Indian Research Institutes from varied aspects of life and sectors has surprised the whole world with their achievements. The veteran leaders of the Congress party and Congress government has the credit of establishing these world class research institutes. The founder members of the Congress party and its top leaders have kept good education and quality research on their priority list. Most of these research institutes were found during the tenure of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru and with the help and guidelines of the Congress government these research performed better and better. These research institutes are related with Space, Defence, Atomic Energy, Medical, Social Science etc. In this article we have tried to give a brief introduction of those research institutes who are know worldwide.

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is the space agency of the Government of India headquartered in the city of Bengaluru. Its vision is to “harness space technology for national development”, while pursuing space science research and planetary exploration.

Formed in 1969, ISRO superseded the erstwhile Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) established in 1962 by the efforts of independent India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and his close aide and scientist Vikram Sarabhai. The establishment of ISRO thus institutionalized space activities in India. It is managed by the Department of Space, which reports to the Prime Minister of The Republic of India.

Under the guideline of the Congress government led by the then Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi ISRO built India’s first satellite, Aryabhata, which was launched by the Soviet Union on 19 April 1975. During the tenure of Smt. Gandhi in 1980, Rohini became the first satellite to be placed in orbit by an Indian-made launch vehicle, SLV-3. ISRO subsequently developed two other rockets: the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) for launching satellites into orbits and the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) for placing satellites into geostationary orbits. These rockets have launched numerous communications and earth observation satellites. Satellite navigation systems like GAGAN and IRNSS have been deployed. In January 2014, ISRO successfully used an indigenous cryogenic engine in a GSLV-D5 launch of the GSAT-14.

During Congress party led UPA government, ISRO sent one lunar orbiter, Chandrayaan-1, on 22 October, 2008. In 2008 itself India launched as many as 11 satellites, including nine from other countries and went on to become the first nation to launch 10 satellites on one rocket. One Mars orbiter, Mars Orbiter Mission, which successfully entered Mars orbit on 24 September, 2014, making India the first nation to succeed on its first attempt, and ISRO the fourth space agency in the world as well as the first space agency in Asia to successfully reach Mars orbit. On 18 June, 2016 ISRO successfully set a record with a launch of 20 satellites in a single payload, one being a satellite from Google. On 15 February, 2017 ISRO launched 104 satellites in a single rocket (PSLV-C37) and created a world record.

Under the guidelines of the top leadership of the Congress party and vision of the Congress governments India’s economic progress has made its space programme more visible and active as the country aims for greater self-reliance in space technology. ”ISRO has successfully put into operation two major satellite systems: Indian National Satellites (INSAT) for communication services and Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites for management of natural resources. Undoubtedly if India has setup a mark in Space Research and technology its credit goes to none other than the Congress party.

First Prime Minister of India and visionary statesman Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru took the initiatives for the startup of India’s nuclear programs with peaceful and developmental goals. Pt. Nehru founded the Department of Atomic Energy with Homi J. Bhabha as its secretary in 1950. The Government of India created the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (AEET) on 3 January, 1954. It was established to consolidate all the research and development activity for nuclear reactors and technology under the Atomic Energy Commission. Scientists and engineers were engaged in the fields of reactor design and development, instrumentation, metallurgy and material science etc. by the then Congress government After Homi J. Bhabha’s death in 1966, the centre was renamed as the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre on 22 January 1967.

BARC is a multi-disciplinary research centre with extensive infrastructure for advanced research and development covering the entire spectrum of nuclear science, engineering and related areas.

Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru and top leaders of the Congress party established BARC’s core mandate to sustain peaceful applications of nuclear energy, primarily for power generation. It manages all facets of nuclear power generation, from theoretical design of reactors, computerized modeling and simulation, risk analysis, development and testing of new reactor fuel materials, etc. It also conducts research in spent fuel processing, and safe disposal of nuclear waste. Its other research focus areas are applications for isotopes in industries, medicine, agriculture, etc. BARC operates a number of research reactors across the country. All the directors of the BARC were highly qualified doctorates in their discipline and were internationally recognized for their contribution in academia, who were the crown of this prestigious research organization.

