A large portion of modern technology import into India has been on behalf of government-mainly in the defence and other basic industries. While the advanced countries-whether of West or Eastern Europe-have supplied such technology ostensibly to support India's effort to industrialize, in fact, the motivations of these countries can be traced to their larger strategy of gaining influence in the developing countries. Private foreign parties, on the other hand, have been motivated to exploit the vast market of India for profit. By exporting technology to India they have been able to penetrate the otherwise protected market of this country. Overall, in the last two decades, India has imported technology heavily. Though it has thus acquired a sufficient technological base to become self-reliant, this has not been reflected in a lower rate of technology import. Indeed, in a free enterprise economy and in country where a section of the population has enough money to demand a vast range of items of affluent consumption, there are pressures generated for repetitive technology import as well as for its import into fields which by no means contribute to the welfare of the people. This paper examines the trends in technology imports since Independence, and traces ways in which these have influenced the direction and pattern of Indian economic development.