Achievements of Indians in Science and Technology in Ancient and modern India; Indigenization of technology and developing new technology

Indians have played an important role in the field of science and technology. The Indus Valley Civilization, Vedic age and later periods saw great achievements by Indians in the field of Science and technology. In modern times many Indian scientists and mathematicians have done phenomenal work and some of them even received awards like Nobel Prize for their contributions in science in technology.

India is a land where numerous brilliant brains have made contributions in the field of science and technology and enhanced its position around the globe. India has the second-largest group of scientists and engineers in the world. India belongs to the select group of countries who have developed indigenous nuclear technology. India is among the few countries which have developed ballistic missiles. In the field of space science, India has the capability to launch GSLV satellites. India's achievements in the field of IT and software are recognized all over the world. Scientific research conducted in India by Indian citizens has transformed the way the world works, from healing and eradicating lethal diseases to understanding the world.

It is well established that Indian Scientists are famous around the globe. They have found several significant scientific discoveries so far. Since the primordial period, India is considered as one of the scientific centres in the world. Thus, this country has been scientifically progressive for several centuries now and the Indian scientists have made numerous discoveries in the field of science. The various fields in which the Indian scientists have excelled include mathematics, warfare, geometry, astronomy, medicine, space science, physics, chemistry, botany.

Below there are some achievements of scientists in the arena of science and technology in India.

Achievements of Indians in Science and Technology in Ancient and medieval India:

=> Baudhayana (800 BCE)

Baudhayana was a mathematician who lived in ancient India around 800 BCE. His major contributions include:

> He is considered the earliest author of Sulbasutras which was used for the accurate construction of altars needed for Vedic sacrifices.

> He gave a near accurate value of Pi(π).

> He gave the theorem today known as “Pythagoras theorem” before Pythagoras had developed it.

> He also gave a near accurate value of the square root of 2 (577/408) which is correct to 5 decimal places.

=> Kanada Sage

Kanada, a philosopher estimated to have lived in India between the 6th century to 2nd century BCE. His name Kanada means atom eater.

> He was the first person to give the atomic theory. He gave the idea that Parmanu (Atom) was an indestructible particle of matter which cannot be divided further. Later on, Dalton made similar observations in his Dalton's atomic theory.

=> Charaka (300 BCE)

Charaka is considered as the “Father of Indian Medicine” who lived in around 300 BCE in India. His major contributions include:

> He was among the principal contributors to the ancient system of medicine ‘Ayurveda’ and wrote his medical treatise the ‘Charak Samhita’.

> He is known for his works on metabolism and fundamentals of genetics.

> He wrote about three doshas which the body contains i.e. Vata (movement),  Pitta (transformation) and Cough (lubrication and stability). Diseases occur when the balance among these three doshas gets disturbed.

=> Sushruta

Sushruta was the author of “Sushruta Samhita” an ancient Sanskrit text on medicine and surgery.

> Sushruta invented surgical instruments and worked on the dissection of dead bodies.

> Sushruta was aware of cataract operations.

> He is also known as the “father of surgery” and “father of plastic surgery”.

=> Aryabhatta (476- 550 CE)

Aryabhatta also was known as Aryabhatta 1 was the first major astronomer and mathematician from the classical age of Indian astronomy and Indian mathematics.

> His major works include Aryabhatiya and Arya-Siddhanta.

> He calculated the orbits of planets, and scientifically explained the Solar and lunar eclipses.

> He calculated the distance between Earth and Moon. He proposed that Earth rotates on its axis.

> He gave the theory that the apparent motion of stars is due to the movement of Earth.

> He calculated the circumference of the earth and proposed that the shape of Earth is not flat.

> He worked on the place value system and zero as a symbol and concept.

=>Varahamihira (505- 587 CE)

Varahamihira was born in Avanthi region during the Gupta rule.

> He wrote the Pancha-Siddhanta which summarises 5 alias astronomical treatises namely the Surya Siddhanta, Romika Siddhanta, Paulisa Siddhanta, Vashishtha Siddhant and Paitamaha Siddhanta.

> He gave trigonometric formulas and improved the accuracy of sine tables of Aryabhatta.

> He explained the shifting of equinoxes and the nature of scattering of light.

> He was also the author of Brihat Samhita and Brihat Jataka.

> He gave theories on earthquakes and explained how the termites may indicate water underground.

=> Bhaskara 1 (600 - 680 CE)

He was a mathematician who first wrote numbers in the Hindu decimal system with a circle for zero.

