Dissecting Indian science, publicly - Lab Rats

Dissecting Indian science, publicly

Seema Singh - Thursday, August 14, 2008 3:24 PM

It's good to see scientists, who often avoid debating across the table, discuss through the press. The beneficiary, almost always, is the reader.

In two recent issues of Economic & Political Weekly two senior scientists literally pitch universities against national laboratories. Something a neighbourhood blog  An Awkward Corner also discusses and which I had reported in a series earlier.

Gautam Desiraju from the University of Hyderabad, in this article, thrashes virtually all existing institutions-IITs, CSIR, universities... you name it. It's as pessimistic as it can get and he thinks the Chinese model of setting of large number of universities with dedicated financial resources should be emulated.

Pushpa M Bhargava, former vice-chairman of the National Knowledge Commission and ex-founder director of CCMB, on the other hand thinks Desiraju is "hopelessly wrong". His argument: but for the national centres of excellence, India's scientific achievements would have been worse.

As Indian science seeks course correction, this debate will continue. Lab Rats will hopefully pick up some threads.

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4 Comment

From Karttikeya Manglam

August 14, 2008 4:59 PM
I sincerely appreciate your effort to carry on this meaningful debate with a view to find possible course of corrective action at the policy level.With the two articles(first one on Aptil 10,2008),you broke the ice for people like me who feel better informed and sufficiently charged to ready their guns. One of the reasons pointed out to explain the success of Chinese Administration in achieving remarkable success in the field of higher education and fundamental research is that China despite being under communist authoritarian system kept on or for that matter still keeps on doing a pretty good job of promoting people on merit.The Mandarin meriocratic culture there still runs very deep. In our country you don't need any poll to know how researchers,who are not 'worldly-wise' are treated(Read:crushed and insulted)regularly by their guides whether they enroll at Univ. level or in labs of CSIR or even in institutions of national repute. Someone must do what Bhagat Singh attempted to do in Parliament then - to make the policy makers listen.

From Seema

August 14, 2008 5:18 PM
I think besides other things, Indian science needs an infusion of young talent--people who are ambitious and have less patience for politics. It'll auto-correct many ills!

From karttikeya manglam

August 14, 2008 6:38 PM
Absulutely!actually there is a gap(whether our politicians acknowledge it or not)between the politics we have and politics we need.This, I suppose, is one of the root cause of the pathetic condition of fundamental scientific research we grudgingly have today in this great nation.

From IISc is India’s top ranking engg/tech institute : Lab Rats

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