You are right. Starting with almost nothing, the first Indian governments had a lot of scope for development. The list of institutions has had some effect on the society, and to the areas around them mainly in South India. Some of the previous governments really led to improvement (specially during Congress' Indira Gandhi's time and BJP's Atal Bihari Vajpayee's time) in certain areas.

But that is not enough. Science is still not a viable career for large percentage of the population, most of the technologies (specially commercial) are still imported, there aren't many companies in the private sector which are innovating.

Unfortunately none of the current political leadership across political parties give any confidence in this area. The current ruling party wants to live in the glory of the past and give comments about imaginary times. The main opposition party doesn't even try to promise anything better. Since Indira Gandhi, none in Congress have even tried to include science in the election manifesto in any major way. The previous UPA government was a big let down in this area. The other marginal national parties and regional parties are even worse. They don't even pretend to improve anything in this area.