The history of technology is marked by the great divide, the Industrial Revolution that took place in the eighteenth century in UK, Western Europe and subsequently is USA. As a consequence wide range of new technologies evolved, which were categorised into various, disciplines namely Mechanical, Metallurgical, Electrical, and Chemical etc. On the other hand Construction Technology is as old as civilization. It is to be borne in mind that in the advanced agricultural societies including that of India there was spectacular development in the field of Construction Technology which was by and large based on conventional building material like brick, stone and wood, human and animal power and skilled artisan. The engineering was based on guesswork and institution. However, it took centuries to reach this level of development. Another very important facet of this development was an insignificant portion of the population was benefited.

The industrial revolution not only gave birth to various new technologies but had tremendous impact on Construction Technology and qualitatively changed the process and rate of development. Two important innovations radically changed the Construction Technology. Firstly, man was able to harness the mechanical power from steam, secondly, he developed new construction material, cast iron, cement and steel. When this epoch making development was in the process of changing the entire gamut of technological, economic and social fabric of the western would substantial part of India was under colonial rule for over a century.

The Indian economy being subservience to the requirement of colonial ruler, the process of industrialization could never take root in the Indian soil. However, to serve colonial economy selected mechanized manufacturing process alongwith mechanical communication system was introduced on the basis of import. This has very limited impact on the prevalent technology as well as economy notwithstanding the fact that two world wars and swadeshi movement favoured further industrialization. India had to remain satisfied with the technology of agricultural society.

But let us see how the Construction Technology changed in India due to the impact of this very limited introduction of products of Industrial revolution. The new construction material, cast iron, cement and steel was introduced . Mechanical power was introduced in a very limited scale. These inductions again took place in very limited geographical area. The vast majority of the populace had no other alternative but to be happy with traditional technology. With the passage of time the use of new construction material and very limited new technology was assimilated and became indigenous with a characteristic that it remained Labour Intensive.

After independence, considerable effort has been made to industrialise our country and significant change has taken place in our industrial scenario. This development, however, has limited impact on Construction Technology. The present day Construction Technology is a complex mixture and covers a wide spectrum. At the one end of the spectrum the technology is more than thousand years old; building housing in rural areas and at the other end recently imported advanced technology; Constructing off-shore structures for prospecting and recovering off-shore crude oil deposits. In-between we have technologies which was imported long time back and has been modified and assimilated and Indianzied. These are basically labour intensive and uses minimum of mechanical power. Moreover, in between advanced imported technology and Indianised one there are technologies at various stages of assimiliation.

Under this complex situation what shall we really mean by self-reliance? Self-reliance in a narrow sense would mean the use of plants, equipments and construction techniques that are being used in developed countries and these plants and equipments however are to be manufactured in India either by purchasing the know-how for developing the same indigenously.

Let us see how far it is possible to be self-reliant in the above sense. Let us start with rural housing; an example from one end of the spectrum. At the present stage of our development can we afford housing constructed with burnt bricks in lime soorkee mortar? We cannot. This technology is that of the advanced agricultural societies. Therefore, the question of using present day technology of developed countries in rural housing is irrelevant.

Next, let us consider the technology, that has been imported long time back but already assimilated and integrated to Indian socio-economic condition. This technology is used for the construction of urban housing, roads, bridges, railways, port, harbour, power plants, steel plants and other manufacturing units. These constructions we can mechanise by using the plants, equipments and processes of the western world either importing them or producing them indigenously. This approach would require considerable amount of capital both Indian and foreign, skilled operators and technicians all these are scarce. The abundant resources, unskilled and semi-skilled that are being utilized now would remain idle. Even if we do not add the social cost of keeping our unskilled and semi-skilled labours idle the method of construction that is now being followed is still cost effective. Therefore, in this case also, self-reliance in the sense it is being used is not relevant.

Lastly, we are left with the constructions at the other end of spectrum, like off-shore structures, soft ground tunneling, long span bridges etc. where one has no choice but to use Construction Technologies of advanced countries. In these cases only we can plan self-reliance as defined. It may however, be noted that the magnitude of these constructions are insignificant in comparison with the other two.

Does this mean we need not be self-reliant with respect to the technologies; the traditional and the one that has been Indianised and also at various stages of Indianisation. The answer is No. We also have to be self-reliant with respect to these technologies. Now, what would self-reliant mean in these cases. Self-reliant would mean to develop and improve the existing technologies to achieve quality and reduce the cost and time taken to complete the construction by increasing the productivity of the labour.

To achieve the above objective is a challenging task. In developed countries this is achieved by innovation based on mechanization and automation. But in the context of our economy where capital is scarce, educated and trained man-power is scarcer, the objective of cost reduction cannot be achieved by mechanization and automation on the other hand, this would increase the cost.

Therefore, we have to innovate and improve the technology commensurate with the economic, social and technological status of our country. Unfortunately this cannot be achieved by purchasing know-how from abroad. Research work in the Institutes & Universities, which are generally geared to solve technological problems of advanced countries also would be of no help. This can only be achieved at the field level by the people working directly with the existing technology and with some support from dedicated individuals properly motivated and encouraged.