UNIT 27 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN

INDUSTRY
Structure
27.1 Introduction
Objectives
27.2 The Indian Context
27.3 Technology in Industry
27.4 Economic Development and Self-relrance
27.5 Research and Development in Industry
27.6 Summary
27.7 Tzrrninal Questions
27.8 Answers

27.1 INTRODUCTION
A look into the history of mankind tells us that science WAS being put to practical use,
consciousIy or unconsciously, through the centuries. But it was not until the mid-eighteenth
century that the Industrial Revolution in Britain showed what a profound effect advances in
technology can have on.everyday life. The harnessing of energy gave a-boost to
industrialisation. The Industrial Revolution in Britain triggered off similar revolutions in
various other countries,.and the resultant economic progress of these countries has
encouraged the remaining ones to take up rapid industrialisation.
The dominating feature of the contemporary world is the intense cultivation of science on a
large scale, and its application to meet a country's requirements. It is only through the
scientific approach and method and the use of scientific knowledge that reasonable material
and cultural amenities and services can be provided for every member of the community.
And it is out of a recognition of this possibility that the idea of a welfare state has grown.
,.In this unit, we shall take a look into the interdependence between science and industry. We
shall also see how the two together can help us create a welfare state.

Objectives
After reading this unit you should be able to :
discuss the current status of science and technology in India;
describe the role technology can play in improving productivity, leading to economic
development, I

explain the need for mobemisation of our industrial machinery and processes,
summarise the importance of R & D in industrial growth, and national development,
interpret natibnd devel4mejt hfokation and suggest an approach to solutions of some problems in
tius field.

27.2 THE INDIAN CONTEXT

Science and technology have totally transformed life from what it was in the beginning of
this century, when there were no cars, buses or aeroplanes, no telegraph, telephone, radio or
television, and when medicine and surgery.had not advanced to raise haman life expectancy
to over 50 or 60 years. This has been possible through the gdowth of scientific knowledge,
and related skills, as also by the or anisation of the production of numerous goo&&?As the
t
Scientific policy Resolution ad^ ted by the Government in 1958) says, such high levels of
/
production of the basic W a l s needed for a reasonable standard of living for all, have
made it possible to think of a "weJfare" state-which involves management of distrib&on
of goods so that every one can benefit from them. Our Constitution, indeq, s aks-of
"i
socialism which involves "distributive justice" and equality of opportunity to a 1. Without
the help of science and technology, we shall not be able t~ produce enough goods for our
needs. For example, we all know that with the help of a tractor a farmer,can plough far more
Science, Technology and land than shehe can with the help of an ox. ~echarusationincreases the area of ploughed land,
Development
and thus improves human productiv!ty. P

One aspect of the development of science and technology is fuller utilisation of the wealth or
resources with which a country has been endowed. Without science and technology, neither .
could'electricity be generated from the water running in m r r i m s , nor could theoil resources
buried deep under land or sea be tapped,. nor even could our books and newspapers be prhted
on the paper obtained from the forests that we have. Science provides the key for unlock~ng
the wealth of our natural resources.
When we study science, we look into the laws of nature which, in their turn, indicate the
methods of utilising the natural resources of the cQuntry for the production of the necessities
of life and for their efficient distribution. Mere indication of the methods is, however, not
enough. To implement the methods indicated, one has to do work, and here again science
comes to our aid. Science provides power, machines and tools for doing the work; devices of
all types-those for work involving only muscular effort,for work demanding manipulative
skill and, in recent years, even for work requiring briiin & ~ t (Fig. 27.1). Without such aids;
the rate of production would be extremely low and the country would not be able to produce
enough to be wealthy by any standards.

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 27.1: Dev~cesfor work involving (a) muscular effon ( b ) manipulative,skill (c) brain power

