NAGPUR: Eminent scientist and father of country's first super computer, Vijay Bhatkar , on Tuesday, exuded confidence that in the coming decades India will emerge as a super power. He said that India will celebrate its independence day in the year 2047 as a superpower. "History has witnessed many changes in the power quotient among the continents. In the eleventh century ancient India was a powerful country. Sometime in the 17th and 18th century the locus of power shifted to Europe. And finally in the 19th and 20th century USA has emerged as a power centre," Bhatkar said. He was speaking at an event organized by Dhanwate National College on its premises. Former ISRO scientist A Subramanian, who name is inscribed on a chip in the Mars Rover of Nasa also participated in the programme. "21st century will see the awakening of major Asian economies like India and China. Presently, India is ranked as the third most developing nation after USA and China," said Bhatkar. "India need not play the catching up game with the already developed economies like USA. We don't want India to become another America. What we desire is that India should reclaim its past glory. It should lead the world in pursuit of knowledge," he added. He rued that government is giving overemphasis to the defence forces when the funds can be used for more constructive work. Bhatkar said it is good to hear that leading investment agencies like Goldman Sachs optimistically see Asia taking charge of the world economy soon. However, he cautioned that over emphasis on statistical indices like Gross domestic product ( GDP ) and Gross National Product (GNP) can give a misleading picture about India and its development. "Planning in India should be people oriented. Rather than the government making strategies for the people, it should be the people who make their own policies, set down their priorities, make the plans and dictate the terms to the government," he remarked. He also laid stress on the importance of media. He said that the media should step forward to communicate people's view to the state and also educate the masses by writing socially relevant articles. Bhatkar criticized the behaviour of our parliamentarians. He recalled how even at the time of our independence difference of opinions between the parliamentarians existed. "However the assemblies never functioned the way they do now and I'm ashamed of that," he lamented. He, however, appreciated the maturity of Indian democracy, considering that it is the largest democracy in the world. "It withstood many separatists movements. In spite of being such a large country, it successfully conducts elections. Here Science has played a pivotal role as it is the EVMs, developed by my pupils, who contributed to the smooth conduct of these elections. Even USA doesn't have this system," he beamed with pride. Bhatkar believes in research driven post graduation. "I think that the undergraduate education need not be majorly research based. But the onus of research should be on the post graduate students." He tried to reconcile science and religion rather than paralleling the two. The event concluded with the release of a book by Dr. Sharad Patil titled 'English is Easy'. Bhatkar's Mantra for a superpower country- - Large Scale urbanization: Pune and Mumbai will soon become one city - Policymakers should have a long term and short term vision of 5, 25 and 50 years for India - Small states have more potential for development - Inclusive development needed: Funds for satellites as important as those for sanitation and other basic necessities. - World Class Universities can bring about a change in education