Scientists and technologists are coming up in tandem as it were with innovative devices and methods to make the life of people change at an unprecedented pace in a baffling range of human activities. Not many days pass between two successive such advances that one gets to read about in periodicals or hear from keen followers of the announcements, always in awe and wonder. More potent drugs, diagnostic instruments generating pathological data on the various afflictions bugging human beings as well as other life forms such as pets and valued livestock, materials possessing superior qualities needed by construction industry, machines with higher efficiency to produce a wide range of consumer goods, cosmetics as well as toiletries to enhance appearance and sanitation, bio-fuels from different raw materials, automobiles using electricity instead of fast-depleting and emission-spewing fossil fuels and so on are there for grabs.

While limited space permitted for this column, per force, restricts the number of people-friendly innovations to be listed for recognising the work of scientists and technologists as well as the workforce behind the makeover of laboratory level results into enterprises generating wealth and jobs for livelihood of the expanding populations, one is obliged to the most recent advance of 3-D printing technology used for producing some vital organs synthetically, in keeping with the caption of this column.

India’s industry sector, according to knowledgeable observers, although began with high-skill inputs several decades ago, has not only lagged behind the services sector in the matter of its share in the nation’s gross domestic product but also has currently caused a slow down of the country’s economy, as reflected by the officially published figure of index of industrial production. Incidentally, the government’s think tank has reportedly proposed gradual privatising of public sector enterprises, a measure being resisted by the latter lobby. A more worrisome feature of the economy is the agriculture sector’s steady declining share in GDP.

The 3-D image of the nation, portraying a) Debris, b) Diseases and c) Deaths (due to avoidable causes) awaits committed actions based on appropriate measures both by the citizenry and governments to be changed for the better on a war-footing. The onus is on the people themselves to keep in check their penchant to generate Debris, to consciously avoid consumption of adulterated foods causing Diseases and to adhere to discipline both in the confines of homes and public domain to reduce fatalities (deaths) in mishaps. Lastly, the 3-D role of inventors and that of the land’s masses requires bonding with urgency.