This was because of the magnificent personality of the India’s first Prime Minister Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru that the U.S. and western countries helped India in setting up its Nuclear Reactors. The first reactors at BARC and its affiliated power generation centers were imported from the west. India’s first power reactors, installed at the Tarapur Atomic Power Station were from the United States.

The primary importance of BARC is as a research centre. The BARC and the Indian government has consistently maintained that the reactors are used for this purpose only: Apsara (1956; named by the then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru when he likened the blue Cerenkov radiation to the beauty of the Apsaras), CIRUS 1960 the “Canada-India Reactor” with assistance from the US.

Under the guideline then Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi BARC conducted the Smiling Buddha Nuclear Test. The plutonium used in India’s 1974 Smiling Buddha nuclear test came from CIRUS. The 1974 test (and the 1998 tests that followed) gave Indian scientists the technological know-how and confidence not only to develop nuclear fuel for future reactors to be used in power generation and research, but also the capacity to refine the same fuel into weapons-grade fuel to be used in the development of nuclear weapons.

BARC also designed and built India’s first Pressurized water reactor at Kalpakkam, a 80MW land based prototype of INS Arihant’s nuclear power unit,3 as well as the Arihant’s propulsion reactor.

The BARC also conducts research in biotechnology at the Gamma Gardens, and has developed numerous disease resistant and high-yielding crop varieties, particularly groundnuts. It also conducts research in Liquid Metal Magneto hydrodynamics for power generation.

During the Congress lead UPA-I on 4 June 2005, with the goal of encouraging research in basic sciences, BARC started the Homi Bhabha National Institute. Research institutions affiliated to BARC (Bhabha Atomic Research Centre) include IGCAR (Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research), RRCAT (Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology), and VECC (Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre).

Power projects that have benefited from BARC expertise but which fall under the NPCIL (Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited) are KAPP (Kakrapar Atomic Power Project), RAPP (Rajasthan Atomic Power Project), and TAPP (Tarapur Atomic Power Project).

The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in addition to its nuclear research mandate also conducts research in other high technology areas like accelerators, micro electron beams, materials design, supercomputers, computer vision among the few. The BARC has dedicated departments for these specialised fields. BARC has designed and developed, for its own use an infrastructure of supercomputers, Anupam using state of the art technology. In a nutshell there would be no hesitation in saying that in Atomic Energy and specialized research in the affiliated areas by BARC are based on the policies made by the Congress government. Who truly deserves the credit for that.

When firth Prime Minister of India Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru took his office he was aware of making a strong Army for defending the country. Under his guidelines the then Congress government they founded DRDO.

The Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) is an agency of the Republic of India, charged with the military’s research and development, headquartered in New Delhi, India. It was formed in 1958 by the merger of the Technical Development Establishment and the Directorate of Technical Development and Production with the Defence Science Organization. The then Prime Minister Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru put it under the administrative control of the Ministry of Defence, Government of India.

Later on the Congress government formed a network of 52 laboratories, which are engaged in developing defence technologies covering various fields, like aeronautics, armaments, electronics, land combat engineering, life sciences, materials, missiles, and naval systems, DRDO is India’s largest and most diverse research organization. The organization includes around 5,000 scientists belonging to the Defence Research & Development Service (DRDS) and about 25,000 other scientific, technical and supporting personnel.

A separate Department of Defence Research and Development was formed in 1980 which later on administered DRDO and its 50 laboratories/establishments. The Army and the Air Force themselves did not have any design or construction responsibility, DRDO fulfill their needs. DRDO started its first major project in surface-to-air missiles (SAM) known as Project Indigo in 1960s. Project Indigo led to Project Devil, along with Project Valiant, to develop short-range SAM and ICBM in the 1970s. Project Devil itself led to the later development of the Prithvi missile under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP) in the 1980s. IGMDP was an Indian Ministry of Defence programme for the development of a comprehensive range of missiles, including the Agni missile, Prithvi ballistic missile, Akash missile, Trishul missile and Nag Missile.

