By Jagjagran | 4 October 2026
Most birthdays are about looking back. This one was about looking forward.
On 25 September, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research — better known as CSIR — turned 85. For those who haven't heard of it, CSIR is the giant behind a huge chunk of Indian science. It runs 37 laboratories and employs more than 10,000 people. It started way back in 1942, even before Independence.
But the mood at the Delhi celebration wasn't nostalgic. It was ambitious.
The chief guest, Science Minister Dr Jitendra Singh, used his speech to deliver a pointed message. His big idea was something he called "technology sovereignty." It sounds fancy, but the meaning is simple: India should be able to build its own important technologies, rather than always buying them from abroad.
He pushed CSIR's labs to find the areas where India still leans too heavily on other countries — and then fix that by building our own solutions. And not just copies of foreign products. He wants India to make things good enough to sell to the rest of the world.
One line stood out to me: "Industry should be a co-creator, not only a partner."
What did he mean by that? For a long time, Indian labs would invent something and then hope a company picked it up. Singh wants companies involved right from the start — from the moment a problem is defined. That way, good ideas move from the lab to the market faster, instead of gathering dust on a shelf.
He pointed to things CSIR is already working on, like electric tractors, home-grown medicines, advanced road-building methods, and even machines to clean sewers so humans don't have to do that dangerous job by hand.
There was a lovely touch the next day, too. On 26 September, the minister launched five science magazines in Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Bengali, and Assamese. Science shouldn't only speak English, after all. For a country as diverse as ours, that's a small but meaningful step.
Eighty-five years on, CSIR's message is clear. The goal is no longer just to do good science. It's to make India self-reliant — and to supply the world, not depend on it.
Sources: Daily Excelsior, CSIR, PIB.
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