Prof Ashutosh Sharma, former secretary, Department of Science & Technology (DST), said that science and technology will impact and govern everything in the future, whether it is education, health, economy, governance, and everything else, at an evening lecture on September 27, 2021.

“The five “Ms” - Mechanics (understanding), Materials, Machines (Devices, Systems), Manufacturing and Wo(Man) - are foundation and highways of science and technology. The most crucial among this is the human mind which will drive science and technology. The future of S&T will be what the mind wants,” said Professor Ashutosh Sharma while speaking at the lecture titled ‘A Brief History of the Future: S&T Perspective’ organised by Dr. Renu Swarup, Secretary, DST and Department of Biotechnology (DBT).  

“Today science and technology has become part and parcel of every person’s life, the future is going to be much more dependent on S&T, and it will impact everything. We looked at technology from technology point of view 50 years ago, but today we are looking at technology through the lens of society, and people are at the centre. The future lies in the convergence of technologies, and the drivers of technology are needs, demands, wants, desires of the mind as also greed,” the former DST Secretary said. “Such needs consist of the desire to be healthy, to have a better quality of life, to be connected with equality, to learn and apply, to make decisions in complexity, to be entertained, to create and control one’s own world and to live longer,” Professor Sharma pointed out.

“The future processes of science and technology would shift from being tool-centric to problem-centric; it would involve creativity by connecting the dots, intuition and common sense, convergence, negotiating change and invention to innovation,” Prof Sharma elaborated.

Prof VK Paul, Member NITI Aayog, Shri RS Sharma, CEO, National Health Authority of India, Shri UP Singh, Secretary Ministry of Textile, Shri Dinesh Jain, Member, Lokpal of India, Shri RP Gupta, Secretary, MoEF & CC, Shri Sanjay Agarwal, Secretary, Agriculture; Dr Shekhar C Mande, Secretary, DSIR & MoES and DG, CSIR, Shri Sandeep Sanyal, Principal Economic Adviser, were also present for the lecture. The programme was coordinated by Dr Akhilesh Gupta, Senior Adviser, DST and organsed by Shri Sanjeev Varshney, Scientist-G. Senior officials from DST, DBT, and the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) were also present at the occasion.