Question

Essay about how science empowers the nation

Answer 1

Technology is a non-linear tool available to humanity, which can affect fundamental changes in the ground rules of economic competitiveness. Realising this importance of technology in shaping the nation, Dr. Kulandaiswamy initiated several schemes to build technical human resource. His initiative of introducing Distance Education Council and teleconferencing was a unique one that helped many people. Dr. Kulandaiswamy is a great planner and an Institution builder and his initiatives paved way for the creation of many centres of excellence and departments in the niche are of science and engineering. He promoted Institute-Industry Collaboration and encouraged the research programmes. In honour of such a distinguished educationist, technologist, teacher, Tamil scholar, poet and a great personality, I have chosen the topic “The Nation’s Greatness – Empowering with Technology”

India’s Prosperity Dynamics

Ancient scientists of India were far visionary than others, of that time, in all the fields -mathematics, medicine, aviation, astronomy etc. in terms of scientific achievements. Astronomer & great mathematician – Aryabhatt; Genius in algebra – was the first to proclaim that the earth is round and rotates on its axis and is acknowledged for calculating ? (Pi) to 3.1416 and Sine table in Trigonometry. Bhaskaracharya was the first to discover gravity, 500 years before Sir Isaac Newton. Acharya Kanad a founder of Atomic theory – said "Every object of creation is made of atoms which in turn connect with each other to form molecules”; Acharya Susrut; the father of Plastic Surgery performed Rhinoplasty i.e. Restoration of a damaged nose; Acharya Bharadwaj; pioneered in Aviation Technology, Acharya Kapil gave the concept of cosmology and gave the transformation of energy; to name a few. India was one of the oldest centres of pre-historic culture of the world and was the cradle of one of the earliest rich and prosperous civilizations in history. The communities in ancient India were civilized and lived in planned cities with adequate facilities. They built houses of brick, wore cotton clothes and made beautiful gold and silver jewellery, pottery and toys. The heritage of India is the result of developments in the social, economic, cultural and political life ofIndians over a period of thousands of years. The Indus Valley civilization and the ruins of Mohenjodaro and Harappa bear testimony to the fact that even as early as 2500 BC, India had skills to develop agriculture, drainage system, well-planned streets, pottery, tools, jewellery and artefacts. The Harappan culture was the first urban culture to emerge in India. The rise of cities, crafts and trade also furthered the process of cultural unity. Later, the Magadh Empire around sixth century BC saw the birth of cities and use of coins. The first society established in the Indus civilisation became a model for the human race. The prosperity continued during the great Mauryan rule of Chandra Gupta Maurya and later in the third century BC under Emperor Ashoka the Great when India spread its rule far and wide. He unified almost the entire country under one empire but renounced the use of war as state policy. Instead, he declared the victory of righteousness as the real victory. In him, we also find a change in the ideal of kingship. India was aptly called the ‘Jewel of the East’. By the time the ancient period of Indian history came to a close, India had developed a culture which was marked by features that have characterized it ever since. During the medieval period, some of the achievements of the ancient times were carried forward and new and magnificent structures were built on those foundations.

Recent times before independence, the Indian scientists proved themselves equal to those from the West. Sir CV Raman, Ramanujam, Chandrasekar Subramaniam, JC Bose, SN Bose, Meghnad Saha proved Indians are second to none in scientific discoveries. The world has acknowledged them. The most recent finding of Higgs-Boson, so called “God Particle” in the world’s largest high energy particle accelerator, Large Hadron Collider at CERN is a great tribute for the Indian scientists.