.
  • The Indian Institutes of Technology Act was subsequently amended to reflect the addition of new IITs.
• Student agitations in Assam led Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to promise the creation of a new IIT in the state, resulting in the establishment of a sixth institution at Guwahati under the Assam Accord in 1960.
  • In 2001, the University of Roorkee — India’s oldest engineering college — was converted into IIT Roorkee.

The University Grants Commission (UGC)

• The UGC was first formed in 1945 to oversee the work of the three Central Universities of Aligarh, Banaras, and Delhi; its responsibility was extended in 1947 to cover all Indian universities.
• In August 1949, a recommendation was made to reconstitute the UGC along lines similar to the University Grants Committee of the United Kingdom. This recommendation came from the University Education Commission of 1948–49, set up under the chairmanship of S. Radhakrishnan “to report on Indian university education and suggest improvements and extensions.”
• In 1952, the government decided that all grants to universities and higher-learning institutions should be handled by the UGC.
  • An inauguration was subsequently held on 28 December 1953 by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the Minister of Education, Natural Resources, and Scientific Research.
  • In November 1956, the UGC became a statutory body upon the passing of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956, by Parliament.
• Owing to Nehru’s efforts in higher learning, the number of science and technical personnel rose from around 180,000 in 1950 to around 730,000 in 1965, by the time of his death.
  • Undergraduate enrolment in engineering and technology increased, as did the number of undergraduate students studying agriculture.

Nuclear Energy

• India was one of the first nations to recognise the importance of nuclear energy.
  • Following the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in August 1945, the nuclear physicist R.S. Krishnan, recognising the massive energy-generating potential of uranium, observed: “If the tremendous energy released from atomic explosions is made available to drive machinery, etc., it will bring about an industrial revolution of a far-reaching character.”
• In March 1946, the Board of Scientific and Industrial Research (BSIR), under the CSIR, set up an Atomic Research Committee under Bhabha’s leadership to explore India’s atomic energy resources, suggest ways to develop and harness them, and establish contacts with similar organisations abroad.
  • Around the same time, the University of Travancore’s research council met to discuss the state’s future industrial development, recommending the development of its resources of monazite (a valuable thorium ore) and ilmenite, with regard to their applications in atomic energy.
  • This was followed by the deputation of Bhabha and Sir Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar, Director of the CSIR, to Travancore in April 1947, establishing a working relationship with the kingdom’s dewan, Sir C.P. Ramaswami Iyer.
• Early in 1947, plans were made to establish a Uranium Unit under the Geological Survey of India, to identify and develop resources of uranium-bearing minerals.
• In June 1947, Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, then Minister for Industry in the Interim Government of India, established an Advisory Board for Research in Atomic Energy.
  • Chaired by Bhabha and placed under the CSIR, the Board included Saha, Bhatnagar, and several other distinguished scientists, notably Sir K.S. Krishnan (co-discoverer of the Raman effect), geologist Darashaw Nosherwan Wadia, and Nazir Ahmed.
  • Following Independence and Partition, Travancore briefly declared itself independent before acceding to the Dominion of India in 1949, after intense negotiations, while Ahmed departed for Pakistan, where he would eventually head that nation’s atomic energy agency.
• Nehru was convinced that nuclear energy would bring about a global revolution in the social, economic, and political spheres, besides affecting nations’ defence capabilities. Along with Homi J. Bhabha, he played a key role in laying down India’s nuclear policy for the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

