‘Viksit Bharat by 2047’, the year when modern India turns 100, is, perhaps, the most revolutionary thought inculcated among the citizenry by the current leadership of the country.
It is important that the ease of living life, as assessed by degrees of sustainable development, quality of living, empowerment, safety and security reaches the desired levels before the country starts aging by 2050. For the aspiration to turn into reality, India needs to transition thoughts into actions by common citizens with supportive policy, administrative, financial and business frameworks from the government. Hopefully, ‘Viksit Bharat by 2047’ will become a people’s movement to see large-scale contribution from one and all.
While GDP roadmap with milestones, and the contribution of various sectors in the roadmap, are important as they set the aspirational goals for the sector leaders, the action plan needs to focus on technologies with proper strength-weaknesses-opportunity-threat (SWOT) analysis carried out. It does not need special mention that achieving desired level of development in a comparatively short time frame requires investment in efficient and innovative applications of technology. Therefore, it is vitally important for the country to keep focusing on technologies – leveraging existing ones, innovating them to create new/efficient applications and creating new ones. The Premise
It is universally acknowledged that there are three basic minimum requirements that need to be fulfilled in any developed society. These include sustainability of life, easy accessibility of quality means with a sense of empowerment and feeling of safety and security to life. These minimum requirements need to be fulfilled not only for oneself, but also for the family, society, animals, flora and fauna and the nature and planet at large.
Sustainability includes guaranteed availability of food (not only grains and pulses, but also of fruits, dairy and animal products), without polluting the environment: Air, soil and Water. Primarily, the processes should not pollute the environment. But if they do, technology should provide means of monitoring the pollutants and mitigating the effect.
This requires technologies for green/organic farming, sanitation, recycling, waste to wealth and others. Further, life sustainability also requires easy availability of universal education and health care. Once the basic need of survival is met, the next requirement is that of empowerment, the empowerment that allows individuals, companies and societies to access quality services, finances, access and infrastructure on demand.
People should feel that they deserve, and have capability to earn, these entitlements and are not at mercy of someone for doling them out. Finally, the conducive environment for businesses free from internal and external threats tops the minimum requirement bucket.
The Preparation
It appears that the government has been laying the foundations of ‘Viksit Bharat’ for sometime without actually announcing so, through programmes, policies and schemes like Skill India, Startup India, Digital India, Ayushman Bharat, PM-Vishwakarma, New Education Policy, etc. The S&T ecosystem has been strengthened over the years with multiple government departments, academia and R&D units of large-scale industries, MSMEs and startups focusing on various aspects of science and technology.
India, today, has a very strong network of academic institutions with IISc (1), IITs (23), IIITs (25), NITs (31), AIIMS (23), IIMs (21), Central Universities (56), Institutes of National Importance (165), Institutes of Eminence (12) and tens of thousands of universities, colleges and standalone institutions across the country. IITs are now spreading wings in Asia and Africa. Some Indian private universities have campuses in Europe and Americas as well.
These institutions run some very specialized courses and schools focusing on the requirements at grass root level, like rural technology, water resources management, sustainable development, green energy etc. In fact, the top 100 global QS ranked STEM courses featured 44 Indian courses in fields such as computer science, electrical engineering, petroleum engineering, minerals and mines engineering, business studies, physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology, dentistry etc.
Many Indian academic institutions now find a place in the list of world’s top 100 in the latest QS ranking. Scientific clusters have been set up in major cities to create strong linkages among all stakeholders, including philanthropists, to focus on regional issues. India is now part of many international science experiments like Large Hadron Collider, Gravitational Wave Observatory LIGO, 30 m Telescope (TMT) Optical Observatory, Square Kilometer Array Radio Observatory, International Thermonuclear Reactor Experiment etc. A network of close to 400 PSUs and major private industry houses like L&T, Tatas, Kalyani, Adani, Reliance, Infosys, Bharati Airtel etc. have started participating in R&D activities, especially in market driven technologies.
The interdisciplinary centres in academia, funded by individuals/families/private-companies/philanthropy organizations enable state of art research in diverse areas like AI, robotics, communication, climate change, bio inspired engineering, engineered medicine, infrastructure, waste to wealth, and so on. The confluence of academia, R&D labs and industry is now propelling a vibrant startup culture and unicorns. Today, India is one of the top 3 countries in the world in terms of scientific publications, PhDs, size of higher education system and number of startups.
So far and now on
Riding on successes in developing required technologies, the country currently boasts being among the world’s top countries in several fields. The homegrown technologies, and the appetite in Indian consumers, seem to be laying path for a bright future.
Agriculture: Indian farmers are now moving from conventional farming to information farming. Many farmers are now routinely applying technologies in the total life cycle of harvesting. AI/ML backed farming technologies, financial services, content biotech, irrigation, fertilizers, weather projections, sensing, logistics etc. are driving improved produce and productivity in areas including hydroponics, aquaponics and aeroponics. Network of cold-storages, sensors, wearable devices and automation is improving animal stock, dairying, fisheries and poultry.