We look at India with about 35% of its people living under the poverty line. The reasons for
tne poverty of the masses In India are:
1) Methods of product~onare out of date by and large. In recent years, however, some
remedial measures have been taken.
Aperson is saidto live underthe 2) Since 2/3rd of the work force in agriculture
- and industry is illiterate, the knowledgeand
-
poverty line if shehe is not able to skills are very poor. This factor affects production.
provide 1SO0 calslday for herself
or himself. 3j In India, where 70% of the people are engaged in agriculture, the use of methods to
lmprove production i s m the soil and to protect crops 1s not In keeplng W I L ~the actual
need.
4) In agriculture' the small means at the disposal of a farmer and small holdings make it
impracticable to use modem technology.
5 ) Industry, in gqeral, and private industry, in particular, has been unwilline to invest its
profits in modemising the machinew. A typical case is €hatof the-jute industry, which is in
\rev bad shape now.
6) The lndustrial Policy Resolution, which had been adopted at about the same time (1958)
as the Scientific Policy Rebolution. has not been implemented effectively due to a number
of socio-economic and political constraints.
Again, even where the proauction methods have been sought to be upgraded, our unit cost of
production of many items, for example, steel. is much higher. This is mainly due to the low
levels of skill and managenent in our industries.' For instance, Japan and some other
countries import iron ore from India. They have high labour cost but because of the
efficiency of their production systems. thtir unit cost of production is lower than ours.
. . .Further. a curious phenomenon is noticeable. We have imported technology for alloy steels
some 30 years back. But we have been unable to keep pace with the modem developments in
the production of alloy steels through our indigenous efforts. As a result, we still have to
imnort werial steelc from develnned co~~ntriec
 But what is a developed country? Try to solve this SAQ and match your answer with the one Science and Technoio@f~ '

Induktry
given at the end of this unit.
SAQ 1
Which of the following countries would you call a developed country? Make a tick mark in
the appropriate box.
i) A country rich in natural resources.
ii) A country with a high per capita income.
+ ...
111) A country with advanced health and social security schemes.
iv) A 'country with a high per capita productivity.
-
Lead Times of Scientific Development
When we compare the current status of scientific development and technological fall-out
from the same, we find that the lead time of scientific discovery and its applications is much
shorter in the developed countries. This is because of thelr constant efforts of research and
development for technology upgradation which, unfortunately, have been lacking in our
country. It is to be admitted that e v y in developed countries there is a wide variation in the
lead times of different discoveries. These lead times may be quite long in certain cases and
quite short in others. For example, aluminium was first obtained in pure form in 1825 and lt
was only in 1886 that the process of its large scale production was finali5ed. The lead time
in this case was 60 years. On the other hand, the process of hydrogenation of oil in the
manufacture of vanaspati originated in 1905, and by 1911 Procter and Gamble Company,
U.S.A. had placed its hydrogenated cotton seed oil, which is s~milarto vanaspati, on the
market. As you can see, the lead time in this case was very short: only 6 years.
Fig. 27.2 gives us an idea of the lead times of certain inventions.
1953 ,1955 2 yrs Solar battery
1948
8 1951 3 yrs Trans~stor

942 10 yrs Nuclear reactor

1913 18 y rs X-ray tubes

1915 33 yrs Vacuum tube

6 56 yrs Telephone

1886 65 yrs Electrlc motor

1727
1 I
?

1700 1800 1900 2000

Fig. 27.2: Interval between drscovery and appl~cat~on

m physical sclence (after Ell Grnzberg, "Technology and
Socral Change", Columbra Unrvers~tyPress. 1964).

The lead times of scientific discovery and its applications in the field of computers have
been among the shortest. One can, therefore, say that the application of any scientific
. discovery relates to the needs, or compulsions of the situation. It is also a fact, that this
depends, to a large extent, on the state of industrial d~velopmentof the nation and the
priority given by the nation to that particular area. From the Indian example we can say, that
in such sophisticated areas like nuclear science and technology and nuclear power
production, our lead times have been very short. This was possible as appropriate facilities
were created, resources were made available, and scientific responsibility clearly given to an
, organisation. On the other hand, in agricultural technology, India is one of the

backward countries in the world, in spite of the fact that 70% of our population llves on
agriculture and our primary products are our major foreign exchange earners.
Science, Tcchnokgr and Now, if you have understood the points discussed in this section, you will be able to solve
Dcvclopmcnt this SAQ.

SAQ 2
Do you think we have been able to take advantage of the benefits of science and technology?
Give reasons for your answer in 4-5 sentences.

