Research and Development
* India will by 2020 be as technologically advanced as South Korea is today.
India has a proven manpower base and competent entrepreneurs. Businessmen should now prefer to develop rather than import technology while the Government will need to be more sensitive to promoting scientific talent. As elsewhere, the focus of R&D will move from national laboratories to industry and the IITS and basic scientific research to the universities. In critical areas such as space technology, nuclear engineering, supercomputers and defence production, India has attained qualitative levels that have caught international attention.
The Technology Information, Forecasting Assessment Council (TIFAC) recently produced an 18-volume compendium on what Indian technology can achieve by 2020. That vision is based on the fact that technology reduces the cost of material, labour and, particularly, capital. So, development based on technology is doubly beneficial: it promotes growth and simultaneously lowers real prices. Hopefully, the power of technology to generate growth without inflation will be increasingly appreciated by policy-makers.
TIFAC's Vision-2020 envisages an India which will be technologically as advanced as South Korea is today. The country can have such a technological future in numerous fields such as agriculture, industry and medicine, given sufficient investment and the necessary work environment. Technology futures are, however, quite unpredictable and many past forecasts have proved hopelessly conservative. At the very least, India has a great technological future. How soon this is realised depends on the quality of its political and business leadership.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Sports in India : The history of sports in India dates back to the Vedic era. Physical culture in ancient India was fed by a powerful fuel--religious rites.
There were some well-defined values like the mantra in the Atharva-Veda, saying," Duty is in my right hand and the fruits of victory in my left". In terms of an ideal, these words hold the same sentiments as the traditional Olympic oath: ".......For the Honour of my Country and the Glory of Sport."
Badminton probably originated in India as a grownup's version of a very old children's game known in England as battledore and shuttlecock, the battledore being a paddle and the shuttlecock a small feathered cork, now usually balled a "bird."
In the area of recreation and sports India had evolved a number of games. One would be surprised to know today that games like, Chess, Snakes and Ladders, Playing Cards, Polo, the martial arts of Judo and Karate had originated as a sport in India and it was from here that these games were transmitted to foreign countries, where they were further modernized.
It is more than likely that many of today's Olympic disciplines are sophisticated versions of the games of strength and speed that flourished in ancient India and Greece. Chess, wrestling, polo, archery and hockey (possibly a fall-out from polo) are some of the games believed to have originated in India.
Hockey, in which India has an impressive record with eight Olympic gold medals, is officially the national sport. Other popular games are football, cricket, basketball, volleyball and badminton. Cricket has become a very popular game in India. After the IX Asian Games in New Delhi in 1982, the capital city now has modern sports facilities. Such facilities are also being developed in other parts of the country. Besides sports and games included in the international sporting agenda, there are many which have developed indigenously. Among these are wrestling and several traditional systems of martial arts.
There were some well-defined values like the mantra in the Atharva-Veda, saying," Duty is in my right hand and the fruits of victory in my left". In terms of an ideal, these words hold the same sentiments as the traditional Olympic oath: ".......For the Honour of my Country and the Glory of Sport."
Badminton probably originated in India as a grownup's version of a very old children's game known in England as battledore and shuttlecock, the battledore being a paddle and the shuttlecock a small feathered cork, now usually balled a "bird."
In the area of recreation and sports India had evolved a number of games. One would be surprised to know today that games like, Chess, Snakes and Ladders, Playing Cards, Polo, the martial arts of Judo and Karate had originated as a sport in India and it was from here that these games were transmitted to foreign countries, where they were further modernized.
It is more than likely that many of today's Olympic disciplines are sophisticated versions of the games of strength and speed that flourished in ancient India and Greece. Chess, wrestling, polo, archery and hockey (possibly a fall-out from polo) are some of the games believed to have originated in India.
Hockey, in which India has an impressive record with eight Olympic gold medals, is officially the national sport. Other popular games are football, cricket, basketball, volleyball and badminton. Cricket has become a very popular game in India. After the IX Asian Games in New Delhi in 1982, the capital city now has modern sports facilities. Such facilities are also being developed in other parts of the country. Besides sports and games included in the international sporting agenda, there are many which have developed indigenously. Among these are wrestling and several traditional systems of martial arts.
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