"The Dimensions and Roles of Science and Technology in India's Foreign Policy"
Speaker : Dr V. Siddhartha
Adjunct Faculty, NIAS
@ : gondeeza@gmail.com
Chairperson : Prof. S Chandrashekar
Honorary Visiting Professor, School of Conflict and Security Studies, NIAS
@ : chandrashekhar.schandra@gmail.com
Date : 8 April 2026
Time : 9.30 AM
Venue : Lecture Hall
Abstract: In their Preface to "Science Beyond Borders" (World Scientific, 2025), distinguished NIAS' authors Srivastava, Ramamurthy, Nayak and Chandran have delineated and explored the tapestry of "International Collaborations in the Basic Sciences" -- and not only from an India's perspective. Reading that Subject-defining work, it could well have been titled: "Science Despite Borders".
This presentation has an almost contra-focus: It could have been titled "Science (and Technology) Because of Borders". The Border will be India's, but the reach of the discourse in this presentation will be primarily into the territories beyond it."
About the speaker: A Distinguished Fellow over 2010-12 of the Centre for Air Power Studies, New Delhi, Dr V. Siddhartha served during 2007-09 on invitation of the Secretary General of the United Nations as a member of the Experts Group in New York of the Committee on UN Security Council Resolution 1540. Upon returning, Siddhartha served in 2009-10 with the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India as Scientific Consultant (Advanced Technologies). An Emeritus Scientist in DRDO, he retired in 2004 after working directly with four Scientific Advisors to the Raksha Mantri over nearly twenty years. Dr. Siddhartha has been twice Consultant to the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, on export control and S&T issues in international security, and on the Indian WMD Act, 2005. Dr Siddhartha has also served with the United Nations Environment Programme in Geneva. Dr Siddhartha served for some time as Secretary of the Science Advisory Council to the Prime Minister.
A Research Fellow at the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex, UK; a PhD from the Imperial College of Science & Technology, London, and a graduate in mechanical engineering from IIT, Madras, Siddhartha has served with different arms of the nation's S&T system, starting in 1972 as Principal Scientific Officer with the National Committee on Science & Technology (NCST). He was a member of the pioneering Systems Planning and Analysis Group (SPAG) of ISRO, Bangalore from 1974-82, after which he served as Advisor, Technology Utilisation, in the headquarters of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi. Siddhartha piloted the Home-Grown Technology scheme of the Department of Science and Technology. Dr Siddhartha is a founder-member of the Institute of Social and Economic Change, Bangalore. He is a member of the Aeronautical Society of India, and of the United Service Institution of India, as also of several technology associations and bodies. He has served on the Editorial Board of the journal Current Science of the Indian Academy of Sciences.
* * * * * *