The Atomic Energy Act and the Institutional Foundations of the Programme

• On 23 March 1948, Prime Minister Nehru introduced the Atomic Energy Bill in Parliament, subsequently passed as the Indian Atomic Energy Act.
  • The Act granted the central government sweeping powers over nuclear science and research — including surveying atomic minerals, developing such mineral resources on an industrial scale, conducting research on the scientific and technical problems of developing atomic energy for peaceful purposes, training and educating the necessary personnel, and fostering fundamental nuclear research in Indian laboratories, institutes, and universities.
• With effect from 1 June 1948, the Advisory Board for Research in Atomic Energy, together with its parent organisation the CSIR, was folded into the new Department of Scientific Research, placed directly under the Prime Minister.
• On 3 August 1948, the Atomic Energy Commission of India (AEC) was established, made separate from the Department of Scientific Research, with Bhabha as its first chairman.
  • Bhabha was entrusted with complete authority over all nuclear-related affairs and programmes, answering only to Nehru himself; Indian nuclear policy was, in fact, set by an unwritten personal understanding between Nehru and Bhabha.
  • Nehru famously told Bhabha: “Professor Bhabha take care of Physics, leave international relation to me.”
  • From the outset in 1948, Nehru harboured high ambitions for the programme, aiming to establish an Indian nuclear capability as part of the country’s regional standing relative to other South Asian states, particularly Pakistan, telling Bhabha: “We must have the capability. We should first prove ourselves and then talk of Gandhi, non-violence and a world without nuclear weapons.”
• In 1949, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) was designated by the CSIR as the hub for all major nuclear science research projects.
• In 1950, the government announced it would purchase all available stocks of uranium and beryllium minerals and ores, declaring large rewards for any significant discoveries.
• On 3 January 1954, the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (AEET) was established by the AEC to consolidate all nuclear reactor research and related technology development.
  • On 3 August (1954), the AEC and all its subordinate agencies — including TIFR and the nuclear research institute at Calcutta University — were transferred to the new Department of Atomic Energy, placed under the direct charge of the Prime Minister’s Office, with Homi Bhabha as Secretary.
  • The AEET — renamed the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in 1967, after Bhabha’s death — was formally inaugurated by Nehru in January 1957.
• With the expanding scope of Indian nuclear research, the 1948 Atomic Energy Act was amended in 1961, and the new Atomic Energy Act came into force in September 1962.
• Homi Bhabha conceived of the three-stage nuclear programme as a way to develop nuclear energy by working around India’s limited uranium resources, while drawing on its abundant thorium, to secure the country’s long-term energy independence.
  • The first two stages — natural uranium-fuelled heavy water reactors and plutonium-fuelled fast breeder reactors — were intended to generate sufficient fissile material from India’s limited uranium resources, so that its vast thorium reserves could be fully utilised in the third stage of thermal breeder reactors.

Early Research Reactors

• India’s first nuclear reactor, at Trombay, Bombay — also the first in Asia — became critical in August 1956.
  • The decision to construct this small research reactor was made in 1955; it was intended for training personnel for the operation of future reactors, and for research including experiments in nuclear physics, studies of the effects of irradiation, and the production of isotopes for medical, agricultural, and industrial use.
  • In October 1955, an agreement was signed between the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority and the Indian Department of Atomic Energy, under which Britain would supply uranium fuel elements for a reactor designed by India.
  • Named Apsara, it was India’s and Asia’s first nuclear reactor, inaugurated by Nehru on 20 January 1957.
• In 1956, India and Canada signed an agreement for the “Canada-India Colombo Plan Atomic Reactor Project”, to build a reactor for India under the Colombo Plan for peaceful atomic research and development.
  • Canada helped build the 40 MW CIRUS reactor for purely research purposes, with India making the reactor facilities available to other Colombo Plan nations. CIRUS was completed in early 1960 and inaugurated by Nehru in January 1961.
  • A further agreement was made with the United States government to supply 21 tons of heavy water for the reactor; construction began later in 1956.
• Construction of a third research reactor, ZERLINA (Zero Energy Reactor for Lattice Investigations and New Assemblies), began at Trombay in 1958, and it too was commissioned in 1961.

The Beginnings of Commercial Nuclear Power

• Shortly after the world’s first commercial nuclear power plant came online in the Soviet Union, the Soviets invited a number of Indian experts to visit it, while the United States concurrently offered training in atomic energy to Indian technical and scientific personnel.
• By November 1958, the AEC had recommended construction of two nuclear power stations, each of two units, capable of generating 500 MW of power; the government decided that a minimum of 250 MW of nuclear-generated electricity would be incorporated into the Third Five Year Plan (1961–66).

Tarapur Atomic Power Station

• India’s first commercial nuclear power station, initially constructed with a boiling water reactor (BWR), was the result of collaboration between New Delhi and the US; the contract was signed between the two countries in May 1964.
  • The BWRs were supplied by the US conglomerate General Electric (GE), with over 100 Americans part of the project. Commercial operations began in October 1969, five years after the contract was signed.
  • Although the contract stated that the US would supply enriched uranium for 30 years, this was cut short in 1974, after India conducted its first successful nuclear test at Pokhran under Operation Smiling Buddha.
• The agreement for the nuclear power plant at Rajasthan (Rajasthan Atomic Power Project, RAPP) was signed with Canada in 1963 and completed in 1973; these reactors contained rigid safeguards to prevent their use for a military programme. Both the United States and Canada terminated their assistance following India’s first nuclear explosion in 1974.
• Though India remained committed to the peaceful uses of nuclear power, its nuclear capacity could easily have been diverted to produce atomic weapons. Nehru commissioned the first study of the human effects of nuclear explosions and campaigned ceaselessly for the abolition of what he called “these frightful engines of destruction.”
  • He also had pragmatic reasons for promoting de-nuclearisation, fearing that a nuclear arms race would lead to a level of over-militarisation unaffordable for developing countries such as India.