> He was the follower of the Aryabhatta School of astronomy and was the author of “Mahābhāskarīya” and the “Laghubhāskarīya”.

> He worked on many trigonometric formulas and gave a rational approximation of sine function.

Achievements of Indians in Science & Technology in the modern era:

=>Dr. Koti Harinarayana: 

He was a renowned genius scientist. It is recognized that the brain behind India's first indigenously built combat aircraft. Tejas, which was the name given to the aircraft, saw its first flight in 2001. India’s first self-made light combat aircraft was built by HAL and developed by Dr Koti. It was a result of the weakening value of the country's soon to be obsolete Mig-21 fighter jets and, true to its name, made our defence sector's future a lot more healthy.

=> C.V. Raman: 

C.V. Raman was one of the most famous scientists in India. Raman’s academic brilliance was established at a very young age. He had a pioneering work on scattering of light, C.V. Raman won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930. He was the first Asian and first non-White to receive any Nobel Prize in the sciences. He was the first to investigate the harmonic nature of the sound of the Indian drums such as the tabla and the mridangam. He discovered that, when light traverses a transparent material, some of the deflected light changes in wavelength. This phenomenon is now called the Raman scattering and is the result of the Raman Effect.

=> Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya: 

He was a notable Indian engineer, scholar, statesman and the Diwan of Mysore from 1912 to 1918. Sir M. Visvesvaraya was one of the most eminent engineers of India. He was best known for his contribution as the chief architect behind the construction of the Krishna Raja Sagara dam in Mandya which helped to convert the surrounding barren lands into fertile grounds for farming.

He was a recipient of the Indian Republic’s highest honour, the Bharat Ratna for his persistent work in the fields of engineering and education. He has the credit of inventing ‘automatic sluice gates’ and ‘block irrigation system’ which are still considered to be marvels in engineering. Each year, his birthday 15 September is celebrated as Engineer’s Day in India.

=> Jagdish Chandra Bose:

 

Jagdish Chandra Bose was an eminent scientist. He developed the use of galena crystals for making receivers, both for short-wavelength radio waves and for white and ultraviolet light. In 1895, two years before Marconi’s demonstration, Bose demonstrated wireless communication using radio waves, using them to ring a bell remotely and to explode some gunpowder. He invented many of the microwave components such as waveguides, horn antennas, polarizers, dielectric lenses and prisms, and even semiconductor detectors of electromagnetic radiation in the last decade of the nineteenth century. He also proposed the existence of electromagnetic radiation from the Sun, which was confirmed in 1944. He presented that not only animal but vegetable tissues produce similar electric response under different kinds of stimuli – mechanical, thermal, electrical and chemical.

=> Meghnad Saha: 

Meghnad Saha belonged to the District of Dacca, now in Bangladesh. In 1920, Meghnad Saha had developed himself as renowned physicists of the time. Meghnad Saha has contributed in the arena of the thermal ionisation of elements, and it led him to formulate what is known as the Saha Equation. This equation is one of the basic tools for interpretation of the spectra of stars in astrophysics. 

By studying the spectra of various stars, one can find their temperature and from that, using Saha’s equation, determine the ionisation state of the various elements making up the star. He also invented an instrument to measure the weight and pressure of solar rays. He prepared the original plan for the Damodar Valley Project. He had a great role in the development of scientific institutions throughout India as well as in national economic planning involving technology.

=> Satyendra Nath Bose: 

Satyendra Nath Bose was an outstanding Indian physicist specialising in quantum mechanics. He is, of course, most remembered for his excellent role played in the class of particles ‘bosons‘, which were named after him by Paul Dirac to commemorate his work in the field. He is famous for "Bose-Einstein Theory" and a kind of particle in atoms has been named after his name as Boson. The Government of India awarded him India’s second-highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan in 1954.

=> Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar:

He was one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century. He did commendable work in astrophysics, physics and applied mathematics. Chandrasekhar has bestowed the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983 for Physics for his mathematical theory of black holes. He was the nephew of CV Raman. Chandra became a United States citizen in 1953. Chandra was a popular teacher who guided over fifty students to their Ph.D. including some who went on to win the Nobel Prize themselves. His most famous work concerns the radiation of energy from stars, particularly white dwarf stars, which are the dying fragments of stars.

