This is a bit far afield, but I thought I’d say a few words about an invitation I stumbled into to hear a brief address from Kapil Sibal, the Indian Minister for Science & Technology. My occupation was noted on the visa application form that I presented at the Indian consulate here in New York, and I was told to go ‘upstairs’ to meet with the Deputy Consul General. After reassuring me that they would indeed let me into the country (I was seconds away from pointing out the nonrefundable nature of my plane reservations), he invited me to attend the reception for Mr. Sibal, who is visiting the US to launch the India-US Biotechnology Working Group, to visit the NIH, and to attend BIO-2006 in Chicago. A sizable group of science journalists, editors, and business leaders were in attendance.

Sibal touched on a range of initiatives in Indian science, but two things stood out. The first was the casual confidence he expressed in homegrown Indian innovation. One questioner asked whether the biotechnology collaborations being established with the US would be one-sided, with US technologies exploiting Indian resources. Sibal replied that it might end up being a one-sided relationship, but in the opposite direction. OK, that’s a line that only a politician could love. But the statistics he reeled off and the overall context of his talk lead me to think this wasn’t just spin. The second thing that impressed me was his grasp of technical issues. Someone asked him what the Indian government is doing to improve the quality of drinking water, and off the cuff he discussed pilot desalination projects in Kavaratti and Chennai that take advantage of steep temperature gradients that exist in the Indian Ocean. This man was trained as a lawyer, but he seemed to have the kind of technical facility that would be not often be apparent in cabinet secretaries in the US.