Space Technology

• In India, space research began in the 1920s, with studies conducted by scientists S.K. Mitra, C.V. Raman, and Meghnad Saha.
• Space-related activities proper were initiated in the early 1960s, when the application of satellites was still in an experimental stage even in the United States.
  • Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, regarded as the founding father of India’s space programme, recognised the benefits of space technology for India.
  • PM Nehru, together with Sarabhai, set up the Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) in 1962, and established a Rocket Launching Facility at Thumba (TERLS).
  • Under Sarabhai’s leadership, INCOSPAR set up the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) at Thiruvananthapuram for upper-atmospheric research; the first rocket was launched from India in November 1963.
• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), formed in 1969, superseded the erstwhile INCOSPAR.
  • Sarabhai, having identified the role and importance of space technology in national development, gave ISRO the direction to function as an agent of development, embarking on a mission to provide the nation with space-based services and to develop the necessary technologies independently.
  • Throughout the years, ISRO has upheld its mission of bringing space to the service of the common citizen and the nation, maintaining one of the largest fleets of communication satellites (INSAT) and remote sensing satellites (IRS), catering to the growing demand for reliable communication and earth observation.
  • ISRO develops and delivers application-specific satellite products and tools to the nation, including broadcasting, communications, weather forecasting, disaster management tools, Geographic Information Systems, cartography, navigation, telemedicine, and dedicated distance-education satellites.

Indian Institutes of Management (IIM)

• After Independence in 1947, the Planning Commission was entrusted with overseeing and directing national development.
  • In the late 1950s, the Commission began facing difficulties in finding suitable managers for the growing number of public sector enterprises established as part of India’s industrial policy.
  • To address this, the Planning Commission, in 1959, invited Professor George Robbins of UCLA to help set up an All India Institute of Management Studies. Based on his recommendations, the government decided to establish two elite management institutes — the Indian Institutes of Management — at Calcutta and Ahmedabad.
• IIM Calcutta was established first, on 13 November 1961, in collaboration with the MIT Sloan School of Management, the Government of West Bengal, the Ford Foundation, and Indian industry.
• IIM Ahmedabad was established the following month; the Harvard Business School played an important role in its initial development.
• In 1972, a committee headed by Ravi J. Matthai, noting the success of the two established IIMs, recommended setting up two more. Based on this recommendation, a new IIM — originally intended to cater exclusively to the needs of public sector enterprises — was established at Bangalore the following year.

Other Institutions of National Importance

• Institutions such as AIIMS, the IIMs, DRDO, ISRO, CSIR, ICAR, and IISc were established with a futuristic vision, contributing world-class engineers, doctors, managers, scientists, and agriculturists, and giving India considerable strength in modern technologies.
• Steps were also taken to increase India’s capacity in defence equipment production, so that India gradually became self-sufficient in its defence needs.

Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)

• An agency of the Government of India charged with military research and development, headquartered in New Delhi.
  • It was formed in 1958, through the merger of the Technical Development Establishment and the Directorate of Technical Development and Production of the Indian Ordnance Factories with the Defence Science Organisation.
  • DRDO’s first major project was in surface-to-air missiles (SAM), known as Project Indigo, in the 1960s; Indigo was later discontinued without achieving full success.
• India also transitioned to decimal coinage and a metric system of weights and measures, despite dire warnings that an illiterate population would not be able to handle the change.

Green Revolution

• The modernisation of agriculture through the adoption of technology, the Green Revolution brought modern equipment and machinery into use. The resulting increase in agricultural yield turned India from a “begging bowl” into a country largely self-sufficient in food.

Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) or Pusa Institute

• Established in 1905 at Pusa, Bihar, with the financial assistance of the American philanthropist Henry Phipps, Jr. Pusa, in northern Bihar, was chosen partly for its proximity to the indigo plantations, which needed revival following the German synthesis of aniline dye in 1899.
• The institute was damaged during the devastating Bihar earthquake of 15 January 1934 and was subsequently shifted to New Delhi.
• Post-Independence, it was renamed the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (from its earlier name, the Imperial Institute of Agricultural Research), and in 1950, the institute’s Shimla sub-station developed rust-resistant varieties of wheat, including Pusa 718, 737, 745, and 760.
• In 1958, it was recognised as a “deemed university” under the UGC Act of 1956, and has since awarded MSc and PhD degrees.

