Most scientists and institutes abroad have been asking me this question very frequently these days. How bad has the economic slowdown hit Indian science? Many seem to believe that science funding in this region is less affected since it is longer term and much of it is government funded.

I haven’t really heard of any major cuts in funding or grants by the major science policy makers of this country till now. On the contrary, prime minsiter Manmohan Singh did make an announcement at the recently concluded Indian Science Congress reiterating the government’s stand to double investment in science from one per cent to two per cent of national income. Budget outlay for the ministries of science and technology and earth sciences have been trebled for the last four year period 2004-08, relative to the previous four-year period, 2000-04.

Alongside this, the country has just passed a bill to set up a National Science and Engineering Research Board to be responsible for major scientific research funding in the country. The autonomous board would have the freedom to establish new modalities of funding research as well as creating facilities and structures to improve the quality and quantity of scientific research.

Doesn’t look like we have been badly hit, does it? I am just curious to know if there are any examples contrary to this apparently rosy picture.

I am just back from the Indian Science Congress dedicated this time to the young scientists of this country. Sadly, the average age of most speakers at this significant 96th edition of the congress was above 50. “Where are the young scientists, I would like to know,” asked a visibly disturbed Bikas Sinha, director of the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics in Kolkata, who was speaking at a session on India’s contribution to the Large Hadron Collider experiment in CERN, Geneva. Sadly again, there weren’t many such hands-on papers or presenters at the congress. Sinha said most topics presented at the congress were a ‘joke’ since even burning issues like ‘climate change’ were being handled ‘so lightly’. “Anyone can google that information and present it. What’s the big deal about coming to a congress of scientists to make generic presentations?”

The venue – North Eastern Hill University in picturesque Shillong, the scotland of the East – turned out to be a good crowd puller because of reasons remotely connected to science. Delegates were accompanied by their families, and in some cases extended families, and were spotted more at Elephant Falls and the Shillong Peak than the plenary sessions. The organisation of the grand event, attended by close to 4000 people (non-scientists included) was far from professional, though the geographic location of NEHU (3 and a half hours away uphill from the nearest airport) did not help matters much. Pre-paid cellular telephones or internet data cards didn’t work at the venue and that wasn’t something attendees were warned about. “This is a colossal waste of public money,” the Vice-Chancellor of Nagaland University K. Kannan, who understands the geographical disadvantages of the north-east, said about his impression of the congress.

Much has been written about the failure of the congress to attract sensible presentations or young scientists but organisers Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) seem to be living in a world of their own. The Congress really needs to reinvent itself. Last year, there were talks of creating a parallel annual meet of top scientists from across disciplines in New Delhi. However, no announcement to this effect was made at the conference.

It would be good to know from participants and observers their view of the congress and ideas to improve it before ISCA plans a grand centenary four years hence.