Missing Nehruvian romance for science

Seema Singh — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 05:13:00 GMT

Two big events are lined up for the nation: the 15^th Lok Sabha election and the Joint Entrance Examination for 15 IITs where some 360,000 students are slugging it out for 7500 odd seats.

There maybe no apparent common thread between the election and the IITs, yet there is a strong connection. P Balaram, director of the Indian Institute of Science, briefly reviews two recent books on the IITs in this week's Current Science, and reminisces how it was Nehru's fascination for science and technology that fuelled much of the scientific development post 1947. An IITian himself, Balaram thinks Nehru had a romantic view of science.

(The two books are: Monastery, Sanctuary, Laboratory:50 years of IIT Bombay by Rohit Manchanda and An Eye for Excellence: Fifty Innovative Years of IIT Kanpur by E. C. Subbarao.)

But as IITians themselves admit, these institutes will have to be lot more innovative to be able to have a glorious next 50 years where, besides competing globally, they have to shoulder the responsibility of mentoring new institutes which lack physical infrastructure and intellectual capital.

Balaram says: "The two histories of the IITs must be required reading for those who wonder how the many new institutions, now on the anvil, will be built. They may prove inspirational for those who will struggle to build them. They will also undoubtedly educate those who study and work in these institutions on the processes by which academic settings evolve under the sometimes opposing demands of internal aspirations and external pressures."

Since it's election season, I wonder if any of our politicians have even spared genuine thoughts for science and technology, except, of course, for making overarching and sweepings statements like "education for all".

Has anybody heard any politician debate issues of science and technology?

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Missing Nehruvian romance for science