National Technology Day 2021: Science and Tech for a Sustainable Future (and Present)

India conducted Pokhran-II tests, a series of five nuclear explosions, on May 11 1998. At the Indian Army's Pokhran Test Range in Rajasthan, with the test-fire of Shakti-I, India achieved a breakthrough in Science and Technology. As a reminder of the anniversary of the Pokhran-II tests, we celebrate this date as National Technology Day. On 11th May 1998, India's first indigenous aircraft ‘Hansa-3’ by National Aerospace Laboratory also took flight in Bengaluru, Karnataka. DRDO also added to the day by completing the test-firing of India’s Surface-to-Air Trishul missile.

In 2020, the theme was RESTART i.e. Rebooting the Economy through Science, Technology and Research Translations. The theme of this year’s National Technology Day is Science and Technology for a Sustainable Future. National Technology Day focuses on rebooting the economy through science and technology. Looking at the ongoing pandemic, we are certain that technology will play a pivotal role in our fight the virus. Thus, here's an important question, with the crisis looming on our heads, how are we making our present sustainable?

Last year, Sanjay Gupta, Vice President & India Country Manager, NXP Semiconductors explained that we are accepting the ‘new normal’ and the pandemic will leave a lasting impression on our evolution. “From online shopping to e-learning; from contactless payments to a greater usage of drones and robots for surveillance and deliveries; we are going to witness a transformation like never before. Automation is going to find a wider acceptance and much needed investments. Technologies and businesses around autonomous vehicles, autonomous warehouses, robotics, drone-delivery systems, and 3D-enabled manufacturing are going to be in the fast lane to adoption,” he said.

This was last year.

Here's a glimpse of what India Inc thinks about technologies that will dominate 2021

Nitesh Salvi, Founder and CEO, Pocket52, “The advancement in technology is a blessing during the time of crisis. I think the biggest advantage is how well people can be connected. During the scarcity of oxygen cylinders and covid medicines a lot of people came forward and made apps, some AI inbuilt websites etc, all thanks to technologies. Apart from that technology is acting as backbone for work from home. Economies would have failed without that.”

“2021 will witness large scale technology adoption in small towns,” stated Sameer Aggarwal, Founder and CEO RevFin. “This will require user friendly front end through use of video and vernacular voice based applications. IOT will also see a big surge as it drives improvement in productivity in various fields like deliveries, agriculture, automobile and real estate.”

“Biotechnology is one such innovation that can drive innovation; especially when it comes to curing deadly diseases like cancer and now COVID. As we advance, emerging technologies like AI and ML will help players in this space innovate further in terms of finding new therapeutic targets to treat the disease more effectively. It will enhance the overall biomanufacturing process to support personalized medicines,” said Anurag Bagaria, CEO, Kemwell Biopharma.

He further added, “The pandemic has made us realize that the global manufacturing capacity for vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics is highly inadequate. However, we can address this challenge by investing in technology advancements. Thereby, we can enable faster establishment of agile production facilities at a much lower cost. The current situation also calls for tremendous collaboration between governments and private players, who must commit to investing in more, globally distributed bio-manufacturing and R&D capacities.”