This volume, a collection of 10 essays by leading practitioners from both east and west, shows how technology, which has become a major force in our lives today, is itself like a powerful engine. The creation and maintenance of this engine depends on engineers, on ideas from science, research and development, on the pressures and constraints of the market place and national security, on the skills and knowledge of manpower and on the financial resources that banks, governments and other institutions can command and provide.

This book does not expound any one point of view. Rather, it tries to understand how the engine of technology works, how it is a complex system whose working is shaped by political, economic, social and cultural forces and in turn shapes them.