Beyond Innovation: How India’s Scientific Ethos is Shaping a Future of Collaborative Problem-Solving 

At the SCOPOSIS 2025 conference in Ahmedabad, former ISRO chief A.S. Kirankumar invoked Vikram Sarabhai’s legacy to emphasize a core ethos of India’s scientific community: the critical need to identify and develop new technologies specifically as tools for solving pressing human problems, rather than pursuing innovation for its own sake. He illustrated this by citing India’s pandemic response, where solutions were rapidly developed and shared globally beyond mere economic calculation.

This problem-solving mission now falls to a new generation, as evidenced by the large international gathering of early-career scientists at the event, which focused on advanced optics and photonics—fields foundational to future advancements in communication, security, and quantum technology. The conference also highlighted the dual nature of such progress, with warnings about vulnerabilities in our optical fiber-dependent infrastructure underscoring the parallel need to solve for resilience and security, thereby continuing Sarabhai’s vision of applying science for tangible societal benefit and collective welfare.

Beyond Innovation: How India’s Scientific Ethos is Shaping a Future of Collaborative Problem-Solving

In the historic city of Ahmedabad, a place synonymous with both Mahatma Gandhi’s peace and Vikram Sarabhai’s vision for a space-faring India, a gathering of scientists recently echoed a timeless principle. At the SCOPOSIS 2025 conference, A.S. Kirankumar, former chairman of ISRO and head of the Physical Research Laboratory, offered a seemingly simple directive: “It is important to identify a new technology as a source for solving problems.” Yet, in invoking the name of Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, Kirankumar was pointing to something far deeper than mere technical adoption. He was highlighting a foundational ethos of India’s scientific journey—one that views technology not as an end in itself, but as a tool for human-centric problem-solving, often forged in the spirit of collective welfare over narrow gain. 

This philosophy, crystallized during the COVID-19 pandemic, forms the bedrock of a new chapter in India’s scientific narrative, one being written by early-career researchers in fields like optics and photonics. 

The Sarabhai Legacy: Technology in Service of Society 

To understand Kirankumar’s message, one must revisit the legacy he cited. Vikram Sarabhai, founding father of India’s space program, did not build rockets because the nation wanted to win a space race. He identified satellite communication and remote sensing as solutions to India’s pressing, terrestrial problems: education across vast geographies, weather forecasting for farmers, and resource mapping. The technology was a means to bridge deep socio-economic divides. 

Kirankumar, a inheritor of this legacy, extended this logic to India’s pandemic response. While global supply chains frayed and vaccine nationalism emerged, India’s scientific and industrial complex focused on solving the immediate problem. The development and scale-up of vaccines, followed by their export under initiatives like Vaccine Maitri, demonstrated a model where technological prowess was leveraged for widespread benefit, “without considering economic benefit” first. This established a powerful precedent: for India, cutting-edge science finds its highest validation in application and accessibility. 

SCOPOSIS 2025: A Microcosm of the New Scientific Culture 

The conference where this message was delivered is itself a manifestation of this evolving culture. SCOPOSIS—a fusion of the Student Conference on Optics and Photonics (SCOP) and the Optical Society of India Symposium (OSIS)—is more than an academic meeting. With over 500 participants from 13 countries and 125 institutions, it represents a deliberate investment in the problem-solvers of tomorrow. 

As PRL Director Anil Bhardwaj noted, SCOP is uniquely designed for PhDs and post-doctoral researchers. This is critical. By placing early-career scientists at the center, the conference does more than share knowledge; it instills a collaborative, interdisciplinary mindset from the very start. The topics on the agenda—quantum communication, ultrafast lasers, nonlinear optics—are not abstract curiosities. They are the building blocks for future solutions in secure data transmission, advanced manufacturing, medical imaging, and environmental monitoring. 

Kirankumar’s suggestion to publish in Current Science, a journal with a legacy of making science accessible, underscores the need to translate these specialized discussions into broader public awareness. It’s a call to connect the lab with society, ensuring the pipeline from problem identification to technological solution is understood and supported. 

The Dual Edges of Light: Promise and Peril in the Optical Age 

A striking counterpoint to this optimism came from IITGN Director Rajat Moona. In discussing future conflicts, he highlighted a profound vulnerability born of our greatest strength: optical fibers. “All you need to do is just cut the optical fibre… and you will actually cripple countries,” he warned. This statement reframes our technological dependence. The very infrastructure that powers our global digital economy—the field of photonics that the conference celebrates—also represents a critical point of failure. 

Moona’s insight shifts the problem-solving imperative into a new, urgent domain: resilience. It’s no longer enough to build faster networks or more sensitive sensors; science must now also solve for security, redundancy, and sovereignty. His call for “alternative channels of communication” is a direct challenge to the very photonics community present. Can we develop quantum-secured networks? Can we create hybrid systems that are less susceptible to physical disruption? The problem has been identified; the race for the technological solution is on. 

Weaving a Tapestry of Collaborative Science 

The structure of SCOPOSIS offers a blueprint for how such complex challenges can be approached. The joint hosting by PRL, SAC-ISRO, and IITGN represents a powerful triad: a premier research lab, a major application center for space technology, and a leading engineering institute. This breaks down traditional silos between fundamental research, applied mission-driven work, and technological education. 

Furthermore, the international cohort—from the U.S. and Japan to Israel and South Africa—ensures that problem-solving is informed by diverse perspectives. A challenge like quantum metrology or atmospheric sensing is global; the solutions, therefore, benefit from shared intellect. This mirrors the pandemic lesson: the largest problems are borderless, and the most sustainable solutions are often cooperative. 

Conclusion: Carrying the Torch Forward 

The gathering in Ahmedabad was, in essence, a passing of the torch. From Sarabhai’s human-centric vision, to Kirankumar’s stewardship of India’s space and scientific achievements, to the hundreds of early-career scientists now being entrusted with the future, the thread is consistent. The goal is not to merely master technology, but to master its application for the greater good. 

The true “genuine value” for readers lies in recognizing this shift. India’s scientific narrative is being rewritten from the ground up. It is a story where students at conferences are encouraged to think as problem-identifiers first, specialists second. It is a story where a nation’s technological prowess is measured not just in patents or launches, but in its ability to cushion global crises and secure its own digital future. As the discussions on quantum optics and ultrafast lasers in Ahmedabad fade, the real work begins: applying that light to illuminate the path through our most pressing, human challenges. The legacy of Sarabhai, as echoed by Kirankumar, demands nothing less.