Science and technology in the Republic of India

Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India (office: 15 August 1947 – 27 May 1964), initiated reforms to promote higher education, science, technology in India. The Indian Institute of Technology — conceived by a 22 member committee of scholars and entrepreneurs in order to promote technical education — was inaugurated on 18 August 1951 at Kharagpur in West Bengal by then minister of education Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. Beginning in the 1960s, close ties with the Soviet Union enabled the Indian Space Research Organization to rapidly develop the Indian space program and advance nuclear power in India even after the first nuclear test explosion by India on May 18, 1974 at Pokhran.

India accounts for about 10% of all expenditure on research and development in Asia and the number of scientific publications grew by 45% over the past five years. However, according to India's science and technology minister, Kapil Sibal, India is lagging in science and technology compared to developed countries. For comparison, China invested about four times more than India, while the United States...
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