In 2010, then defence minister A K Antony ordered the restructuring of the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) to give ‘a major boost to defence research in the country and to ensure effective participation of the private sector in defence technology’. The key measures to make DRDO effective in its functioning include the establishment of a Defence Technology Commission with the defence minister as its chairman. The programmes which were largely managed by DRDO have seen considerable success with many of the systems seeing rapid deployment as well as yielding significant technological benefits. DRDO has achieved many successes in developing other major systems and critical technologies such as aircraft avionics, UAVs, small arms, artillery systems, EW Systems, tanks and armored vehicles, sonar systems, command and control systems and missile systems. Undoubtedly the achievement of DRDO has helped Indian Army to be world class and only the Congress party could be credited for this achievement.

India’s first Prime Minister Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru and senior leaders of Congress party wanted a research centers for quality research in social science and for this the then Congress government established ICSSR in 1969.

Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) is a council in India which promotes research in the field of social sciences. It was established in 1969 as an autonomous body under Government of India with their office in New Delhi. Under the instruction of the government in the same year it started a division called National Social Science Documentation Centre (NASSDOC), whose primary aim is to provide library and information support services. This is because of the interest of the Congress government for quality research. That this organization supports a network of 29 research institutes.

As per the hypothesis of the veteran leaders of the Congress party ICSSR provides opportunities to social scientists to engage themselves in full-time research on important themes of their choice or to write books about their research.

The Council has already published, in addition to a number of journals, over 350 books, pamphlets and monographs. Over the years, Research Surveys has become one of the Council’s major activities. In the process, those areas that deserve more attention, the so-called neglected segments, are identified and efforts are made to fill the gaps by sponsoring specific types of research. The disciplines that have been covered under the Research Survey Programme are Economics, Political Science, Psychology, Geography, Education, Sociology and Social Anthropology. All the surveys have been published by the Council either on its own or through commercial publishers.

Since its Inception the Congress party and its veteran leaders had a major concern about improbity the public health services and Medical Research. Under the leadership of India’s first Prime Minister Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru Indian council of Medical Research was founded in 1949 with considerably expanded scope and functions. With the efforts of the Congress governments today ICMR the apex body in India for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research, is one of the largest medical research bodies in the world. The ICMR is funded by the Government of India through the Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

ICMR’s 26 National Institutes established by the Congress government address themselves to research on specific health topics like tuberculosis, leprosy, cholera and diarrheal diseases, viral diseases including AIDS, malaria, kala-azar, vector control, nutrition, food & drug toxicology, reproduction, immunohaematology, oncology, medical statistics, etc. Its 6 Regional Medical Research Centers address themselves to regional health problems, and also aim to strengthen or generate research capabilities in different geographic areas of the country.

The Council’s research priorities coincide with National health priorities such as control and management of communicable diseases, fertility control, maternal and child health, control of nutritional disorders, developing alternative strategies for health care delivery, containment within safety limits of environmental and occupational health problems; research on major non-communicable diseases like cancer, cardiovascular diseases, blindness, diabetes and other metabolic and hematological disorders; mental health research and drug research (including traditional remedies). These efforts are undertaken with a view to reduce the total burden of disease and to promote health and well-being of the population.

In 1972 the then Congress government established Indian Council of Historical Research. It is an autonomous body of the Minister of Human Resource Development. Based in Delhiwith regional centers in Bengluru and Guwahati, the ICHR has served the scholarly community. ICHR has brought historians together and provided them a forum for exchange of views between them. It has given a national direction to an objective and scientific writing of history and rational presentation and interpretation of history.

With the efforts of the Congress government India has entered into cultural exchange programmes with many countries of the world for an exchange of historians and exchange of views between them. Over the years ICHR has provided financial assistance to the historians and direction to the research scholars in their multifarious topics of historical research through established historians and scholars of the country.

These research institutes are quite a few examples of excellence of the vision of the leadership of the Congress party and their dedication towards founding world class Research Institutes. This is also very surprising that a non Congress government in the country has hardly established any research institutes in India. People of India are proved of these world class research institutes and the credit for this goes to none other than the Congress party.