Proceedings of the one hundred and first Indian Science Congress: brief notes on the lectures and presentations

Indian capabilities in science and technology cover an impressive range of diverse disciplines, areas of competence and of applications. India's strength in basic research is recognized internationally. Successes in agriculture, health care, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, nuclear energy, astronomy and astrophysics, space technology and applications, defense research, biotechnology, electronics, information technology and oceanography are widely acknowledged. Major national achievements include very significant increase in food production, eradication or control of several diseases and increased life expectancy of our citizens. Research and development (R and D) is an inseparable part of science and technology, with India fast emerging as the global R and D hub. While these developments have been highly satisfying, one is also aware of the dramatic changes that have taken place, and continue to do so, in the practice of science, in technology development, and their relationships with, and impact on, society. Mainly remarkable is the rapidity with which science and technology is moving ahead. Science is becoming increasingly inter- and multi-disciplinary, and calls for multi-institutional and, in several cases, multi-country participation. Major experimental facilities, even in several areas of basic research, require very large material, human and intellectual resources. Science and technology have become so closely intertwined, and so reinforce each other that, to be effective, any policy needs to view them together. The continuing revolutions in the field of information and communication technology have had profound impact on the manner and speed with which scientific information becomes available, and scientific interactions take place. Papers relevant to INIS are indexed separately