An assessment of the technological transformation in India may begin with a brief description of the economic and technological setting at the time of independence in 1947. The description is intended to provide a benchmark for subsequently measuring growth and structural changes – changes in the generation of output and distribution in the use of output, in the direction and composition of foreign trade, and in the changing balance between external and domestic sources of technology – that took place during the span of three decades of planned development since 1950–51.