Proliferation of internet, blockchain, eNAM and digital mandis, Kisan Raths etc. are providing better last mile connectivity to market. These home grown technologies, taking care of the needs of organic farming with climate resilient and bio-fortified plant varieties, have made India the largest producer in the world of milk, millet, pulses, onion, buffaloes and goats; and second largest producer in world of wheat, rice, sugarcane, groundnut, tea, jute, tobacco, dry-fruits, fruits, vegetables, potato, egg, cattle, sheep, cotton, silk etc. India also has the highest organically cultivated area in the world. And all this when the country has only 2% land mass of the world!
India is now staring at networked and precision agriculture. The farmers in future will know the characteristics of the soil of his farm and the likely environmental conditions in the ensuing months before sowing. The AI will provide the choice of crops, along with the likely expenditure and the projected market prices. Online distributed sensors will monitor the crop and soil and the farmer will be alerted of localized requirements of fertilizers, nano-fertilizers or special soil nutrients; irrigation; germicides; pesticides or pest repellants; etc. Perhaps, distributed actuators will be automatically operated to meet these precision requirements.
Diminishing land-holdings, however, may play spoilsport. Marginal farmers may see the advantage of pooling land resources for precision farming for larger return from crop to crop. Sensors are also likely to be utilized for quality control and grading of produce for fair and transparent transactions in mandis. Thus, sensing, robotics, AI, vision and cognitive technologies, data analytics and machine learning etc. are set to play a much larger role in agriculture. Digital twinning technology may also be used by agriculture scientists in developing high-yield seeds needing less water for a warmer planet. Agricultural waste, along with human and animal waste, may be gasified or solidified to utilize their calorific values without causing environmental pollution.
Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, Nutraceuticals: India today is the pharmacy of the world. The country exports pharmaceuticals and vaccines to over 200 countries, meets 60% of global demand for vaccines, 50% demand of the African continent, 40% of generic demand of the USA and 25% of all medicines of UK. This makes India the 3rd largest producer of medicines by volume. India is the second largest exporter of Ayurveda and alternative medicines.
India has also developed vaccines against a large number of viruses, infections and diseases like Rotavirus, cervical cancer, Pneumococcal infection, Japanese encephalitis, Hepatitis B, Meningitis A, cholera, Dengue, Chikungunya, influenza etc. However, one cannot remain satisfied with this. Even though India is 3rd largest medicine producer by volume, it is 14th largest by value. Likewise, even though India is 3rd largest in producing Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), its share in the global market is just 8%. Clearly, the capability and capacity needs to be improved to move up in the value chain.
The upward trend is already visible with large investments and talent churn happening in the sector. Perhaps, S&T institutions, specially academic institutions, need to introduce specialized courses, specially in chemical engineering and chemistry departments, to expose students to pharmacology related S&T and make them deployment ready in the drug industry.
Quality medical services at affordable prices, currently provided by primarily private Indian enterprises, have made the country top hub in medical and wellness tourism in the world for years. India was able to successfully administer over 2 billion vaccines to its population during covid, using information technology (vaccine intelligence network). Technology has been successfully used for managing universal immunization programmes.
We are now seeing the proliferation of technology in medical sciences. A large number of IITs, IISc and other HEIs are opening departments of biology, biotechnology, bioengineering, and even medical colleges, in their campuses. This marriage of two diverse streams will ensure that new age technologies are applied to medical diagnostics; medical data interpretation; preventive, predictive and personalized healthcare; care delivery from home, including remotely controlled or autonomous robotic interventions if required; accelerated development of drugs and vaccines.
Green and Frontier Technologies: Out of 17 technologies identified as green and frontier by UNCTAD in 2023, India has been acknowledged in top 3 in the world in six technologies (Big Data, Block-Chain, IOT, 5G, Biofuels, Biogas and Biomass, Wind Energy and Nanotechnologies); and a key player in Asia and Pacific in Robotics and Drones. In the remaining 6 technologies (AI, 3D Printing, Concentrated Solar Power, Green Hydrogen, EVs and Gene Editing), India has already launched mission mode developmental activities/projects.
India has the 5th largest installed capacity of renewable energy in the world. Even with these achievements, India stands at 46th rank below most of North America, Europe and some countries in East Asia. While India does produce a large number of patents, we lack in productization of science. Thus, a focus on productization, industrial design, innovation and global outlook with local application will help India move to higher ranks.
