'India should be technologically advanced, culturally rooted'

Cautioning that advancement of technology in society tends to "promote monocultures", a technology think-tank of the country has said India's 2035 vision should mean it is technologically as advanced as possible while culturally as much rooted.
"Diversity in culture and languages are a key defining feature of India. These are at the very core of India's existence and are its very soul, giving our country itsvarious hues of differences and harmony and making us a vibrant nation," said 'Technology Vision 2035', a document prepared by Technology Information, Forecasting & Assessment Council (TIFAC), an autonomous organisation under the Department of Science and Technology.

"We need to be especially vigilant that no one culture is able to dominate others. Ever since the invention of the printing press, the advancement of technology in society has tended to promote monocultures."
"Caution has to be exercised toensure that technology guided cultural practices enrich theexisting cultural diversity of the nation and do not replaceit," it said.
Underlining that vision for India in 2035 cannot be complete without envisaging how this core aspiration- expectation would influence or be shaped by the realities of that time, it said we would like India to be as advanced as possible technologically while culturally as much rooted.

"Cultural diversity and vibrancy is one among the twelve prerogatives that should be available to each and every Indian," said the vision document released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the inaugural session of the 103rd Indian Science Congress here on Sunday.

It also said ensuring the attainment of these prerogatives is the core of our technology vision for India.
Noting that cultural practices have very strong tendencies to influence us, it said, more often than not theseinfluences are subtle and hidden and this is where the power of cultural practices truly lies.
However, given the right direction, technology could help us in preserving and enhancing the rich cultural diversity of India.

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Other eleven prerogatives listed out in the vision by TIFAC include - clean air and portable water; food and nutritional security, universal healthcare and public hygiene, 24x7 energy, decent habitat, quality education, livelihood andcreative opportunities, safe and speedy mobility.
They also include public safety and national security, transparent and effective governance, disaster and climate resilience and eco-friendly conservation of natural resources.
TIFAC, an autonomous organisation under the Department of Science and Technology was established in 1988.
Under the prerogative - cultural diversity and vibrancy, the vision goes on to say that preserving traditional knowledge and intangible heritage is one of the key challenges.

"This would involve conserving documents and scriptures that already exist in a digital form. Preserving traditional knowledge that is not already available in a documented form could involve having extensive oral history recording," it said.
Also speaking about conserving our tangible heritage, the document said revitalising our languages and scripts is a challenge that is especially worthy of our best efforts.
"Technology could play a key role in ensuring that thedifferent regional languages of India get incorporated into the mainstream instead of being on the sidelines and fringes."
This would help check the elitism associated with the English language and will also facilitate the reach of technology to remote areas of the nation", it said.