The Government of India seems hell bent on applying technology to everything it can lay its hands on. From agriculture to disease management, financial services to drones, it feels like there is a technology solution being developed for all interactions with the government. But as much as it might feel like the government has gone overboard with its embrace of all things technology, this enthusiasm is relatively recent. 

When the first Prime Minister of newly Independent India sat down to chart out the course for the country he had before him a blank slate. He had the opportunity to guide the country down a path that would allow it to come on par with the other nations of the world. But the path we trod was long and winding and it was almost only by accident that we ended up where we are.

Why did it take so long for India to develop into the technology powerhouse that it is today? What were the decisions that we took along the way that sent us down the path we finally followed? And how has all this influenced the way in which technology has changed Indian society?

In this episode of Ex Machina, I discuss the history of Indian science and technology with Jahnavi Phalkey, science historian and filmmaker and Arun Sukumar, a lawyer and PhD student at the Fletcher School at Tufts University. We get into some of the early decisions and all that happened along the way to get us to where we are. 

Very early on at the dawn of India’s tech boom we gave the world its first shareable handheld computation device. But despite its promise, the Simputer never made it big. Today, India has the opportunity to change the world yet again in its own unique way, this time in the arena of urban mobility. But in order to do that we will need to fundamentally change the way we think about commuting.

Ex Machina is produced by Vaaka Media. Theme music composed by Erwick D’Souza. Follow us at @exmachinapod.

There are certain rare diseases that have long thought to be incurable.  But today radical new therapies are being developed largely on an experimental basis in laboratories in the developed world. In this episode, I bring you the story of one family’s heroic effort to find the cure for an incurable disease, racing against time to try and save their son’s life.

Ex Machina is produced by Vaaka Media. Theme music composed by Erwick D’Souza. Follow us at @exmachinapod.

A curtain raiser for the first season of Ex Machina: Rahul Matthan interviews Justice Srikrishna on data privacy and much more. 

Ex Machina uncovers hidden stories about how technology changes society, and how technologies developed in India are going to affect the world. For better or worse, the technology India has been building over the past decade has had and will continue to have tremendous national significance. It’s hard to connect the dots and appreciate the real impact of these technologies on society. Ex Machina places these technologies in context, telling the story about how they were made and explaining exactly why they are so significant.

Ex Machina is produced by Vaaka Media. Theme music composed by Erwick D’Souza. Editing and Mastering by Erwick D’Souza. Follow us at @exmachinapod.