Good Governance and People’s Empowerment: India has made huge strides in this area, powered by Digital India Mission and Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI). All the Gram Panchayats, more or less, are connected through DPI and powered by applications like Bhashini, Meghraj, Gatishakti, Indian Urban Data Exchange, United Health Interface gateway, BHIM, Aadhaar, etc. Secured banking and services like online passports, education, healthcare, KYC, bill payments, employments; e-courts, e-commerce and e-procurements; and miscellaneous applications like DigiYatra, CoWin, Ayushman Bharat, Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) etc. have taken deep roots in Indian society.
The seamless integration of IT with Indian society has resulted in generation of close to a billion and a half Aadhaar identities, administering of more than 2 billion covid vaccines during pandemic, storing of about 6 billion documents in secured digilockers, creation of about half a billion Ayushman Bharat health accounts. In 2023, the number of UPI transactions stood at 114 billion! India today has the highest FinTech adoption rate in the world: 87% as against the global average of 64%!
The Indian UPI system is already integrated with financial transaction systems of Sri Lanka, Mauritius, France, UAE, Singapore, Bhutan and Nepal. It may be integrated in countries like Japan, Australia and others in near future.
This is one achievement that we can be justifiably proud of. The DPI needs to be continuously maintained and upgraded with emerging technologies like 6G communication, strong cyber security.
Industrial technologies: The manufacturing base of all types of technologies has been strengthened in the recent past by government and private parties. India today is the top producer of sports goods in Asia, top country in the world in cut and polished diamonds, 2nd largest producer of gold and silver jewellery and lab-grown diamonds and 3rd largest producer of textiles and apparels. India is the world’s second largest steel producer and 6th largest producer of chemicals. However, the industry worldwide is moving towards 4.0 and 5.0 standards.
A UN report, in 2022, placed India in a bracket with high opportunities but low skill sets to reap the benefit of industry 4.0. Therefore, to actually realize all the above benefits, transition of manpower to industry 4.0 should be taken up on priority. Integration of high bandwidth secured communication channels, networked operation, man-unmanned teaming, automatic and autonomous operations, integrated supply-chains, and green-manufacturing practices are going to make a major impact on industry.
Some of the high impact industrial technologies include communication, geo-spatial technologies, advanced materials, ballistic materials, ceramics and glasses, efficient and high energy density storage systems including super capacitors and fuel cells, rare earth magnets, additive manufacturing and railways, waterways and surface vehicles.
To its credit, the country has already rolled out 5G communication across the country in over 700 districts, 4,500 cities and 2,00,000 sites. This has enabled operations using AR/VR technologies, metaverse and massive machine communication. A large amount of intellectual property has already been registered by the country in 6G. Country already has programmes in areas like advanced materials and batteries.
What is also interesting to note is that there is a break-through in technologies related to railways-be it the railway propulsion, automatic train protection, anti-collision system, emergency and disaster lighting, coach condition monitoring, GPS based passenger information system etc. Geo-spatial technologies have already made their mark in not only planning, but also execution of a large number of infra-structure projects, disaster localization etc.
Indian institutions now routinely provide weather and disaster forecasts on cyclones, heavy rainfalls, heat and cold waves, thunderstorms and fog with accuracies at par with the world and with a lead period of at least 5 days. South Asia Flash Flood Guidance System managed by India monitors close to 30,000 watersheds and provides services to Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka also. Likewise, National Seismological Network and the Indian Tsunami Early Warning Network etc. are protecting life and livelihoods of millions of people.
The new age technologies like Optical communication, 6G and beyond; information technology, cyber engineering and IoT; AI, Big Data, machine learning and autonomous systems etc.; engineered materials, smart infrastructure and structures, climate control technologies, high energy density systems and waste to energy technologies are set to revolutionize the way the industry conducts business today. Fossil fuels are likely to be replaced by hydrogen fuel cells, electric engines and other similar greener technologies. Smart infrastructure and smart materials should result in reduced energy consumption, collaborative endeavors and a cleaner environment.
Palm top availability of information and AI based leads should result in efficient time management. AI and related technologies should result in more micro-localization of prediction and management of disasters. Finally, all this information projected in geo-spatial platforms should enable policy and decision makers for a policy framework with a logical macro picture of the country. Integrated geo-spatial picture will also empower individual consumers to make informed decisions.
Space: India has been acknowledged by the world as a major space technology nation. India has systematically acquired the capability to develop, build, launch and operate all kinds of satellites and space vehicles. Successful landing of Chandrayan on the moon’s south pole has established, beyond doubt, the prowess of the Indian space community. Missions like Mangalyan, Aditya etc.; satellites for communication and remote sensing; launch vehicles like PSLV and GSLV and deep space networks have all established India as a country of immense contribution to the space knowledge system.
