What Ails Indian Science Education ?
Vinod Varshney
The truth of Indian Universities is that much attention is not given on research, which is quite natural in the Indian situation when power and money matter more than knowledge and sincerity. The educational culture is being vitiated fast by mushrooming private universities and colleges, many of which have been opened with the blatant intention of only making money.
No surprise that any conscientious academic would lament that even after 63 years of independence we don’t have even one which can be counted among the top 200 universities of the world. This fact was effectively underscored by Dr K. C. Pandey the General President of the Indian Science Congress in his Presidential speech Tuesday in SRM University of Chennai.
Unluckily his speech would not find sufficient space in the mainstream media, which remains more concerned about reporting what government leaders say.
Beleagured Leader Loses Sheen
The 98th Indian Science Congress was inaugurated Tuesday by Prime Minister Dr Man Mohan Singh, a beleaguered leader amidst his government’s multi-billion dollar 2-G spectrum scam which has taken away much of the sheen from his gentle appeal. One can leave aside most part of his lecture, except one glaring reality “that while C. V. Raman won the Nobel Prize eighty years ago for the Raman Effect, most of the instruments available in India today using this principle are imported.”
Why is it so? Dr Singh has not ant remedy for this. He only mentioned the malady that that was not an isolated example. "Many of our outstanding scientific discoveries had been converted into marketable products by technologists and firms based abroad."
So what is wrong with India? Everybody knows that its political culture is the real problem, which breeds, supports and cover up corruption. The culture of corruption has seeped deep inside the educational institutions also and politicians have been active participants of all this sordid happening. If political culture remains as it is, there is no hope that Indian science education would get any major change.
What Are the Solutions?
What has been offered as solutions? Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal, as is his wont, blared out an agenda, which he thinks can make India a "hot spot of innovation". The agenda will include long term academia-industry collaborative relationships with open access to and resources free of intellectual property entanglements; better integration of corporate with higher educational and research institutions, encourage multidisciplinary collaboration among business, government, academia and R&D, thereby creating an environment that supports technological development. Definitely these are fanciful words which an illustrious lawyer politician can always utter.
It will take genuine strenuous efforts and long time to bring into practice even a few of these things as spelling out an agenda is one thing but to do concrete work is a diffrent ball game which requires real sincerity and sense of commitment.
Showing posts with label Man Mohan Singh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Man Mohan Singh. Show all posts
Monday, January 3, 2011
Sunday, January 3, 2010
PM allures Overseas Indians
for collaborative research
ASHOK B SHARMA
Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 3 : Government is likely to announce special incentives to encourage scientists of Indian origin currently working abroad to return to India or to associate themselves with Indian universities and scientific institutions for a short period.
The Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh inaugurating the 97th Indian Science Congress here on Sunday outlined the need to rebuild the country as a knowledge power in the 21st century through a strong capability in science and technology.
He said : “ We must make a special effort to encourage scientists of Indian origin currently working abroad to return to India, including coming to our universities or scientific institutions for a short period. In this way we can, convert the brain drain of the past into a brain gain for the future. This will require special incentives. We need to think creatively on how this can be done so that high quality minds are attracted to teaching and research.”
The prime minister’s pronouncement is significant as it come a few days before the two-day conference of Overseas Indians – Pravasi Bharatiya Divas – scheduled in Delhi from January 8. The newly formed Prime Minister’s Global Advisory Council of Overseas Indians would meet for the first time on January 7.
Building upon the recent comments of the Nobel Laureate of Indian origin, Dr Venkatraman Ramakrishnan on the need for greater autonomy for Indian scientists from red tape and local politics, he said : “I invite you to explore all these issues and engage with us so that we can do what is needed to liberate Indian science from the shackles and deadweight of bureaucratism and in-house favouritism.” While investment of money being only one part which was needed, the change in the mindset of senior faculty and university administration was the hardest thing to do, he said.
The prime minister announced that the National Science and Engineering Research Board will start functioning before March 2010. A National Policy for Data Sharing and Accountability has been formulated. The Protection of Intellectual Property Bill focussed on sharing revenue from intellectual properties with researchers will be taken up for discussion in the parliament soon. He called for a partnership of academia, research and industry and involvement of venture funds.
The government is considering the revision of the value of doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships as well as formation of schemes that would cover all research scholars with some funding support. The government would award one student within the age group 10-15 years from each school in the country under the Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) Scheme
As the government has declared 2010-2020 as the “Decade of Innovations” , Singh urged scientists to find new solutions in many areas for achieving inclusive and sustainable growth like in healthcare, energy security, infrastructure, water, transportation, renewable sources of energy. Describing the outcome of the Copenhagen climate summit as “not satisfactory”, he stressed the need for a low
greenhouse gas emissions and energy efficient development path with a shift to use of renewable sources of energy.
The government has decided to launch Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission for setting up of 20,000 MW of solar generation capacity by 2020. The PAN-IIT programme for solar energy research will drive down the costs of technology options through R&D led innovations. Euro 5 million collaborative research programme on solar energy research with European Union and a similar collaborative programme with UK for pound 5 million has been launched.
