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Three Times When India Trumped Western Countries for being Denied Technology E01

     On last 28th February I wrote a piece on how India undertook a process that is Sciencization. This is a three part article series throwing light on three stories of grit, perseverance and passion that helped India build technologies that were denied to it.      Chronologically going, the first story is of the denial of the supercomputers. The then Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi in 1987 was of the view that India should start leaving its footprints on supercomputing. USA had developed its first supercomputer called Cray and it was performing very well in the markets. The then Minister of Science had went to settle the deal with the Americans but they were apprehennsive of selling the technology to Indians for the reason that it could be used by India for non-civil purposes. India tried assuring the Americans but still, they refused. In India however the scientific community was divided into two schools of thought- the one that supported importin...

The Sciencization of India

    India today once again proved its might as ISRO launched the 53rd flight into the space. Not only, this day marks 51 successful PSLV launches into the space but is also an opprtune time to celebrate the  discovery of Raman Effect as India celebrates National Science Day on this day.     We as a country have had seen a very fast journey to achieve miracles immediately after the independence. It has never been an easy task for any newly liberated country to integrate their developmental goals with the application of science as much as India has done it. Immediately after the independence India decided to invest in the Science and Technology to the degree so that it could successfully convert a colonial jail into a temple of learning- The IIT-Kharagpur! With in next decade India made itself capable of launching a rocket that it brought to the facility on a bullock cart.        ...

Technology in Modern Era- Are We Indebted to Bloody Wars?

           An extreme optimist will try to find positive element in almost every negative thing. For them a war could serve a positive function. One such optimism with the wars is the growth of technology. Today we see nuclear energy, rockets and missiles, explosives etc used for both good and bad. These are the inventions that do no have a happy story of origin. Nuclear bombs evolved through Manhattan Project used to end the Second World War, rockets and missiles evolved through ancient kingdoms feud among themselves and so many more. Are all the technological inventions produuct of war? Should we feel indebted to bloody wars?           Thinking about the invention of printing press can counter the above arguments and answer the question asked. Printing press's invention has no bad story but it's evolution to present stage is making one! The way media and press is working to the detriment of society today, leaving behind its v...

Should We Cultivate Our Own Garden?

               Voltaire, the French philosopher at the dawn of enlightenment once pondered upon this question. It arose by a thought experiment in which few young boys would meet an old Turk sitting under a tree. The Turkish man would tell  them how he has disassociated himself from other's business, politics and minded his own that is cultivating his garden. The same maxim can, in the modern world be equated to "Mind your own business" proverb.                The 21st century is no more a less relevant time to ponder over this question again. Are people more into other's business? Or is it the new medium of communication- the Social Media, that have made the things more fluid in this regard? 

The Conditioned Reporter and the Farmer

 A news ("dis-news" to be precise) reporter questioned a farmer on his dressing sense! The farmer was wearing a pair of denims  and a jacket. We have been conditioned from early childhood to see farmers in torn and dirty dhoti kurta. Though we think of raising living standards of ourselves and the government thinks similar for farmers, the target seems far from becoming an achievement with such social attitude.   The news reporters of the country anyway shall remain conditioned to their political masters in an India divided by ideologies that once used to be melting pot of ideologies. 

Ethics of Colonizing Mars

 How colonizing regions by erstwhile British Empire could be termed unethical but the current race to space specially planets like Mars is going on unquestioned? What could be the possible explanation? The two kind of colonizations are different just because of existence of no humans on the Mars or is it that we do not want to question the way science and technology is heading to- into a deep space ? But, what if the life doesn't exist in Mars "as we know it" but in a form unknown to us? As of know there is no evidence of life as we know it. However, if any possibility exists of Marsian bacteria being present. Will it be ethical to preserve the bacteria and deprive the humans of a possible living space? Only time will answer these questions, the Marsian times!