Money for science
An annual budget of 10 billion rupees (close to US$200 million) is a good amount of money to create new funds for scientific pursuits in India. The fund is expected to come from an independent agency -- National Science and Engineering Research Board (NSERB) -- to promote basic research in science and engineering, similar to the US National Science Foundation. Scientists are hoping it would be fast and not like all other government funding bodies that believe in loads of paperwork and are characterised by huge time lags between application and grant.
Till now, Indian scientists had access to about 3.6 billion rupees from the Science & Engineering Research Council (SERC), the biggest government funding agency, apart from some other smaller ones, but only in select research areas such as health, agriculture, energy or biotechnology.
In the new regime, the prompt and smart institutes with good ideas will benefit. But they have loads of funds anyway, since they have always been prompt and smart. So who should benefit? There are concerns that the NSERB might end up feeding the fat babies and the undernourished will continue to remain neglected. Which are the institutes that should be given top priority when such new funds are generated? Are there any truly gifted institutes/universities in India that have not been able to make a mark just because their kitties have perpetually been empty?
Comments
Two things to be noted in the announcement by the PM -- 1. to promote 'basic' research and
2. along the lines of US NSF.
All the science currently being done is indeed basic and therefore, the focus should also be on translation of basic research.
Instead of formulating policies that have worked somewhere else, India should focus and model the NSERB for what would work in India. So the drive should be more on reducing the bureaucracy of funding, increasing the transparency of procedures and fostering and 'retaining' talent.
Coming the the question of whether to fund Universities or the 'ivory tower' research institutions; the answer should be a balance of both. Meritocracy should win over bureaucracy but if tangible results are expected, University research funding should have accountability as a key factor for determining continued funding.
Posted by: Sriram | December 18, 2008 04:40 PM
I would like to see over a period of time as to what fraction of that money goes towards building state of the art experimental infrastructure instead of just paying salaries/stipends and computers for doing theoretical research. Indian research lags behind the West not because of good minds or ideas but mostly because of the lack of modern tools and apparatus. So with every grant, the person should make an assessment where his or her lab stands in comparison to worldwide labs in that field.
Posted by: Rita | January 11, 2009 07:53 PM
One thing is seen in America, the amount of money they spend for research and science is very high in comparision to India. Indians speak big things but don't really do it.
Rene
Posted by: rene52 | February 4, 2009 07:07 AM