  Primordial nucleosynthesis is considered a success story of the standard big
bang (SBB) cosmology. The cosmological and elementary particle physics
parameters are believed to be severely constrained by the requirement of
correct abundances of light elements. We explore nucleosynthesis in a class of
models very different from SBB. In these models the cosmological scale factor
increases linearly with time right through the period during which
nucleosynthesis occurs till the present. It turns out that weak interactions
remain in thermal equilibrium upto temperatures which are two orders of
magnitude lower than the corresponding (weak interaction decoupling)
temperature in SBB. Inverse beta decay of the proton can ensure adequate
production of several light elements while producing primordial metalicity much
higher than that produced in SBB. Other attractive features of these models are
the absence of the horizon, flatness and the age problems and consistency with
classical cosmological tests.
