India Rising

The opinions expressed on Indian science(1-3) are not anything new. From the archives of the journal Current Science(Bengalur, India), one feels that our scientific progress is not much beyond what is taught to us by the west , including space and atomic energy and our foreign dependence to run our science is very high and those who benefit from money flow are few. The caption “India is rising ‘reminds the Indian of the old slogan “India shining” which flopped.

India is thinking of mars and moon when it is beset with so many problems which needs greater priority. India has only 2.4% of world's land but 18% of world's population. So feeding (and other basic needs) should be the priority , which seems to be impossible because of less availability of land. It is high time that the Government should make a law & ear mark a certain percentage of land for staple and other crops. Scince independence in 1947 there had been considerable internal balkanisation, increase in the number of political parties, strained relations with neighboring countries , social friction and many social evils-a trend that is likely to increase.

In view of the above I wish to state that science alone is not a panacea for our problems There is a need to revamp the administration -both central and state- make it transparent and accountable and evolve new policies to tackle country's evils. There is a need to revitalise the various departments of humanities Viz: sociology, social work, economics, political science , history and Philosophy and international relations and agriculture. Scientists along with the academicians of the above mentioned departments may improve the situation.

References and notes

1. Richard stone. Science 335, 904(2012) 2. S.P.Bhat, Science 336, 295(2012) 3. T. Abbasi and S.A. Abbasi. Science 336, 296(2012)

Great to see the government efforts to improve India role in the scientific area. Money alone will not solve the problem but as rightly said everything to be got there in India is so difficult-importing materials, bureaucracy . Efforts are needed also in this direction to make India competitive globally.

Well, only money is not the solution for what India is facing now in science. It is bureaucracy and corruption at the level which directly affects the entire process. Science is running more on individual's whims and fancy rather than the system. There are development of new research institutes because somebody wants to be director though already existing instt are getting dysfunctional. There is regional divides, nepotism and corruption in science and grants and appointments are given on that basis. Science is not done only by students and faculties, even technicians are part of most wonderful discoveries worldwide. In India, technicians are permanent and at times they can't even be seen in lab and busy in unionising. Other imp branch is admin staff which is most corrupt and see every instrument order as opportunity to make money from companies(loopholes which make scientists redundant in order). Science can not develop until there is stress on quality than quantity. There should be a system to produce scientists and college education needs big time revival. College education does not encourage or mold students in research fabric. Most times these colleges don't have teachers who even have done research ever. I agree with Manmohan singh on quality of teachers. Teachers in colleges and universities are of very low qualities as they have been appointed by favoritism and nepotism. Students are talented and hardworking but they don't have somebody to show them light or path. They are wandering in dark spaces and most times end up in short term financial goal like MBA or something of that sort. Research should be based in univ. and college as research instt are out of reach for undergrad where research spark should ignite. Grants approval should have proper system rather than handing over most money to few fortunate ones, who are in contact with people at the helm of affairs. Post-doctoral culture need to be developed in country by increasing money or fellowship for the post-docs. There should be proper advancement from Post-doctoral level to faculty level. Present lot of scientists who belongs to earlier generations have exploited science for personal benefits and ego rather than developing and guiding and making it more conducible for future generations of scientists. This is shame that India saw its golden years of science during british rule and till few years after independence, and like most of things scientific institutions have seen downhill trend.

The reality of Indian science is far away form these articles.I agree that there are some positive changes. Indian science is highly corrupted in many aspects. In many cases sanctioning a researcg grant requires bribe. The standard of many of the highter institutes in India is very poor, even in IIT's and IISE. The recuritment in India is highly political. Most of the professors recruit their own students to make their position safe. If we look on on IISER Trivandrum, there is no neuroscientists! All are chemists!beucase the dircetor is from chemistry field he recruits his own students and he even do not reply when you send a mail asking about the institute. In Banglore IISE one necuroscientist is doing monopoly. In IIT hyderbad non qualified or ill qulified persoon is heading a biology department. One neuroscience faculty in NCBS always talk big big things but he does not do anything.

I had been interviewed in one of the IIT but not slected becuase they says they do not have an animal house facility. If they do not have an animal fecility, for what reason they called me for interview? I did my higher studies out side India so I have no 'god fathers' in India to get a job. I do not eseently think that India will develop in biological science research within 50 years. All these hype is just for benifits of some senior scienctists. They can travel all over the world , stay in 5 star hotles etc.

There is no evidence to demonstrate a correlation between rate of scientific discoveries and amount of funding. If money was the only factor to increase scientific research then Saudi Arabia would have been at the top. It requires a culture change with emphasis to promote open debate and thinking without keeping in mind the hierarchy. As a society we always give importance on 'who" said it but not on what was said. Also no objective evidence to measure how "who" was classified as "who". The need of the hour is culture change.

Upon reading all these bragging, it appears that, all these quoted "eminent" scientists have awakened. Given that even a few years ago, all these people were intentionally picking students and colleagues with a single determinant that 'they should be far inferior and least benefited' so that they can stay in their fantasy land, unchallenged, it is indeed remarkable. Evolutionarily, that means, by their current age and positions they have fully become surrounded by their own chosen people so their whims becoming facts and fantasy becoming reality. And they seem to be fully confident that incoming undergraduates can now never intellectually challenge them as now they swiftly moved to administrative world. Thank the times, Scientists.