The new year brings new hope for all those weary of red tape plaguing Indian science. For, the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself acknowledged the rot while addressing one of the largest annual congregations of Indian scientists — the Indian Science Congress — last weekend.
Here’s what he said at the Thiruvananthapuram meet: "It is unfortunately true that red tape, political interference and lack of proper recognition of good work have all contributed to a regression in Indian science in some sectors from the days of Dr. C V Raman, Meghnad Saha, J C Bose, Homi Bhabha, Vikram Sarabhai, Satish Dhawan and other great pioneers of Indian science.
I urge all our scientific institutions to introspect and to propose mechanisms for greater autonomy, including autonomy from the government, which could help to improve standards for research and development. We must make a special effort to encourage scientists of Indian origin currently working abroad to return to our country including coming to our universities or scientific institutions for a short period. In this way we can, convert the “brain drain” of the past into a “brain gain” for the future. This will require special incentives. We need to think creatively on how this can be done so that high quality minds are attracted to teaching and research in our country.
Much of what we have to do to improve science requires money but this is only one part of what is needed. It also requires a change in mindset, including, if I may say so, the mindset of senior faculty and university administration. Sometimes that is the hardest thing to do.
I invite you all to explore all these issues and engage with the Government so that we can do what is needed to liberate Indian science from the shackles and deadweight of bureaucratism and in-house favouritism. Only then we can unleash the latent talent and creative energies of our vast scientists and engineers too."
The Prime Minister has made similar observations in the past and seems to have taken serious note of the issue that makes life difficult for many scientists across government set-ups in this country. The regressive nature of scientific establishments is the talk of many coffee table discussions but whistle blowers are far to come by. As one senior scientist at the Congress remarked — even scientists have families to feed, jobs to defend.
That said, the Prime Minister’s statement has shown a ray hope to many such scientists for whom doing science is more than just defending a job in this country.