Indian science is in a crisis. The country’s brightest graduates shirk from science for other careers.
On 21 August, the government appointed its fifth science minister in three years. Vayalar Ravi—a veteran of several portfolios in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government—took charge after the death of Vilasrao Deshmukh. Deshmukh, in turn, had succeeded Pawan Kumar Bansal, who after a tenure of just over six months, had returned to the water resources ministry in July last year. After the UPA was re-elected in May 2009, Prithviraj Chavan held this post before Kapil Sibal. It is deplorable that of all the ministries, it is this one where little political investment is made.
While it can be argued that factors, extraneous to science, may be responsible for this ministerial churn, it’s unassailably true that in recent times the day-to-day functioning of the ministry doesn’t really depend on the presence of a minister. It isn’t a ministry that the political class aspires to.
Unlike other departments led by members of the Indian Administrative Service, the secretaries of science ministries—the department of science and technology, biotechnology and the ministry of earth sciences—were all, once, practising scientists. This, many scientists believe, is essential for implementing their projects.
While a continuation of a policy laid by Nehru, this was in an age where the fruits of science were certainly for the ordinary citizens, but scientists themselves were a rarified class unanswerable to public scrutiny. Today, that’s no longer the case.
Globally, private industry plays a significant role in pushing science and technology forward and a key reason why India lags behind world’s scientific power houses is because it still remains rarified and inaccessible. An elected representative, therefore, has the opportunity to give Indian science greater visibility. Sadly, no minister has made use of this opportunity.
Indian science is in a crisis. The country’s brightest graduates shirk from science for careers in management and across sectors—from computer science to meteorology—the shortage in PhDs and research professionals is appalling.
The China Meteorological Agency has 80,000 meteorologists and India’s Met department has barely 6,000, and this is when weather forecasting remains a key concern for India’s economy. These are isolated examples: the crisis in Indian science is much deeper. A science minister needs to address this not by mere words, but by a visible and wholehearted push.
http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/t7lJxQjnz00hyhfADYoHHO/A-neglected-portfolio.html
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