Indian research can shape the world

People fret about the buses India has missed in its technological growth. The list is familiar: aircraft, advanced weapons, new materials, and biotechnology . In each, we look at what others built decades ago and ask why we did not. There is value in this introspection, and there is danger. The value is that it forces us to ask whether our systems can be streamlined and enabled. Catching up is not a bad thing. Much of the world’s industrial history is a history of catching up. The danger is that catch-up-itis can become a habit. If our ambition is always defined by what someone else has already done, we will always arrive late, pay for licences and know-how, and build on foundations laid elsewhere. The costs of technological catch-up are a heavy burden, and they recur with every new wave.