Science and Technology: Applications, Policy and Indigenisation · UPPCS (Uttar Pradesh)

What the official syllabus says

UPPCS Main Examination, General Studies III:
Science and Technology: developments and applications in everyday life and in National Security, India's Science and Technology policy.
Achievements of Indians in science & technology, indigenization of technology. Developments of New technologies, transfer of technology, dual and critical use technologies.

Two official lines are taken together here because they share a theme: what science and technology do for daily life and national security, the policies that guide them, the achievements of Indian scientists, and India's effort to build and acquire technology of its own.

Topics in detail

Science and technology in everyday life

Health: vaccines, diagnostics, medical imaging, telemedicine
Agriculture: improved seeds, fertilisers, biopesticides, weather forecasting
Communication and banking: mobile phones, the internet, digital payments
Energy and transport: solar power, electric vehicles, batteries
Household technologies: water purification, LED lighting, clean cooking fuels

Science and technology in national security

Defence Research and Development Organisation (1958) and its laboratories
Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (1983): Prithvi, Agni, Trishul, Akash and Nag; BrahMos (an India-Russia joint venture)
Nuclear tests of 1974 and 1998; the nuclear submarine INS Arihant; the Tejas light combat aircraft
Satellites for surveillance, navigation (NavIC) and communication
Defence indigenisation: positive indigenisation lists, the Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020, iDEX (2018), the defence industrial corridors in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu

India's science and technology policy

Scientific Policy Resolution, 1958
Technology Policy Statement, 1983
Science and Technology Policy, 2003
Science, Technology and Innovation Policy, 2013
Draft Science, Technology and Innovation Policy, 2020
Anusandhan National Research Foundation Act, 2023
Institutions: Department of Science and Technology, CSIR, ICMR, ICAR, the Department of Atomic Energy, ISRO
Issues: low spending on research and development, few researchers per million people, weak industry-academia links, brain drain

Achievements of Indians in science and technology

C.V. Raman: the Raman effect, Nobel Prize in Physics (1930)
Srinivasa Ramanujan (mathematics), Jagadish Chandra Bose (plant physiology and radio waves), Meghnad Saha (ionisation equation), Satyendra Nath Bose (Bose-Einstein statistics), Prafulla Chandra Ray (chemistry and industry)
Homi J. Bhabha (atomic energy) and Vikram Sarabhai (space programme)
Har Gobind Khorana (Nobel Prize in Medicine, 1968) and Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (Nobel Prize in Physics, 1983)
Satish Dhawan, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, M.S. Swaminathan (Green Revolution), Verghese Kurien (White Revolution)
Institutional achievements: the space programme, the nuclear programme, supercomputers (PARAM), vaccines for COVID-19

Indigenisation and new technologies

Meaning of indigenisation; import substitution and self-reliance in technology
Missions: National Supercomputing Mission (2015), India Semiconductor Mission (2021), National Quantum Mission (2023)
Emerging technologies: artificial intelligence, robotics, 3D printing, quantum computing, blockchain, electric mobility

Transfer of technology

Channels: licensing, foreign direct investment, joint ventures, defence offsets, collaboration in research
Barriers: export control regimes, intellectual property, cost, lack of absorptive capacity
India's experience: the denial of cryogenic engine technology and the indigenous cryogenic stage
Membership of the Missile Technology Control Regime (2016), the Wassenaar Arrangement (2017) and the Australia Group (2018); the Nuclear Suppliers Group question

Dual-use and critical technologies

Meaning: technologies with both civilian and military uses (nuclear, space launch, drones, encryption, biotechnology, artificial intelligence)
India's export control list (SCOMET)
Critical minerals and supply chains for batteries and semiconductors
Ethics and regulation of dual-use research

Overlaps

General Studies VI: science and technology issues, advancements and efforts in Uttar Pradesh.
Prelims General Studies Paper I: general science and current events at the objective level.