In the beginning , I want to say that I don't thing that India is a very advanced scientific nation. Lot of things need to be done. Our poverty is definitely a barrier for this, no doubt.
But when I think that after having so much wealth why Muslim world did not progress in Science and technology?
Before telling by analysis, I must say that I have no negatives about Islam or any other religion rather I respect them.
I think Muslim's belief that Koran is the last word for everything , makes religious Muslim community averse from finding new knowledge beyond Koran. If Koran is the ultimate knowledge then it is natural that seeking any knowledge which is not there in Koran is a simple waste of time. So Muslims respect their clerics who can explain knowledge depicted in Koran and not the scientists who try to teach them knowledge which is not in Koran.
Even if God told whatever written in Koran, it was told in a particular time and space. Koran was truly revolutionary in the time when it was created. But the world is ever changing and hence the knowledge too. As Koran is a constant, it is philosophically difficult to adapt with changing universe and changing body of knowledge. There must be some mechanism in Islam to handle this barrier. Mr. Abdus Salam probably belongs to a community which does not buy this theory fully.
If we think about India, content of Vedas were believed to be uttered by God (Apourusheya) and un changeable, Bramhins who knew Vadas were supreme in the society.
"In Hinduism, Apaurusheya (IAST: Apauruṣeya), Sanskrit, meaning "not the work of man", is used to describe the Vedas, the main scripture in Hinduism. This implies that the Vedas are not authored by human but were divine creation.Apaurusheya shabda ("words not created by mankind") is an extension of apaurusheya which refers to the Vedas."
Later 2000 years back, development of Nastik (Anti Veda) philosophy like Sankhya and Budhistm hit the bastion of old Hindu religion and a space for open and free thinking emerged. This followed a golden era of knowledge ie Gupta era when lot of epoch-making developments happened in all fields.
In Europe , till Churches were all powerful, there were no incentive for excelling in Science and Technology. Rather we all know what happened to great thinkers like Galileo , Bruno etc. They had to die just to tell that Earth is moving around the Sun!!! Once Church's power reduced, Europe excelled in science and technology.
My knowledge is limited ,so I am not claiming anything in support of above theory. It just came in my mind in the context of world history and development of Science and technology over last 2000 years. I have no desire to hurt any religious sentiment. Please forgive in case I unknowingly did that while telling my thought.
I have a similar theory on why ancient India was developed very much in Math, astrophysics, philosophy etc but not in Technology . I think there is a link with social and religious structure prevailing in that time is responsible for this too which I may explain later.