If we look at the events during the first quarter of the twentieth century, we find that this period was characterised by debate about further development. When Gandhi started his campaign for cottage industries, varying notes were heard at the annual session of the Indian Science Congress. P. C. Ray, for example, held that general progress through elementary education and traditional industries is a necessary precondition for scientific progress. But many differed with him. M. N. Saha and his Science and Culture group opposed the Gandhian path of economic development and supported setting up of big industries. The socialist experiments in Russia had unveiled the immense potentialities of science for man in terms of economy and material progress. The national leadership was veering towards heavy industrialisation and socialism, both of which stood on the foundations of modern science and technology. On Saha's persuasion, the then Congress President Subhas Chandra Bose agreed to accept national planning and industrialisation as the top item on the Congress agenda.

The result was the formation of the National Planning Committee in 1938 under the chairmanship of Jawaharlal Nehru. This Committee appointed 29 subcommittees, many of which dealt with such technical subjects as irrigation, industries, public health and education. The subcommittee of Technical Education worked under the Chairmanship of M. N. Saha. Other members were Birbal Sahni, J. C. Ghose, J. N. Mukherjee, N. R. Dhar, Nazir Ahmed, S. S. Bhatnagar and A. H. Pandya. The subcommittee reviewed the activities of the existing institutions to find out how far the infrastructure of wo/men and apparatus was sufficient in turning out technical personnel.

The outbreak of the Second World War (1939-45) and the interruption of the direct sea route between India and England made it necessary for the colonial government to allow greater industrial capability to develop in India. It was, therefore, felt necessary to establish a Central Research Organisation and this was eventually followed by the establishment of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in 1942. As part of the post-war reconstruction plan, the government invited A. V. Hill, President of the Royal Society. In 1944, he prepared a report that identified various problems confronting research in India. These developments offered greater opportunities to Indian scientists in policy-making and management of scientific affairs. In fact, the origins of the science policy of free India and of the whole national reconstruction can be traced to these activities.