27.3 TECHNOLOGY IN INDUSTRY

One aspect of technology is that the latest scientific methods are used in prduction. This, in
turn, depends on the availability of the-right type of scientific manpower. We shall e x k i n e
in the next unit (Unit 28) how deeply the question of buying technology or developing it
within our own country is related to the whole question of economic and political
independence. But at this stage it is sufficient to mention that it might seem simple to impon
technology from the developed countries and use it in our own processes of production, but
it is not, in fact, so. It is seen very often that a country from which a technology waS
imported had access to raw materials of a particular type which may not be available in our
country. In other words, it is often necessary, in the absence of a particular raw material, to
substitute it by another, or to modify the process.
To give a common example, earlier the composition of vanaspati, the well-known cooking
and edible fat used to be 95% groundnut oil and 5% seasame oil. About 30 years ago,
groundnut oil was available abundantly. For the last decade or so, both due to paucity of
supply and increase of demand abroad. Indian manufacturer$ had to switch over to other
oils, and in recent years more of these have had to be imported. For example, we now have
dils such as soyabeanoii, Canadian rapeseedoil (Canola) or palm oil imported from U.S.A.,
Canada and Malaysia respectively,as the maor raw material for the vanaspati industry. But
the quality, appearance and other properties of vanaspati have been kept the same, because
of stringent government regulations. So research and development efforts had to be made
by Indian scientists for this adaptation.

Similarly, imported tallow, which was once a major raw material for our soaps and
detergents has been totally banned. Indian scientists had to adopt other oils for preparing the
same quality of soap, and many processes have' been developed. For example, stearine and
tallow substitutes have been prepared from castor oil, (one of our industrial oils) by chemical
reactions. Such examples can be multiplied from other industries. Further, it would not have
been possible to effectively utilise imported technology in many other important industries
without the help of skilled human resource. In this resDect, trairiing of slulled human resource and
maintenance of research laboratones ana organisatlons have played a major role.
From our first five year plan onwards, efforts have been made to increase scientific and
technical human resource by creation of engineering and technology departments in our
universities. We now have about 200 such institutions as against 21 before independence. In
addition to the university departments, six Institutes of Technology (IITs) have been established
qt Kharagpur, Kanpur, Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi and Guwahati. The first five were set up with the
help of developed countries, such as U.S.A., U.S.S.R., U.K. and West Germany. Even before
independence, the three old universities of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras, the Indian Institute of
Science, Bangalore, engineering colleges like that of Roorkee and Bengal Engineering College,
the National Council of Education, the present Jadavpur University, had created many
engineering departments.
However, in practice, industries have retained a lot of dependence on imponed technology.
Often industry prefers to have "turnkey" technology, that is, technology and machines which
can be installed and can start producing on turning a key or pushing a button. Thus, the pace
and character of their development have reduced job opportunities for engineers and
 Sclence m d Technology in
technologists who are being trained in our institutions. The result is that many of our skilled ,
Industry
technical personnel and scientists have to seek opportunities abroad in developed countries
like U.S.A., 0rU.K. This is called "brain drain". Our ~ o u n ~ ~ l o s e s ~ c rofo rrupees
es
every year, as the expense incurred o n themining of these persons, and the much needed
technical h u m resource is lost to India.

