Is India's scientific research in step with economic progress?
India needs empowered institutions of higher learning to become a scientific superpower, according to N.R. Narayana Murthy, Chairman and Chief Mentor, Infosys Technologies.
In a panel discussion on 'Securing India's Scientific Future' moderated by Business Today, he said that Indian educational institutions must operate without financial constraints, enable interaction with international researchers and encourage scientists to participate in global conferences and universities.
The Business Today roundtable was held on the sidelines of the Infosys Prize 2009 instituted by the Infosys Science Foundation to honor outstanding contributions of Indians in different streams of scientific research.
Mr. Murthy was joined in the panel discussion by Dr. P. Anandan, Managing Director, Microsoft Research India; Professor P. Balaram, Director, Indian Institute of Science; Shiraz Minwalla, string theorist and Assistant Professor at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR); and Professor R.S. Deshpande, Director, Institute for Social and Economic Change.
Read the transcript
Excerpts of the panel discussion:
Prof. Balaram: There has been path-breaking research which has come from India. But I think as our scientific system has grown the pressures on new researchers to get going quickly, to be productive, sometimes makes people choose problems that yield results in the short run and that are in some cases derivative problems.
Dr. P. Anandan: I understand that you can't just put money into research and expect things to happen; and it is a process that one has to go through, but it is something that the private sector needs to do more in terms of inventions and innovation and taking them to the market.
Prof. Deshpande: Budgets have always been stingy in social sciences... The problem is that the money alone does not make you (a) social scientist, it is the commitment to the society that makes you a social scientist and over the years we are likely to have very low commitment towards social sciences.
Prof. Minwalla: We need to do more than just inspire the available middle-class students; we need to take opportunity to parts of India where it does not exist essentially through solid primary and secondary education. There is really no substitute for that if we want to become a major scientific power in 30-40 years.
Published with the permission of Business Today.
Learn more about the Infosys Science Foundation.