august 24, 2019 vol lIV no 34 EPW Economic & Political Weekly 64 TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY Technology Vision 2035 Visions, Technologies, Democracy and the Citizen in India Pankaj Sekhsaria, Naveen Thayyil The authors would like to thank Vanya Bisht for her help in the research and writing of this article. This article is the outcome of a project on technology visioning carried out at the DST (Department of Science and Technology) Centre for Policy Research, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. Pankaj Sekhsaria (psekhsaria@gmail.com) is with the Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas, Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai. Naveen Thayyil (tk.naveen@gmail.com) teaches at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. “Technology Vision 2035,” developed by the Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council, claims to identify key challenges and needs of India and describe its technology capability landscape in 2035. It is important to understand the backstage process of participation in the development of this vision document, and bring forth the imagination of the citizen underlining the vision’s horizon. In the context of its “diversity” claims, it is essential to ask if one vision is really possible for such a huge and diverse country, or should we be talking, instead, of many visions, and a diversity of visions? E arly in 2016, the Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council ( TIFAC), an autonomous body under the Government of India’s Department of Science and Technology (DST) released what is called India “Technology Vision 2035” (TV 2035) (TIFAC 2015). It is an account of what we as a people and a country can be (and should be) in 2035. TV 2035 claims to be rooted in the “collective aspirations of the people of India, the ambitions of our youth and the likely expectations of Indians in 2035 as the country grows” (p 18). People in TV 2035 are stated to be as important as the technology: “It considers the technological ‘peoplescape’ of India to be as important as its technological landscape. Fully cognisant that there is no India without Indians, TV 2035 speaks to—and of —all Indians” (p 28). And because TV 2035 speaks to—and of—all Indians, we assume that we will be in there, that we have been counted, and that we have been accounted for. So it is only obvious to ask, what does TV 2035 have for us? What does it allow us? Where does it see us in 2035? How does it allow us to see our- selves in the context of the future as a citizen of this country? How does TV 2035 play out/play up against the many questions that all individuals like us would have about themselves, their future and their place in an India of 2035? Particularly relevant here is the 11-page section (pp 36–46) of TV 2035 titled “Indians in 2035: Our Needs.” At its heart is an illustrated subsection that divides the Indians of 2035 into six non-exclusive segments listed respectively as: (i) Rooted and Remote, (ii) Globalised and Diaspora, (iii) Left Out or Left Behind, (iv) Alternative Lifestyles and Worldviews, (v) Creative, Innovative and Imaginative, and (vi) Beehives and Production Lines. Short accounts are provided of each of these categories, their possible percentages in the Indian population (the cate- gories are non-exclusive so they add up to more than 100%), as also the details of each of their needs, identified as something all humans are looking for: identity, prosperity, and security (for the characteristics of all categories, see Table 1, p 65). Indians in 2035 So, this is what the “Rooted and Remote Indian” of 2035 would actually be like according to TV 2035: A significant minority of Indians in 2035, perhaps as high as 20%, would be Rooted and Remote. Most would be rooted by choice, although some will not have the choice. The rooted and remote will not all be rural, alt- hough most of them will be. This would be a segment of the population that adheres to old values, although the values too will evolve as circum- stances change. As has been witnessed in urbanised societies around the world, this segment will be seen by others not as backward but as