The ensuing flights like Gaganyan, the manned space flight leading to Indian manned mission to the moon in future, will motivate generations of Indians to excel, for they will see the stories learnt in Ramayana and Mahabharata coming true in front of their own eyes. Recent opening of space to the private sector promises to unleash India’s space potential. Young entrepreneurs are already into developing/manufacturing/proving of small lift vehicles and satellites on one hand and the software and ground and space infrastructure on the other. Major industries, of course, have been participating with ISRO in all space technology missions imbibing space quality systems and proliferating the same to other sectors. Hopefully, India will see an equivalent of SpaceX in not very far in future.
Aerospace and Defence: As with space, India has an impressive list of successes in the aerospace sector as well. Fighter aircraft Tejas; Eye in the Sky Netra (AEW&C); Helicopters like Prachand and Dhruv are not only used by Indian armed forces, they are also objects of envy of adversaries. Apart from this, a large number of indigenous systems integrated on legacy systems like MiGs and Sukhois make these aircraft very different from the legacy ones.
The Indian missile basket has all kinds of missiles, from very short range VSHORAD to thousands of kilometer capability AGNI; missiles operated from land, air, water and underwater platforms; subsonic and supersonic missiles; tactical to strategic missiles. Recent demonstrations of MaRV, MIRV and long range cruise technologies put India in a class envied by the world. The efficacy and effectiveness of Indian missile systems can be gauged from the fact that they are finding a huge export market as well. India has also developed capability in UAVs, anti-drone and attack drones, heavy drop systems, parachutes, practice aircraft etc. Indigenous small transport aircraft like Saras Mk II and Hansa NG have also been developed and are under testing.
In the areas of weapons and platforms, the capability to design, develop, manufacture, maintain and operationalize anti-satellite system (space defence), launch on demand capability, naval platforms (ships, submarines including nuclear submarines); Arjun tanks; artillery guns like ATAGS and Dhanush; air defence systems like Akash, QRSAM, VLSRSAM etc.; electronic systems like radar, electro-optics, radios, data links, EW systems etc.; personal protective equipment like bullet proof jackets, extreme cold weather clothing etc.; subsystems like fire control systems, launchers, navigation and positioning systems etc. have all been well established.
Many of these equipment are in the export list that enabled India to achieve defence exports of about Rs 21,000 crore in the last financial year. Autonomous underwater vehicles, naval robots, UGVs, light tank Zoravar, AI power cyber physical systems etc. are now ready to join forces in line of duty. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute rates India as one of the top 3-4 countries in various naval, hypersonic, electronic warfare, drones, swarming, cobotic, AI and cyber technologies.
Even with these achievements, the country has many milestones to cross to become a major player in defence and aerospace technologies. It appears that the major issue to be addressed here is not related to technology. Given the minimum required resources and allowance for creativity, the Indian defence technology community has produced what is required to be produced. The major issues relate to adequate funding, collaboration among stakeholders and opening up of the defence market to global requirements.
The capabilities thus established in aerospace and defence sector will now lead to upgrading of existing platforms and development of new platforms like Twin Engine Deck Based Fighter, LCA Mk II, 5th generation AMCA, 6th generation fighter aircraft, indigenization and upgrade of C-295 (to be manufactured by Tatas under license), military heavy lift transport aircraft, operationalization of small civilian transport aircraft and development of at least regional transport aircraft, longer range rockets and guns, Futuristic Combat Systems, higher penetration ammunition, armour and active armour protection systems etc.
India should be investing big on speed of light weapon systems, e-bombs, cyber and NBC defence technologies. A focus on military propulsion systems and power plants is also required. India is also likely to establish itself as a major player in MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul). The public-private partnership regime should be established to fund projects, manage intellectual property, integrate civil and defence markets and avail global opportunities with the flexibility of private sector and support of government.
Leading Global Capability Centres: The network of academic institutions in India today produces nearly 15 Lakh engineering graduates every year. This huge pool of technically qualified manpower has made India the 2nd largest pool of digitally skilled talent pool and number 1 in world in AI skill penetration. These advantages of the Indian system have made India the leader of the global capability cntres (GCCs).
In fact, India today hosts 45% of GCCs outside the home countries of the companies. 42% of global company headquarters manage their end-to-end affairs from India. With continuous focus on IT infrastructure, communication technologies and AI penetration, India will continue having edge in GCCs globally.
Focus
Looking at the tech-startup ecosystem, government missions, academic curriculums, government’s public commitment to development and the ‘whole of India’ approach in the country, India seems to be moving in the right direction. If the coming government continues to keep focus on technologies and creating a higher and better supportive ecosystem, it can be said with certainty that Indian technology will lead India to reach 17 sustainable development goals of the UN in an accelerated time frame.
The Prime Minister has promised major initiatives towards ‘Viksit Bharat’ in his next term. One hopes that these will unshackle bureaucracy, invigorate scientists and create a conducive environment for moonshots, incentivize success and condone genuine partial successes.
(The author is a Professor of Practice at IIT Delhi, and former Distinguished Scientist and DG, DRDO; Views are personal)
