Panaji, Feb 9 (PTI) Eminent nuclear scientist Dr Anil Kakodkar on Thursday said the aim must be to make the quality of life of Indians the best rather than just moving towards being the largest economy in the world.

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The Padma Vibhushan awardee was speaking at the Fomento Vedh Vichar lecture series in Margao under the theme 'Indian Science: 75 years and beyond'.

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He also said science and technology would play a major role if India was to become a 'vishwaguru'.

"The quality of life of the average Indian should be the best in the world. If this simple objective is your development objective, I think everything else will follow. However, this will require the kind of mission, the kind of mindset, in terms of new technology and who will leverage it for larger good," he said.

Speaking about India's economic progress, the 79-year-old scientist said the country was currently in the knowledge era and "the growth of the economy is a natural thing to happen in current circumstances".

"But that does not necessarily mean the quality of life of the average Indian is comparable to the best in the world. For this to happen, we should really target per capita income and be the best," he asserted.

In order to achieve this aim, India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will have to be much larger than nations like the United States of America and China, which is a tall order, Kakodkar said.

He said Indian academic institutions not being ranked in the top 100 or even 200 in world lists was worrying.

"When resources were limited, India was under foreign rule, science (scientists) was doing things that we are not able to do now. That was a time when most scientists were participants in the freedom movement and were doing all this to take the country forward," he said.

Kakodkar, however, reiterated the current scenario was not very bad when one looked at science technology innovation indicators and publications emanating from Indian labs, which he claimed was perhaps the fastest.

"The growth of scientific output in India is one of the fastest. But the problem is most of our scientific research is actually driven by interests abroad," he claimed.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)