Technology in Small Scale Industries

Many people have a misconception that application of science and technology is important
only for big industry. Since India consists of more than 600,000 villages, we cannot ignore
the relevance of village and small scale industry for giving employment to a large number of
our population, who are now dependent on primitive methods of agriculture. Science and
technology are equally important in .the ha~dicraftsand small scale Industry. Agriculture,
also. has been moderni5ed with the help of machines like tractors, power tillers, mechanised
harvesters, etc. Bot these attempts have not been very successful, because of educational and
financial constraints, size of land holdings and soc~alstructures.
Improved technology results in improved productivity in terms of cap~talInvestment and
human resource requirement. A t h e same tune it r e d u c ~ the
s job opportunities of a larger number-
of people. We are faced w ~ t ha paradox that, whereas on the one hand we need more jobs for
the bulk of our population who are jobless, on the other, modem mechanised and automated
industries would result in utillsing less tradi~onalhuman skills. Now, how do we resolve this
paradox? One way would be to organlse a network of small or medlum scale i~idustnesand vi!$ ge -
level industries. Then, this network can be used to feed raw materials or intermediates to
large scale industries.
The use of electric power and electronics in small scale and village level indust:ies can make
efficient quality production possible, as has been demonstrated in Japan. There has to be,
therefore, a planning process to make the production methods in village level industries
more efficient by the use of appropriate devices and to use the produce from these industries
as the feed material for large scale production units. This has been dnne partially in India, in
states like Punjab and Haryana in the engineering industry and also, to a smaller extent-; in
other states. The role of technology in improved productivity will always be a major role
and there will be a need for slulled human resource for this. But a part of them may be deployed
in training human resource forthe village'level industries, miniaturisation of machines, and using
the right type of electronic or other devices for working them.
Maintenance of machines in such industries, as also in large scale industries, has always been.
3 neglected area in our country. We have to be very careful about maintenance at all levels.
Infrastructure for creation of skilled human resource already exists in the formof Industrial
Training Institutions, Polytechnics and the training centres of different industries. These
have to be strengthened and re-oriented to serve the present-day needs.
Paucity of capital is one of the difficulties in establishing industries, particularly for small
and medium scale entreprenellrs. However, after the nationalisation of banks and creation of
financial institutions such as lndustrial Development Bank of India (I.D.B.I.), State
lndustrial Development Corporations. Industrial Credit and Finance Corporation, Unit Trust
of India and other financial institutions, nowadays institutional finance is available in the
form of loans to any creditworthy industrial enterprise. Both the Stqte and the Central
Governments are strengthening these institutions through various savings programmes. The
developmeit of such programmes as Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Parks
(STEP) in which new entrepreneurs are helped in testing a new technology on a smaIl scale
through a pilot plant, to gain confidence before they go in for large scale production by
themselves, is also very encouraging. These programmes are assisted by banks. Therefore, a
beginning has been made in the right ditection.
Such improvements in production methods as automation and use of robots have been
demonstrated to be very effective in reducing production cost and, improving the quality of
production. Unfortunately, apart from their being capital intensive, they oppose labour
intensity and create lesser job opportunities. In our country, we have ro have a balanced
approach. We should keep automation for selected areas, particularly, for our export
or;ented areas, and use somewhat older, but still efficient, methods of production, which are
labour intensive, in other areas. So, while the advantages are there, the implications in the
context of our country have to be kept in view and over-mechanisation and over-automation
at this stage of our development need to be avoided.
Science, Technology and TV studio equipment have also been licenced to different industries. This is just one example
Development
of our research programmes leading to industrial growth in related fields. In every field of
scientific activity we find that innovations have paved the way for setting up of new
industries and also the growth of the existing ones.
In fact, the example of Japan can, to a great extent, be a model for us. In the beginning of
this century Japan was a comparatively le5s developed country. They tried to modernise
themselves by importing technology but then they improved the imported technology by:
creatlng R & D facilities for adaptation and further improvement of the imported
technology,
creating and sustaining the improvement of technological efforts through their own
scientific manpower originally trained abroad, and
creating a base of sc~entifichuman resource to improve their educational system and training
facilities.
In 1946. the late Sir Winston Churchill. In a v e y well publicised speech, stated, "The rise'of the
Soviet Union as a super power has been mainly due, not so much to their political system
which might have helped hut to the creation of the right type of institutions for
manpower training. " Japan has again provided an example of how, from a comparatively
undeveloped technological base, they could rise to be one of the most modern technological
nations, offering technology not only to the developing and undeveloped countries, but
even to the developed countries like U.S.A. and U.K.
Therefore, for international competitiveness, and even for survival, there is-need for
nod ern is at ion through our own research and development efforts and with the help of our
own research organisations. One can think of close cooperative effort between government
research laboratories, like those under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and
the research laboratories of universities and higher technological institutions.
Our government has realised the importance of indigenous research to promote profitability
and international competitiveness. A number of policy measures were taken to provide
incentives to induce industries to set up in-house R & D units. m y are given certain
facilities for import of raw materials, equipment etc., besides some financial incentives.
These policy measures seem to have worked well, as you can see from Fig. 27.5.

[STATE
mPRIVATE
CENTRAL

YEARS

Fig. 27.5: Trends in national expenditure on R & D. (R & D srat~slics1984-85. Dep~.of S & T)
b'
You can alsp see from the charts that a major share of the R & D expenditure in our country
is borne by the government. This situation is different from the one we find in the developed
countries. In those countries a large amount of R & D work is'carried out by the private
industry. The capital spent in financing R &.D units is seen as a good and necessary
investment towards future economic progress of that industry. In India. industry spends a
very mihor fraction of total money spent on research. In Table 27.1 you will find that only Science and Technology in
Industry
I1 leading industrial groups account for 86% of the total expe~iditureof R & D incurred by
industry in our country.

