NEED TO REVITALIZE INDIA’S DECLINING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

 

 

       The discovery of Raman Effect by our eminent physicist Sir C.V. Raman on February 28, 1928, and his subsequent felicitation of Nobel Prize in 1930 came as a morale booster for the researchers and scientists of a developing country like India. It has several implications on the scientific communities of the Indian subcontinent: First, it theoretically proved the Rayleigh scattering wrong in explaining the blue colour of the sea (according to which it is only the reflection of the blue sky) and, hence, represented unfolding of a revolutionary idea from the Eastern world. Secondly, it proved to be a paradigm shift that great scientific discoveries and inventions can also crop from developing countries like India breaking the scientific supremacy of the West. Thirdly, its significance as a tool for analyzing the composition of liquids, gases, and solids was recognized world over which is evident from the fact that it was designated a National Historic Chemical Landmark by the American Chemical Society in 1998 for its far-reaching applications. Fourth, the fact that Raman discovered the Effect with the help of a Spectrometer of cost hardly Five Hundred Rupees at that time proved that path-breaking discoveries in science can also be achieved even by one’s own ingenuity and original approach rather than the economic and instrumentation superiority of a country.  Finally, it heralded a new culture of fundamental research in Pure Science in the country and was instrumental in the establishment of a vast network of scientific infrastructure to bolster that objective with the first institute of this kind, Indian Academy of Science, being established by Raman himself in Bengaluru in 1934.

            Our first Prime Minister, Pt Nehru, laid the foundation stone for a  modern and vibrant  India by formulating policies and programmes  to promote science and technology in the country  and more importantly to inculcate a scientific temper in the mindset of people. The post independent period saw the ruthless growth of establishments like IITs and NITs and   organizations like CSIR, ICMR, ICAR, BARC, ISRO to support and carry forward country’s  ever-growing aspirations in  the field of Science and  Technology  ,  Agriculture,  Medicine, Nuclear Energy and Space exploration. As a result, India, besides establishing network nuclear power reactors conducted the first nuclear test in Pokhran in 1974, launched the first artificial satellite in 1975, heralded the green revolution in the sixties and sent expedition missions to Antarctica in 1981 amongst many other things thanks to the contributions of many outstanding scientists like H. J. Bhabha, Vikram Sarabhai, M.S. Swaminathan, M.N. Saha, Vainu Bappu and others who flourished during that period.  

       However, it is lamenting to note that despite these early advancements, India  is currently  lagging far behind in the field of  scientific research as compared to other nations of the world and the country has not been to produce any world class scientist to be amongst the Nobel Prize winners even  90 years after Raman’s landmark discovery.

            India has only 140 researchers per 1,000,000 population as compared to 4651 in the United States.  India ranks 34^th in global spending on scientific research and development.  India’s National Gross Expenditure on Research and  Development (GERD) in Science and Technology  hovers around 0.7% of its GDP  which is far lower compared to some of the more developed, or even developing nations like Israel (4.6 %), South Korea (4.5 %), Japan (3.2 %), Germany (3.0 %), USA (2.8 %), France (2.2 %), UK (1.7%), Canada (1.6 %), China ( 2.1%), Brazil (1.3 %) and  Russia (nearly 1 %). According to reports, India has fewer world class research institutes and universities to support its research activities.   In the list of top 500 educational institutes in the world compiled by the UK-based agency Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), 22 Chinese universities found a place as compared to only 9 from India. The gap between India and China is also visible in the number of cited research publications and their impacts. India also lags in developing innovative products and processes. This is evident from the fact that in 2014, Indian research and manufacturing industries, both in the private and public sector, filed only 1428 international patent applications as compared to 42,381 by Japan, 25,548 by China, and 13,117 by South Korea.

       The dismal performance can be attributed to the poor quality of research work in India, pitiable market value for its outputs and the lengthy period of research. A typical doctorate programme in India may take around 6 years and a subsequent post-doctoral pursuit in another 4 years to complete taking it nearly to a total of 10 years before a person is ready to embrace his first post-training job. This is indeed too long a time!  For a product-based company, investment in research helps to foresee the potential and design of its products and devise strategies and processes to adapt to changes of the needs of the customers. However, due to lack of research, Indian products fail to bridge the gap between the product and the faith of the customers which ends up driving the customers towards MNCs. It is shocking to note that Indian IT companies spend less than one per cent of their revenues on R&D.

 

      For a country, research is not just a revenue generator, but a long-term investment expected to bring dividends to the economy. Under the circumstances, India should not only be investing more for scientific research apart from expanding its research base, but also should assert that a career in this domain is more secure and rewarding.

 

                                                                                                     Nikunja BIhari Sahu

                                                                                                   Education Officer

                                                                                                 Regional Science Centre

                                                                                                               Bhopal

                                                                                                   Phone: 8917637974

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PHOTOGRAPHS