The prime minister said that the technology solutions for 25 different water-related challenges being discovered by the Technology Mission for Winning, Augmentation and Renovation of Water (WAR) would be applied by 2011.
On applications of transgenic technology in agriculture, he said that Bt cotton has been well accepted in the country and has made a great difference to production. He said that genetic modification technology was being extended to food crops which raises legitimate questions of safety and these must be given full weightage with appropriate regulatory control based on strictly scientific criteria. He lauded DRDO for developing a new and rapid diagnostic method for detecting the H1N1 virus
for collaborative research
ASHOK B SHARMA
Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 3 : Government is likely to announce special incentives to encourage scientists of Indian origin currently working abroad to return to India or to associate themselves with Indian universities and scientific institutions for a short period.
The Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh inaugurating the 97th Indian Science Congress here on Sunday outlined the need to rebuild the country as a knowledge power in the 21st century through a strong capability in science and technology.
He said : “ We must make a special effort to encourage scientists of Indian origin currently working abroad to return to India, including coming to our universities or scientific institutions for a short period. In this way we can, convert the brain drain of the past into a brain gain for the future. This will require special incentives. We need to think creatively on how this can be done so that high quality minds are attracted to teaching and research.”
The prime minister’s pronouncement is significant as it come a few days before the two-day conference of Overseas Indians – Pravasi Bharatiya Divas – scheduled in Delhi from January 8. The newly formed Prime Minister’s Global Advisory Council of Overseas Indians would meet for the first time on January 7.
Building upon the recent comments of the Nobel Laureate of Indian origin, Dr Venkatraman Ramakrishnan on the need for greater autonomy for Indian scientists from red tape and local politics, he said : “I invite you to explore all these issues and engage with us so that we can do what is needed to liberate Indian science from the shackles and deadweight of bureaucratism and in-house favouritism.” While investment of money being only one part which was needed, the change in the mindset of senior faculty and university administration was the hardest thing to do, he said.
The prime minister announced that the National Science and Engineering Research Board will start functioning before March 2010. A National Policy for Data Sharing and Accountability has been formulated. The Protection of Intellectual Property Bill focussed on sharing revenue from intellectual properties with researchers will be taken up for discussion in the parliament soon. He called for a partnership of academia, research and industry and involvement of venture funds.
The government is considering the revision of the value of doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships as well as formation of schemes that would cover all research scholars with some funding support. The government would award one student within the age group 10-15 years from each school in the country under the Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) Scheme
As the government has declared 2010-2020 as the “Decade of Innovations” , Singh urged scientists to find new solutions in many areas for achieving inclusive and sustainable growth like in healthcare, energy security, infrastructure, water, transportation, renewable sources of energy. Describing the outcome of the Copenhagen climate summit as “not satisfactory”, he stressed the need for a low
greenhouse gas emissions and energy efficient development path with a shift to use of renewable sources of energy.
The government has decided to launch Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission for setting up of 20,000 MW of solar generation capacity by 2020. The PAN-IIT programme for solar energy research will drive down the costs of technology options through R&D led innovations. Euro 5 million collaborative research programme on solar energy research with European Union and a similar collaborative programme with UK for pound 5 million has been launched.
The prime minister said that the technology solutions for 25 different water-related challenges being discovered by the Technology Mission for Winning, Augmentation and Renovation of Water (WAR) would be applied by 2011.
On applications of transgenic technology in agriculture, he said that Bt cotton has been well accepted in the country and has made a great difference to production. He said that genetic modification technology was being extended to food crops which raises legitimate questions of safety and these must be given full weightage with appropriate regulatory control based on strictly scientific criteria. He lauded DRDO for developing a new and rapid diagnostic method for detecting the H1N1 virus
Indian Science Congress 2010
PM steers clear of R&D
expenditure comittment
Writes Vinod Varshney
Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh steered clear Sunday from his earlier commitment to raise expenditure on science & technology R & D up to 2 percent of the GDP by the end of eleventh five year plan which will end in 2012.
While inaugurating the 97th Indian Science Congress which will deliberate on the issue of 'Science and Technology Challenges of the 21st Century -- National Perspective over the next five days, the Prime Minister did not mention this key issue which is known as the biggest hurdle for the speedy development of Indian science.
Science and Technology Minister Prithivi Raj Chavan too only made a brief mention of the need to enhance expenditure on research and development.
Performance of Man Mohan Government is Dismal
The performance of Man Mohan Singh government is apparently dismal on this count as the national expenditure on R&D is still 1 percent of the GDP and there is no possibility it can go up to 2 percent within next two years.
In fact this issue of expenditure had embarrassed government institutions immensely when former President APJ Abdul Kalam had criticized them for not being able to spend whatever little money was allotted to them in the national budget.
Last year in Shillong the General President T Ramasami had informed the delegates of 96th Indian Science Congress in his presidential address that most developed economies invest about 2.5% of GDP in research and development whereas Indian spending on R&D is languishing at nearly 1% but the government has proposed to invest about 2% of GDP into Research and Development.
Everybody agrees that the relatively weaker competitiveness of India in the world of Research and Development can be traced to the very small size of the Indian R&D base. Our R&D base may need to be at least trebled within the next five years. But where is the money?
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