Table 27.1 : R & D expenditure by industrial sector 1YU4-85

SI. Industry Group Public Sector Private Sector Industrial Sector

No.
Nu. of R&D Exp. No. of R&D Exp. No. of R&D Exp.
Units (Rs. Iakhs) Units (Rs. lakhs) Units (Rs. lakhs)

I . Electricals & 15 5050.40 11-0 3310.02 135 8360.42

Electronics
2. Defence Industry 7 5772.63 - - 7 5772.63
3. Fuels 5 56142.12 8 92.27 13 5734.39
4. Chemicals 7 67 1.21- 124 3074.17 13 1 3745.19
(other than
fertilisers)
5. Metallurgical 14 ' 1922.62 51 1222.04 65 3144.66
Industries
6. Drugs and
Pharmaceutical,
7. Industrial Machinery
' 8. Telecommunication
9. Transportation
10. Fertilisers
I I. Textilea
12. Other Croups

Total , 80 23575.50 682 20106.67 762 43682.17

There have also been a number of cooperative research associations in our country. The first
such institute was set up in 1950 in Ahmedabad for the textile industry. There are many
rnoperative research associations now in fields like jute, rubber, tea. wool. c a s h e ~ n u tetc.
,
Since small industrial units are not able to bnance a complete R & D set-up on their own,
such cooperative efforts are the best way out.
A developing country like ours aims to reduce its technological dependence on other
countries. We shall be able to achieve this by increasing our R & D efforts. Products and
procesges developed in our own country will be based on local raw materials and will take
into consideration other local factors such as weather. In the process, we will also have the
requisite manpower for maintenance as well as further improvement of technology. We
should match our R & D efforts with the objectives and policies of.our country. Apart from
the government laboratories, private industry should take roore and more active part in
research activities. The commercial application of scientific discoveries can be carried out
more easily if there is a direct link between the laboratory and industry. In other words. it
would be better if industrial units have an R & D set up within themselves.
Our indigenous R & D units should try to reduce the threat to our environment through
innovations in industrial proce_sses. Pollution of environment by industries is a very serious
menace in the developed countries. As you know. most of our big indubtries were set up
before the oil prices sky-rocketed in 1973. As a result they rely heavily on oil as their source
of energy. With the unprecedented rise in oil prices, and also taking itito conhideration the
limited world reserves of oil. we should try and look for alternative source\ ot' energy which
will increase our profitability in the long run. Some experiments are being done with holar
energy, and it has a ~ s dbeen put to use in some places. But we haven't yet t.~ppedits full
potential.
I t may be noted that the concept of modernisation is integrally related to thc Improvement of
processes and products. But modernisation as mere gimmickry. for cxiunplc.. to introduce
i,computers where one can do without them. or installing remote control co~nmu~iication
systems and'the like can only increase overheads and lead to handicaps in trade. A balanced
approach to modernisation xemb to be the need of the hour. and w e need to \trengthcn our
own-,R & D efforts for this. See if you can do this SAQ now.
Science.Teekmlogy and won't be able to Compete in the international markets. The use of technology also helps
Developmnt
us produce goods on a large scale. This mass production helps to bring down the cost
per unit. If our goods are reasonably priced, they stand a better chance in the
international markets.
3) India should follow the example of Japan. If we keep importing the latest technologies
and do not strengthen our base of R & D, we shall always remain dependent on other
advanced countries. And unless we become self-reliant, we shall have to bow down to
the wishes of these advanced countries even though they go contrary to our ideals. At
the same time we cannot remain isolated. We have to imbibe the latest technology to
fulfil the basic needs of the entire population and to abolish poverty. If we try to acquin
the latest technology entirely through our own efforts, it will take a very long time, and
we may not be able to catch up with other nations.
If some other countries have already developed modem technologies, we should try and
import them to revamp our industry. But once we have imported these technologies we
should keep them up-to-date with our own R & D efforts.
!-
4) There are many reasons for our productivity being lower than the acceptable norms. o n ~
reason is that our industry does not use the latest technologies because of the heavy
investment needed to install modem machinery. Even where modem machinery has
been installed, it is nat being properly utilised since the workforce is not adequately
trained.
Sometimes entrepreneurs do not realise the importance of constantly adapting their
technologies and refuse to finance R & D programmes. This adversely affects their
productivity as their counterparts in other countries are able to achieve'a higher
productivity by the use of new production processes.