Guest Editorial.

NSFD-2021 included 10 plenaries, 18 invited talks, 30 oral presentations, 88 posters, and a one day workshop for young Researchers with five tutorial sessions on advanced characterization tools for ferroelectric and dielectric materials. The Seminar was divided into 13 sessions and covered a broad range of topics, including the Fundamental of Dielectrics, Ferroelectrics and Related Materials (20%); Materials Design and Processing (30%); Characterization of Polar Materials (3%); Applications of Ferroelectrics and Dielectrics (25%); and, Theoretical Modeling in Dielectrics (10%). The "National Seminar on Ferroelectrics and Dielectrics" biennial dielectrics conference, initiated by the Dielectrics and Ferroelectrics group in India in 1980, has completed 40 years since its humble beginning at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. [Extracted from the article]