Health

• Longevity has increased since Independence owing to sustained investment in health. Smallpox and polio have been eradicated through early intervention in health research.

All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)

• Established in 1956 through an Act of Parliament, in New Delhi. It was the shared vision of PM Nehru and Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, India’s first Health Minister, to establish an institute of this nature in India.

Indian Institute of Science (IISc)

• Established in 1909, with active support from Jamsetji Tata and Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV, and hence also locally known as the “Tata Institute.” It was granted deemed-to-be-university status in 1958.

Achievements and Enduring Impact

• India’s successes across agriculture, healthcare, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, nuclear energy, astronomy and astrophysics, space technology and applications, defence research, biotechnology, electronics, information technology, and oceanography trace back to the seeds of development sown in the post-Independence period.
• Major national achievements include a significant increase in food production, the eradication or control of several diseases, and increased life expectancy — all outcomes of the visionary approach followed in this period.
• India has thus made unprecedented progress in scientific research and technology since Independence, and this appears to be only the beginning of a road with endless possibilities. Some illustrative examples of this ongoing trajectory include:
  • India ranks third among the world’s most attractive investment destinations for technology transactions.
  • India ranks among the world’s top countries in scientific research, positioned as one of the top five nations in space exploration, having regularly undertaken space missions — including missions to the Moon and the celebrated Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).
  • It is among the world’s top 10 nations by number of scientific publications.
  • India has been ranked the top exporter of information and communication technology (ICT) services, and second in innovation quality, as of 2017.
  • India maintains one of the most modern defence systems in the world.
  • Considerable investment and development have taken place across sectors such as agriculture, healthcare, space research, and nuclear power through scientific research.

(Note: these standing indicators should be checked against and updated with more recent data where available.)

Practice Question

“Nehru’s ‘temple of Modern India’ consisted not only of steel and power plants, irrigation dams, but included institutions of higher learning, particularly in the scientific field.” Elaborate.

In 1954, while inaugurating the Bhakra Nangal Dam, Nehru described public sector enterprises (PSEs) as the “temples of modern India.” Nehru declared that India’s economic policy must be based on a humane outlook, and must not sacrifice human welfare to money. PSEs were called “Modern Temples” because:

• Working in areas like dams, steel, and power plants, they were conceived as instruments to bring about the country’s socio-economic transformation.
• They were considered vital to nation-building, national integration, and self-reliance.

Steps taken in this direction included:

• Big dams like Bhakra Nangal and Hirakud were built.
• Iron and Steel Plants were established at Bhilai, Durgapur, Rourkela, and Bokaro.
• Industry was made the priority area in the Second Five Year Plan.
• The Industrial Policy Resolution of 1956 defined the respective areas for the public and private sectors.
• The important objectives behind building these “modern temples” were to create infrastructure, absorb technology, encourage innovation, generate employment, and address socio-economic problems.

To fulfil these objectives, the “temples of modern India” were not limited to dams and plants alone, but also included the creation of institutions of higher learning, particularly scientific institutions. Without these institutions, it would not have been possible to create the highly trained manpower, scientists, and engineers needed to work in PSEs, or to otherwise contribute to building modern India and its socio-economic transformation — this was also essential for self-reliance.

Important steps taken in this direction:

• Nehru himself assumed the chairmanship of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and pioneered the establishment of a network of national laboratories, beginning with the National Physical Laboratory in 1947 itself.
• A Department of Scientific Research was created under Nehru.
• The Scientific Policy Resolution was passed in 1958.
• In the field of higher learning, urgent steps were taken to organise the training of technical personnel.
  • In 1952, the first of the five Institutes of Technology (IITs), on the pattern of MIT, was established at Kharagpur; the other four were established at Delhi, Kanpur, Madras, and Bombay.
• Owing to Nehru’s efforts in higher learning, the number of science and technical personnel rose from around 180,000 in 1950 to around 730,000 in 1965, by the time he passed away.
• Along with Homi J. Bhabha, Nehru played an important role in laying down India’s nuclear policy for the peaceful use of nuclear energy; the Atomic Energy Commission was set up in 1948, with Bhabha as chairman.
• India also laid the foundations of space research by creating the Indian National Committee for space research.
• Institutions like AIIMS, the IIMs, DRDO, ISRO, CSIR, ICAR, and IISc were established with a futuristic vision, contributing to meeting society’s challenges by providing world-class engineers, doctors, managers, scientists, and agriculturists — and giving India considerable strength in modern technologies.