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The book has essays linking science and technology with development issues. It discusses values and norms that emphasise the power of the technosciences and persistence of past norms of production. The essays offer locally sensitive critical analyses of the sciences that are transforming India and call for reflection on the values that inform them. They speak against economic development scenarios emphasising industrialisation that conceptualise the traditional agricultural sector as backward rather than as a source of knowledge and call for changing the approach to science and technology for development. They question value systems such as that favouring surrogacy—where the poor are exploited by the wealthy, especially foreign tourists—that just aim to gain in terms of GDP growth. They cover transformations in the world of higher learning, water policy, ethics and science in climate change, and use of science and technology in agricultural development.

Contents: Introduction: values matter/Rajeswari S. Raina. Section I: 1. From retrogression to rescue: policy gaps in rural and agricultural development/A. R. Vasavi. 2. Academic ethics, Indian scientific academic and the Bt-Brinjal controversy/Gautam I. Menon and Rahul Siddharthan. 3. Regulation, legislation and moral contestations: case of Indian microfinance/Tara S. Nair. Section II: 4. Water policy and science: disciplines, perspectives, values/Ramaswamy R. Iyer. 5. Transformations in the world of higher learning: changing norms and values of universities and research institutes in India/Dhruv Raina. 6. Science, technology in agricultural development: need for a new paradigm/P. S. Vijay Shankar. Section III: 7. Techno-scientific practices and ethics/Prajit Basu. 8. A unique identity and technology/Usha Ramanathan. 9. Between life-creation and policy formulation: assisted reproductive technologies in India/Tista Bagchi. Section IV: 10. The ethical implications of sea-level rise due to climate change/Sujatha Byravan and Sudhir Chella Rajan. 11. Ethics and science in climate change/D. Raghunandan. 12. Climate science, agriculture and the policy jukebox/Rajeswari S. Raina. Conclusion: engaging with the value problem/Rajeswari S. Raina.