=> Vikram Sarabhai:

Vikram Sarabhai was among distinguished scientists of India. He is considered the Father of the Indian space program. India’s first satellite Aryabhata launched in 1975, was one of the many projects planned by him. The Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) launched in 1975-76, brought education to five million people in 2,400 Indian villages. In 1965, he established the Community Science Centre in Ahmedabad to popularise science among children. He was awarded the Bhatnagar Memorial Award for Physics in 1962, the Padma Bhushan in 1966, and was subsequently awarded the Padma Vibhushan. He was the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission in 1966, Vice-President and Chairman of the UN Conference on peaceful uses of outer space in 1968, and President of the 14th General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The International Astronomical Union named a crater in the moon (in the Sea of Serenity) after him, in honour of his marvellous role in science.

=> APJ Abdul Kalam: 

Dr APJ Abdul Kalam is remembered as a great scientist, an inspirational leader and an extraordinary human being. As a scientist, Kalam made an effort to develop the Polar SLV and SLV-III projects between the 1970s and 1990s. Both of which proved to be successful. In the 1970s, Kalam also directed two projects, namely, Project Devil and Project Valiant, which sought to develop ballistic missiles from the technology of the successful SLV programme.

Besides a distinguished scientist and engineer, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam served as the 11th President of India from the period 2002 to 2007. After post-presidency, Kalam became a visiting professor at the Indian Institute of Management Shillong, the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, and the Indian Institute of Management Indore; an honorary fellow of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, chancellor of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology Thiruvananthapuram; professor of Aerospace Engineering at Anna University; and an adjunct at many other academic and research institutions across India. He played an intensive political and technological role when the Pokhran-II nuclear tests were conducted. Kalam served as the Chief Project Coordinator, along with R. Chidambaram during the testing phase.

He had a brilliant and dominant personality and he was a man of vision, who always had novel ideas for the development of the country and is also popular as the Missile Man of India.

=> Aditi Pant: 

She is an eminent Indian oceanographer. She was a part of the Indian expedition to Antarctica in 1983 and became the first Indian woman to visit Antarctica (along with Sudipta Sengupta). Dr Aditi was bestowed the Antarctica award with Dr Jaya Naithani and Dr Kanwal Vilku by the government of India for her excellent contributions to the Antarctic program.

=> Srinivasa Ramanujan:

Srinivasa Ramanujan was a mathematician. He is extensively believed to be the greatest mathematician of the 20th Century. Srinivasa Ramanujan made major contributions to the analytical theory of numbers and worked on elliptic functions, continued fractions, and infinite series. His published and unpublished works have kept some of the best mathematical brains in the world.

=> Harish-Chandra: 

Harish Chandra was a renowned Indian American mathematician and physicist who contributed fundamental work in representation theory, especially harmonic analysis on semisimple Lie groups. He was an eminent figure in the mathematics of the twentieth century. His prestigious work related to algebra, analysis, geometry, and group theory in a fundamental and epoch-making manner that consequently became the foundation on which modern work in various fields, ranging from differential geometry and mathematical physics to number theory, is being performed.

Harish Chandra received many prestigious awards. He was honoured with the Cole Prize of the American Mathematical Society, in 1954. The Indian National Science Academy awarded him the Srinivasa Ramanujan Medal in 1974. In 1981, he received an honorary degree from Yale University. The Indian Government named the Harish-Chandra Research Institute, an institute devoted to Theoretical Physics and Mathematics.

=> Yellapragada Subbarao:

He was one of the greatest biologists of all times. He discovered the function of adenosine triphosphate as an energy source in the cell and developed methotrexate for the treatment of cancer. Subbarao is also credited with the first synthesis of the chemical compounds folic acid and methotrexate. Though SubbaRow could not be awarded the Nobel Prize, his discoveries entitled him to be called as the father of targeted cancer chemotherapy.

=> Venkataraman Ramakrishnan: 

Venkataraman, Indian born American is a senior scientist in the Structural Division at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, in Cambridge, England. He has worked in various fields of biology during the earlier part of his career. He is internationally recognized for determination of the atomic structure of 30s ribosomal subunit.

In 2009, Ramakrishnan was honoured with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Thomas A. Steitz and Ada Yonath. He received India's second-highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan, in 2010. Ramakrishnan was knighted in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to Molecular Biology. In the same year, he was awarded the Sir Hans Krebs Medal by the FEBS. In 2013, he won the Spanish Jiménez-Diáz Prize. Ramakrishnan was included as one of 25 Greatest Global Living Indians by NDTV Channel, India on 14 December 2013.

