Indigenus

On Technology Day today, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh decorated rocket scientists V. K. Saraswat and Dipankar Banerjee. The two scientists have long been involved in developing critical materials for aircraft carriers. Leader of the Agni-III missiles team Avinash Chander was decorated with the DRDO Award for pathbreaking research.

Pune's High Energy Materials Research Laboratory that makes explosives for many strategically important missile programmes got the prestigious Titanium Trophy. The Aeronautical Defence Agency of Bangalore was feted for defense research. So were Raju Venkata Narayana and his team from the Electronics and Radar Development Establishment, Bangalore and R B Subramanyam and his team from Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory, Hyderabad.

A befitting to salute the men shaping the strategic technology of this country!

Posted by Subhra Priyadarshini on May 12, 2008
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The Indian Genome Variation Consortium, a public-private partnership that networks six Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) labs and some private software firms, has completed genetic mapping of one of the world’s most ethnically diverse populations, the Indians.

With this, the consortium has succeeded in covering the genomic variation in India in terms of population and genomic coverage. The study included 32 large populations, with 10 million or more people in each, and 23 isolated tribal populations, representing a vast ethnic, linguistic and geographical diversity.

The data that the consortium has gathered provides interesting insights into disease susceptibility of these populations and their response to drugs. This will now allow researchers to understand the genetic predisposition of ethnic groups to diseases.

The genetic map will also give pharma companies a headway in predictive medicine and targeted drugs. A great step ahead in Indian genomic studies, indeed!

Posted by Subhra Priyadarshini on April 22, 2008
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A very interesting correspondence in Nature last week has stirred me into thinking hard about the naming conventions in South India. While north Indians generally follow the western naming patterns with the surname in the end preceded by the name of the person (Jagdish Yadav or Hari Prasad Singh), south Indians don't follow this pattern. They generally have no family name. Instead they have a given name preceded by the name of the family's ancestral village or town and father's name. These are abbreviated into initials (J P Ramanathan, the last being the person's actual name and the initials his father's given name and ancestral village name).

To follow conventions, scientific publications have to pull out these initials from south Indian authors' names and expand them to make up for the lack of a surname. As such, the merit of all their hard work is actually either credited to their father or ancestral village! I have been thinking what could be a reasonably good way to go around this problem. Any suggestions?

The Asian author name conundrum does seem a real concern and the sooner publications devise a way to address it, the better.

Posted by Subhra Priyadarshini on April 08, 2008
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After the management schools, now the technology schools are thinking of doubling their tuition fees. The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have proposed to charge students Rs 50,000 annually as against the current Rs 21,000 to Rs 25,000. The proposal put forth by the standing committee of the IIT Council is being reviewed by the Indian ministry of Human Resource Development. If all goes well, the new fee structure would be applicable to admissions in 2008.

Wonder what future students and teachers have to say to the proposed hike.

Posted by Subhra Priyadarshini on April 02, 2008
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The verdict is finally out. The government wants to evolve a more 'effective, alternative mechanism' for a science conclave that overcomes the rot plaguing the annual Indian Science Congress. Science minister Kapil Sibal has announced in a written reply in Parliament that the number of participants and topics at the science congress had increased in recent years, thereby making it 'impossible for any organiser to hold meaningful discussions'.
We were expecting the government to take note of this malaise as reflected in this discussion in the Nature India forum.
It seems, a parallel annual meet of top scientists from across disciplines is being proposed in New Delhi to keep up with the latest in their respective fields. One just hopes that it doesn't end up being another government exercise in Vigyan Bhavan.

Posted by Subhra Priyadarshini on March 19, 2008
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Good news for all you women scientists in India. Here's a gender sop that's sure to get more women back into labs -- flexible work hours, work-from-home options, more awards, campus housing and creche for kids. The recommendations of a government task force on women scientists set up two years ago are finally being implemented. We had some very good insights from scientists -- both men and women -- on the gender divide in science on the Nature India forum. Let's wait and watch how much action follows these pathbreaking announcements.

Posted by Subhra Priyadarshini on March 14, 2008
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