Obliquely referring to the India-US civilian nuclear deal, which has put the Manmohan Singh government in peril, Indian ambassador Ronen Sen has defended India's efforts to augment power generation and criticised those who oppose the use of technology. Asserting that technology is a tool for empowerment and emancipation, he said: "Those who oppose use of technology have proved wrong time and again.' Addressing the golden jubilee conference of IIT-Bombay, Sen attributed the progress India is witnessing today, including IT sector, to the visionary initiatives made of former prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Rajiv Gandhi. Nehru had envisioned the IITs and Rajiv Gandhi was a votary of IT and reform in the telecommunications sector, he said. "Even at that time there were people opposing increasing use of technology arguing that all the technology is not relevant to India and those advocating it do not know about rural India,' Sen said. PTI