Science in the future of India
Internationally renowned and India’s most senior and distinguished scientist, Professor C.N.R. Rao, recently visited Sydney and gave a talk on “Science in the future of India” in University of New South Wales.
Among many posts he is Chairman, Science Advisory Council to the Prime Minister; Immediate Past President, The Academy of Sciences for the developing world (TWAS); Member, Atomic Energy Commission of India and; Member, Executive Board, Science Institutes Group, Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton. He is Honorary President and Linus Pauling Research Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research. Prof. Rao has received 46 honoris causa doctorate degrees from various universities around the world. and has written over 1400 research publications and 41 books.
Globalization has had a major effect not only on the geopolitical scenario but also on the status of science here and else where. Many new scientific giants have come up in Asia alone. India is now facing an unusual situation of keen competition within Asia and with the advanced countries of the west. It is establishing institutions and structures, to promote science and higher education in a big way. India faces many problems and challenges in improving the quality, and at the same time increase the number of graduating students in science and engineering. In a country with a large population, a majority of which is poor, the problems are more severe than elsewhere. Improving quality of research is even more difficult since the top scientific journals have become very demanding and severe.
“India has been committed to science ever since it got freedom in 1947. It built up scientific institutions gradually, although the facilities for research were generally marginal. There was a big gap between advanced countries and India at that time. India made slow progress and produced reasonable science over the years,” added Rao.
Said Professor Rao, “India is one of the youngest countries in the world and will serve as the engine of world’s scientific development in the future. All other countries are having ageing population and Indian brains will fill in the scientific space. India has already increased research funding by 300% this year which has begun to show results.”
Talking about the need for India to go for nuclear energy, he said, “India has yet to define a comprehensive energy policy for itself and while India is already producing 3000 MW of power generated by wind energy, this in itself is not enough. Thus there is a need to build both conventional and atomic reactors for producing energy.”
“The world’s best students are in IIT Kanpur. They are even better than Cambridge students”, he boasted. “You don’t need books for them. They are extraordinarily brilliant.”
Industry in India has never supported science till the last 5 years. The best of Indian industrial houses are yet to give real money to real education centers. Other than a few premier institutions, there are a lot of good private institutions and a good number of medical colleges, but none of them has come to a level which has added to India’s scientific strength in the world.
We will have the bill passed in Indian Parliament soon which will enable foreign universities to open their branches in India. This is a very good sign.
Talking about the growth of R&D in India he said, “Bangalore is one of the biggest R&D centres in the world for GE and they have around 400 doctorates working there and they plan to increase it to 1000. Admitting that the contribution to education is slow. We expect a 20% increase in contribution to education institutions in the next 5 years”, he said
Similar Posts:
- Aussie scholarships on offer for Indians
- In conversation with Dr Kalpana Ram, Director India Research Centre
- Australian Alumni Excellence Awards 2011 Presented in India
- Crimes against international students in Australia: 2005–09
- Interview with Indian High Commissioner, Sujatha Singh
