Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao was ‘surprised‘ at receiving India’s highest civilian honour ‘Bharat Ratna’ last week. What pleasantly surprised the rest of the scientific community in this country was his vocal outpouring at the state of science funding in India. Though Rao has always advocated more funding for science and rued the lack of a strong science leadership in India, his current outburst calling politicians ‘idiots who have not given this country’s scientists their due’, is the most scathing on the country’s science bureaucracy. Rao later dismissed the hullabaloo saying the remarks were made ‘casually’ and that he did not ‘mean to be harsh’.
To an email seeking to understand this widely reported outburst, Rao replied, “There was no outburst on my part. I only wondered about the idiocy of people.” Rao said he feels that India should take up rejuvenation of scientific and educational institutions on a “war footing”. “Competition is increasing by the hour. I want India to be in the top 5 countries in science. Will it be?”
Besides this, he also coaxed Indian researchers to work harder, “as hard as the Chinese”. “Starting next year, China will top the world with 16.5% of world research publications, overtaking even the US. The quantity of publication of research papers from India have remained at 2-3%. India is the worst. China is doing exascale and petascale computing. I am fighting with the government to invest money in computing,” he was quoted as saying.
Rao’s public expression of anger (or frustration as he chooses to call it) is the outcome of long years of fighting the system. That he used the occasion of announcement of the Bharat Ratna to air his feelings so strongly does not come as unusual to peers, colleagues and friends to know the fiery-spirited scientist for long years. “Knowing him well I can say CNR’s comment about politicians is only an emotional outburst,” Valangiman Ramamurthi, former secretary to the Department of Science and Technology told Nature India.
It is this outrage that many in the science community in India feel but seldom express. Some do, but are rarely heard. A Nature India forum post discussed the issue of scientific funding some time back quite aggressively and another one was replete with issues that young scientists face in this country.
Coming from Bharat Ratna Rao — all of 79 and raring to go (his wife says he is still a ‘young scientist’ with lots of science in him) — it will certainly be taken rather seriously. Or so one hopes. Rao happens to be the scientific adviser to the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and recently created a buzz with a Scientific Advisory Council report which warned that the present situation in India is “not altogether encouraging” as there are many areas of science where India has fallen behind even small countries. Rao was the first Indian to reach the h-index of 100, publishing more than 1,500 research papers in his career spanning over five decades (h-index is based on the scientist’s publications and the number of citations they receive). He has close to 50,000 citations.
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Do we know that China had been hiring skilled retired/unemployed scientists and academicians from USA and other developed and developing countries? China also sent many students to USA and other developed countries for higher studies; most of them returned to China to get suitable jobs and contributed to the growth. In this way they maintained world standard science and technology. Has the scientific authority of India guided by advisers such as Prof. Rao ever tried to do that? Has our government created jobs for US-trained Indians?
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Now a days there is a trend of serving & retired distinguished scientists of our country to point fingers at politicians, bureaucrats and others for their failures to give results. I do not agree that spending more amounts in R & D will improve the quality and quantity of Indian science. All laboratories under CSIR, DRDO, ISRO, BARC, Atomic Energy Commission and so on are well equipped and nearly at par with their counterparts abroad. Our country has more scientific and technical persons working in these laboratories as compared to many other advanced foreign countries. I believe that the fault lies in the quality of existing science leadership that is unable to tap the vast young and talented technical work force available in these organizations. I feel that this is lacking in our country. I may be or may not be right.
Dr. Vyankatesh L. Lokre
Retired DRDO Scientist, Pune – India
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Had it not been for those Idiots, we would not have had so much of funds wasted by our intelligentia in name of fancy research projects….and had it not been for those idiots, many scientists in this country would have lost their jobs for plagiarizing work of others..it is always nice to give lectures on what could be done rather than doing…in other countries, merit is encouraged but in India merit is thrown in the dustbin to give way to mediocrity…..