Technology development has been a result of the interaction of various factors namely scientific discoveries, dynamics of business and socio-economic variables. The forces driving the present technologies may differ from those for the future. In the past, military, space, and health technologies may have been the driving forces, with spin-offs to the consumer market. In the future, the scarcity and high prices of energy, the pressure of environmental deterioration, and new threats of terrorism, may create new drivers. In this context, while the combinations of new technologies may have benign social applications, they could combine to undermine sustainability, e.g., through use in a new arms race or for terrorism. The following are the 16 future drivers impacting the nation as identified during a series of discourse conducted with various stakeholder of the National Technology Foresight Study:

i. Governance, Transparency and Social Integrity
ii. Population and Demographics
iii. Globalization and Post Globalization
iv. Equitable Distribution Of Wealth
v. Knowledge Based Society
vi. Information Management and Communication
vii. Security and Safety
viii. Healthcare
ix. Mobility
x. Acceleration in Convergence of S&T
xi. Economic Sustainability
xii. Innovation Driven Economy & The Innovation Ecosystem
xiii. Human Capital Development
xiv. Crisis and Deterrents
xv. Resources Equilibrium
xvi. Climate Change