Present-day human civilization is facing many challenges at global and regional levels. We need to make futuristic and sustainable development while addressing the issues of global climate change, waste disposal and recycling, healthy agricultural practices, river clean-up and rejuvenation, and sufficient clean water without conflict. There is a great need to control population growth and at the same time optimize existing resources to cater the needs of the current population. We need to counter the threat of new and re-emerging pandemics by developing effective vaccines and proper hygiene and sanitization awareness. There is a great need to increase forest cover and at the same time reduce fossil-fuel consumption by developing green and renewable energy resources to meet ever-increasing energy demands safely and efficiently. This will help immensely in controlling greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, we must take an interdisciplinary approach in using scientific and technological advancement to improve the human living condition with all ethical considerations while making global decisions. 
All the above issues, opportunities, and challenges cannot be prioritized by any definition of importance. None is more or less important than the other. The challenges are interdependent and improvement in one makes it easier to address others; deterioration in one makes it harder to address others. These challenges are global in nature and interdisciplinary in solution. They cannot be addressed by any government or institution acting alone. They require collaborative action among governments, international organizations, corporations, universities, NGOs, and creative individuals. The whole world is getting better but at a much slower rate of improvement as in many of the areas where we are winning, we are not winning fast enough. Now time has arisen to rethink the present model of development. We are approaching the first quarter of the 21st century with rapid growth in economic activities propelled by engineering and technological miracles possible ranging from materials characterization at nano and molecular level to the usage of AI-ML in forecasting the future events.