=> Vijay P. Bhatkar:

Vijay Bhatkar is one of the most admired scientists and IT leaders of India. He conceptualised India's first supercomputer known as the PARAM 800 and unveiled it in 1991. PARAM stood for the parallel machine. Living up to its nomenclature of 'supreme', this machine, built indigenously by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing and ranked India second after the USA in the arena of supercomputing. He is credited with the creation of several national institutions, notably amongst them being C-DAC, ER&DC, IIITM-K, I2IT, ETH Research Lab, MKCL and India International Multiversity. Vijay Bhatkar is a recipient of Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan award. He was also honoured with Ramanuja Trust Award (2007), FICCI Award (1983), Petersburg Prize (2004), Priyadarshini Award (2000), National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) Award (1984–85), Gold Medal Award of Indian Geotechnical Society (1976) and Electronics Man of the Year (1992).

=> U.R. Rao:

U. R. Rao is acclaimed as a space scientist. He was a former chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation. He has developed the first satellite launched by India, Aryabhatta. It is the name given to the satellite which was an indigenously designed space-worthy satellite that set up tracking and transmitting systems in the orbital sphere. U.R. Rao, the chairman of ISRO at the time was the man behind the launch in 1975 that put India on the world map in terms of space research.

He was honoured with several national and international awards. These include:

National Awards:

1976 Padma Bhushan

1995 Aryabhata Award

2002 Sir M. Visvesvaraya Memorial Award

2007 LifeTime Achievement Award of Indian Space Research Organisation

International awards:

1973 Group Achievement Award by NASA, USA

1975 Medal of Honour by Academy of Sciences, USSR

1996 Vikram Sarabhai Medal of COSPAR

2013 Inducted into Satellite Hall of Fame by Society of Satellite Professionals International

=> Subhash Mukhopadhyay: 

He is a renowned scientist born in Calcutta, India. He made remarkable discoveries in medical science. He gave life to India's first and the world's second IVF baby. The 3rd of October 1978 saw Subhash performing India's first In vitro fertilisation which resulted in the birth of baby Durga. Tragically, Subhash was only given a posthumous recognition of his achievements in 1986 as the West Bengal Government refused to support his 'unethical' methods.

=> Narinder Singh Kapany:

He is credited for his contribution in science and acclaimed as a great scientist. He had invented Fibre optics. The process to transfer information freely and almost promptly was made possible by the original work of Narinder Kapany. His research and inventions have encompassed fibre-optics communications, lasers, biomedical instrumentation, solar energy and pollution monitoring. Fibre optics have transformed the way people communicate, offering high-speed data transfers as well as helping in medical procedures such as endoscopy and laser surgeries. He has a multifaceted personality.

=> Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha: 

He is considered the originator of the Indian Nuclear Research Programme. India accomplished nuclear capability due to the extreme efforts of Homi, thereby avoiding certain conflict simply through non-aggression treaties. This contribution of Bhabha augments the status of India at the world stage.

He was fond of music, painting and writing. Some of his paintings are displayed in the British Art Galleries and the TIFR art collection today is rated as one of the best collections of contemporary Indian art in the country. He is the recipient of Adam’s Award, Padma Bhushan, an Honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States.

=> Dr. A. Sivathanu Pillai:

Sivathanu Pillai is an eminent Indian scientist. He supervised the conception of indigenously developed missile systems. India's self-sustaining missile developing programme is called Brahmos. Dr Pillai developed the concept of the joint venture Brahmos, which makes India one of the few countries to develop its own ballistic missiles as well as produce and supply missiles in other key areas of the world. The start of Brahmos led to the negation of the absolute power held by Western countries.

Current developments in the field of science and technology in India are as follows:

=> Cartosat-3: India’s Earth observation satellite launched successfully:

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launched the Cartosat-3 satellite on 27 November 2019. The Cartosat-3 satellite was launched with help of PSLV-C47 from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota. PSLV-C47 was also carrying 13 American satellites to space. ISRO has created history with the launching of this satellite as it is capable of taking the closest photographs of any object from space.

=> Chandrayaan-2: Vikram couldn’t land on the Moon but found unbroken:

The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter was found lying tilted on the surface of the Moon. Vikram Lander crashed on the surface of the Moon about 500 meters away from its planned landing site. According to the ISRO, the lander 'Vikram' was moving towards the south pole of the moon and was just a few seconds away from touching its surface when it lost contact with the ground when it was 2.1 km above the Moon. Chandrayaan-2's orbiter was placed about 100 km above the moon. The orbiter has eight payloads, three landers and two rovers. The orbiter will keep circling the moon for a year. It will also take thermal images of the moon with the help of a high-resolution camera and will send it to ISRO's mission control room on earth.

