Indigenus

I don't think publishing more papers mean they are better than us. I think we should focus on quality rather than quantity. I have read many articles from China in the field of Materials science and trust me 80% of them were not upto the mark! Compared to the research and papers of my institute in Switzerland, quality was so poor that later we stopped reading Chinese papers. I wish that Indian scientist should not be in race to publish more papers. Rather they should publish quality papers. This is the only way to make an innovative society and strong India.

There were only 20 universities and 500 colleges in the Indian subcontinent in 1947, the year of Indian independence. Now there are about 376 universities and 17,700 colleges in India only, many with world class physical infrastructure. Many private research institutes are also coming up on a regular basis. The only Nobel prize for India (Indian citizen at the time of the award) in science for C. V. Raman (1930, University of Calcutta) also came in that era. We also had many world class scientists during that time (e.g Satyen Bose, J. C. Bose, Homi Bhaba etc). Published reports now show that the quality of science education and research is going down despite increasing funding [Jayaraman, K. S. Indian science is in decline, says prime minister. Nature 445, 134-135 (2007); Balaram, P. Science in India: Signs of Stagnation. Current Science 82, 193-194 (2002); Bagla, P. Missing generation leaves hole in fabric of research. Science 298, 733-735 (2002)].

As students from developed countries are less interested in careers in science education and research, India (and a few other third world countries like China) have become the suppliers of technical manpower worldwide. But majority of those students/technicians are neither qualified nor interested in a career in research. But they don't have any other alternative. In India, science education is not a choice but a necessity to get a job and then go abroad. No wonder majority of parents force their kids to take science after passing their 10th grade. During PhD and postdoc tenures, these people just lend their hands and carry out experiments designed and analyzed by their supervisors and get first author papers. Majority of such people with first author papers in high profile journals invariably lose their productivity when they take up faculty positions in India. Many of such “scientists” occupying high positions in Indian universities and institutes have heavy weight degrees from high profile universities in US or Europe. Many of the “scientists” involved in medical malpractice and crime also have such degrees.

Our current education and research system can only enable us to do BPO type jobs (for which foreign companies are shifting their routine R&D activities to India and/or recruiting Indian “scientists” abroad) but can never allow us to become a first world country. If we do not change our education system, not at the top but from the primary and high school level to encourage real talent and introduce transparency and accountability in higher education and research, we are going to loose in a big way in the long run despite the huge potential. In research, quality is more important than quantity and sooner our policy makers understand that the better.

I just hope that the earlier comment is seen by people/scientists who are sitting on the so-called higher chairs in Indian scientific institutions and universities. I have been to the best of the places for biological/biomedical sciences in India and except for a very,very small fraction of scientist most of the people are thriving because of "extra-scientific" qualities. They don't deserve to be there leave apart carrying out independent scientific research. The logic that in India, funding is constrained does not hold ground because of the very glaring exmaples of excessive wastage of money by scientists and faculties at some of the "so-called" top-tier institutes in India. This is primarily done by "replicating" the work done abroad without applying any novel idea to it.

It's a sad state-of-affair and something has to be done sooner than later otherwise the "self-congratulatory" nature of smug Indian scientists and beaureucracy will lead only to one thing -- more and more low-end R&D work outsourced to Indian soil.

India is the third largest economy in Asia now with a huge budget in so-called education and research. But we do not have any world class scientist in India or abroad. Our middle class people, who can not afford to send their kids abroad (like the socio-political “elites”) but dream to have a better, more powerful life for their kids do not allow any meaningful reform of primary and secondary education since independence. We see huge debates when the government wants to introduce accountability in “elite” institutes like IIMs or IITs but we never see a fraction of that excitement among educated middle class people to reform primary and secondary schools. Our primary and secondary education system, the backbone of our country, is in a pathetic shape. Currently, our education system selectively discards talented students with inquisitiveness and dream to do something challenging, something better for the society. Now we only produce private tuition and coaching enabled, mugging-up grade technicians who are great to do routine jobs (as in IT or BT) or imitating others (mainly true for Indian pharmaceutical industry), but not capable of doing original research, despite having many world class physical infrastructure, huge budget and some so-called “elite” institutes. We need to invest much more and have an intensive and proper supervision of primary and high school education than wrongly focusing on higher education and research at this time. Whatever money we spend on higher education and research is not going to give us any novel knowledge or technological edge unless we have right candidate behind the costly machines we buy. Now we produce mainly technicians, not scientists or technocrats and feel proud to export such raw material to developed countries (be it IT or BT, the two main pillars of Indian economy today). This might lead to some degree of prosperity in the short term but we are going to loose in a big way in the long run unless we totally overhaul our basic education system at primary and high school level.

Dr Ratnesh from Switzerland thinks that all science from China is of poor quality and he has stopped reading Chinese papers. Not a good decision. A great deal is happening in China now. Right from the very large number of Chinese students who get into prestigious universities in the West solely on merit to the many collaborations western institutions seek with Chinese scientists, the evidence points to a steady improvement in the quality of science in China. The number of papers Chinese researchers publish in high quality journals is also on the rise. As for quantity vs quality, as Chairman Mao had said out of quantity would emerge quality.

Like India, China is developing fast. Compared to twenty or thirty years ago, Chinese scientists publish many more high quality papers now. Although the achievement is not proportional to the large population or China's performance in Olympic games, it's good news. At the same time, a lot of problems still exist. Maybe ,science and education can only devolop together with economy and society. I just hope I can see the real "spring" of China's science in my lifetime.

The recent success for China (and some other countries like South Korea) has come mainly from the government policy to rehabilitate some bright promising Chinese scientists from abroad; not from the “quantity will guarantee quality” policy. India is lagging far behind in that area. Thousands of Indians go abroad and get training there but very few are groomed to become scientists (they are mostly used as technicians) and even fewer prefer to come back due to many bottlenecks in Indian research (I am not referring to the money/salary issue here). Even fewer prefer to stay in India if they get a suitable option abroad again.
The problem starts from recruitment itself (mainly in govt universities and institutes). Indian universities and even private industries are yet to understand that retaining productive manpower needs a bit more than offering good financial packages. Very few Indian industries have the desire to become global leaders in research and innovation. That’s why they cannot remain in any knowledge-based industry for long in this globally competitive market. They are mostly interested in free-bees from the government (in form of tax benefit, ease of importing things through their so-called “R&D centers” etc) and some are more than happy to do BPO type jobs. In Universities, we hardly prepare our students for real world situations, be it science or business. As a result there is only a handful of entrepreneurs, educated in India with highest degrees in respective subjects to start a new knowledge based industry. Majority of industrialists operating in so-called knowledge based sector are typical Indian 'lala-type' businessmen, while most such people in developed countries are experts in their fields. So despite of huge financial muscle, physical infrastructure and business experience, majority of Indian MNCs and big industrial houses like Reliance will not have much impact on global R&D business in any field of science or technology. Indian “research is good so long it has a path to follow, created by others (be it putting a machine on the moon, atomic research, IT, biotechnology or Pharma industry).