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1. Introduction
Science in India is going through a transitional phase. We need to provide more opportunities to our young scientists to enable them to have a successful career and make new discoveries. After Sir C.V. Raman we have not produced another scientist who has done his work in India to earn a Nobel Prize in science. There is a bright future to our new generation of scientists. Parents, in particular, should know that the traditional science subjects are all more exciting today than ever before. Several steps have been taken by our educational institutions and the Government of India; we will delve on some new initiatives in science taken during the last 10 years and see how we can invest in our future.
2. College education now
Most of the universities and colleges in India (a large number of them are autonomous now) admit students from the 10+2 stream; after 3 years of B.Sc. course they go on to do 2 years of M.Sc. and then pursue a Ph.D. program or get into teaching. While these existing systems can be very productive, we are unable to produce quality scientists mainly because of lack of good teaching methods or getting motivated students or both. It now appears that students need to be inspired even from the pre-university level so that they can think seriously of a good career in science. This in fact is what is being done now and there is lot of hope that a more promising future lies ahead for these young students who opt for science at the 10+2 level.
A 4-year Bachelor of Science program (FYBS) is in existence in many western countries such as U.S.A. This scheme is also offered in India at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and some others in selected areas of science. The advantage of this 10+2+4 system is that the students can register for Ph.D. directly after the 4YBS degree, called as B.S.
3. The Indian Institute of Science leads by example
The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) popularly called as the ‘Tata Institute” in Bangalore was established in 1909. The story goes that, in a journey by ship to USA in 1893, Swami Vivekananda had auggested to Jamsetji Nusserwanji (J.N.) Tata that the Tatas set up a science institute. When the British Government approved it, the Maharaja of Mysore Krishnaraja Wadiyar gave 400 acres of free land in Bangalore. Since then IISc has maintained its scientific orientation and is the best institution in India. Even today IISc is ranked among the top 200 such institutions all over the world.
Recently IISc has acquired 1,500 acres of land at Kudapura (near Challakere) in Chitradurga district of Karnataka. A Talent Development Centre has been started in this new campus mainly to impart training to science teachers and to conduct winter and summer schools. It may be a good idea for IISc to start a new medical faculty and a new hospital at this campus since such a model is followed by many reputed Universities abroad.
Prof. Anurag Kumar has assumed charge as the new director of IISc from August 2014; he follows such illustrious directors as C.V. Raman (who later founded The Raman Research Institute in 1948), J.C. Ghosh (the first director of Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, in 1950), Satish Dhawan (first chairman of Indian Space Research Organization in 1972), C.N.R. Rao (who founded the Jawaharlal Nehru Center for Advanced Scientific Research in 1989), and P. Balaram (outgoing director of IISc).
4. Initiatives of the Government of India
The Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Department of Biotechnology have launched several new programmes since 2005. In particular, the 2010 “Vision Document” of DST entitled “India as a Global Leader in Science” (along with the 2013 document) tries to provide a road-map so that India emerges as a global leader in science in the next 20 years; how can this be done? There are plenty of opportunities and challenges ahead. We need to strengthen the infrastructure in our educational institutions and national laboratories. For this to happen we need to increase the allocation to science. India spends less than 1% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) whereas China spends nearly 2% and USA nearly 3.5%. (GDP indicates the value of goods and services produced by a nation.)
Another initiative by the government is the creation of the “Indian Institute of Science Education and Research” (IISER) in Bhopal, Kolkata, Mohali, Pune and Thiruvananthapuram. These institutes pick candidates after class 12, giving them an opportunity to pursue various specialisations. One “National Institute of Science Education and Research” has also been set up at Bhubaneswar.
In 2008, DST launched the the INSPIRE (Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research) programme to attract talented 12th standard students to undertake bachelors and masters degree programmes; Under this scheme, 10,000 scholarships are provided with each student getting Rs. 80,000 per year; Rs. 20,000 is also provided for summer programme of each student.
5. Conclusions
As of now, opportunities in science education and research are better than ever before. The Union budget presented by the BJP Government recently (for 2014-15) does not touch on this topic. To ensure sustainable growth, we need to move from service economy to knowledge economy. The present Government is expected to promote a vigorous programme in all areas of science and technology. The 21st century may be the best for India!
N.G. Puttaswamy
|N.G. Puttaswamy is the former Professor of Physics and Dean, Faculty of Science, Bangalore University. He is currently President of The Karnataka Association for the Advancement of Science, Bangalore|
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