=> Gaganyaan Mission: Potential astronauts to get training in Russia

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is gearing up for Gaganyaan Mission after Chandrayaan-2. ISRO has been engaged in preparations on a war footing note for its ambitious mission Gaganyaan. This will be the first manned space mission of ISRO which is proposed to be launched by 2022. In 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the Mission Gaganyaan from the ramparts of the Red Fort.

=> Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is taking steps towards developing its own reusable rocket using a Winged Reusable Launch Vehicle Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD), whose tech demo is expected to be conducted soon.

=> Microbial diversity study to be conducted in Ganga

The central government has recently sanctioned Rs. 9.3 cr for conducting studies to review microbial diversity along the entire length of the Ganges. Researchers believe the 2,500-kilometre-long river stretch contains germs that can promote 'antibiotic resistance'.

The objective of this study is to recognize ‘threats to human life’ from antibiotic resistance. The study will also try to find out sources of various kinds of bacteria present in the guts of animals which is called Escherichia Coli.

=> ISRO to launch own space station by 2030

ISRO has decided to start work on a plan to establish India's space station after the Gaganyaan mission. India will send astronauts to space for the first time by 2022 under the Gaganyaan mission. After that, by 2030, the space station will be prepared to launch. ISRO chief K Sivan said that our space station will be smaller than previous ones. We will launch a module. It will be used in the microgravity experiment. It will weigh about 20 tons.

=> DRDO successfully test-fires Astra Missile

India successfully test-fired a short-range air-to-air missile Astra. The range of this missile is 25 to 40 km. The weapon was tested using a booster engine. The missile was developed by the Defense Research Development Organization (DRDO).

The missile was developed keeping in mind the three-tier defence system for metropolitan cities after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America. India has now developed a state-of-the-art short-ranged missile after Russia and USA.

=> Development of an atomic clock has made ISRO one of the few space organisations in the world to have gained this sophisticated technology.

ISRO has developed an atomic clock that will be used in navigation satellites to measure precise location data. The space agency currently imports atomic clocks from European aerospace manufacturer Astrium.

=> A team of Indian astronomers has discovered an extremely large supercluster of galaxies.

This is one of the largest known structures in the neighbourhood of the universe - as big as 20 million billion suns. It is a path-breaking discovery and the cluster has been named 'Saraswati'.

=> ISRO demonstrated its capability of handling complex missions by successfully launching a record 104 satellites on a single rocket.

This is the highest number of satellites ever launched in a single mission by any other country in the world.

=> Rifath Sharook, an 18-year-old from Karur in Tamil Nadu, scripted history by designing the world's smallest satellite.

The tiny 3D-printed satellite is called Kalamsat, after former President Abdul Kalam, and was flown by NASA into space in one of its missions.

=> PARAM - India’s first-ever indigenous supercomputer was a major milestone in modern India’s technological journey.

India faced a technology-denial regime in the 80s. It was then that the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) was set up with a clear mandate to develop an indigenous supercomputer to meet high-speed computational needs.

=> India developed an indigenous seeker for Brahmos for the first time.

Brahmos is the world’s fastest and most formidable anti-ship cruise missile. This marks a big achievement and breakthrough for the supersonic missile as this is the first time the country has developed a seeker for a missile of this calibre and class.

=> The Mars Orbiter Mission made India the only nation in the world to reach Mars in its first attempt.

Mangalyaan-1, the indigenously built space probe marked India's first venture into interplanetary space. It also made India first in Asia, and fourth in the world to reach the surface of Mars.

=> The successful demonstration of the use of cryogenic engine technology put India among a league of only five other such nations.

With the successful launch of GSLV-D5, India has gained the capability to launch heavy satellites without foreign assistance. It will also pave the way for sizable savings for the country's future launch costs.

To summarize, Indian scientists have contributed astonishingly in the growth of India. They have augmented the status of India with their scientific achievements and many of the Indian scientists have also received some prestigious international awards as well. The discoveries of Indian scientists have been appreciated all over the world. After independence, India has accomplished several great scientific achievements. Indian scientists have shown their courage at the global level and have made India one of the scientific centres of the world. There are many names like Bhabha, A. Sivathanu Pillai, Narinder Singh Kapany, and many more who have made prime positions in the scientific field.