Tag Archives: policy

Borlaug award

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This week saw another alumnus of the Presidency College, fondly called the Oxford of the East, do India proud by bagging Rockefeller Foundation’s first ever Borlaug Field Award, which has been constituted to recognise young researchers helping farmers and hungry people around the world through science. Earlier this month string theorist Ashoke Sen, another Presidency product, wowed the world when he was named one among the eight scientists worldwide to receive the three million dollar Fundamental Physics Prize in its first edition.

Presidency College, now Presidency University, counts among its illustrious alumi the famous scientists Jagadish Chandra Bose,  Satyendra Nath Bose, Meghnad Saha and statistician Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis. Something in the air at this grand institution that breeds such wonderful science and scientists?

Coming back to the young social scientist who influenced policy through her work , after Presidency College, Aditi Mukherji studied at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi; and the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai; and completed a Ph.D degree in Human Geography at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Her research on groundwater resources in agriculture has done thousands of farmers in West Bengal a world of good. According to the press release announcing the honour, Mukherji a senior researcher at the International Water Management Institute’s New Delhi office, has surveyed more than 4,000 groundwater users to discover that smallholder farmers in water-abundant eastern India were unable to get water for their irrigation needs due to policy restrictions that actually were made keeping in mind the water scarcity in other parts of the country. She became the voice of the voiceless working closely with farmers and villagers to record their concerns.
Through research and political engagement, she became instrumental in getting two critical policy changes in two years— one to remove a restrictive permit requirement for operating low-power irrigation pumps; and another to reduce the electrification cost to run the pumps. Following these policy changes, the farmers now have easier and more universal access to groundwater for irrigation and will be able to intensify their cropping systems, earn better livelihoods and emerge out of poverty, the award committee noted. Mukherji presented her research to the government convincing them that the situation in water-rich east India was different from other parts of the country facing scarcity and depletion of groundwater.
Mukherji will get the 10,000 dollar award at the World Food Prize international symposium in the US in October.
Here’s raising a toast to the Oxford of the East for nurturing some of the best brains this country has produced!

Young blood

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Indian science desperately needs more young blood at the policy making level. We have been hearing this far too often these days in the Nature India forum where many young and enterprising scientists deliberate on issues that concern them.

An editorial in the journal Science today emphasises the need for young scientists to become opinion makers and policy drivers in this country. In the editorial, eminent chemical scientist Raghunath Anant Mashelkar supports the view of a ‘Young Academy’ for India and makes a strong case for such a “borderless” academy discussing matters of all scientific disciplines.  He says such an academy must also be “dynamic”, harnessing the power of technology and social media, and have a mind of its own.

India’s Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), which recently released a vision document, also feels the need to source potential young leaders from across the world, empowering young leadership and grooming them through leadership development programmes.  The document also talks of creating a CSIR science management cadre.

At the 99th Indian Science Congress held in Bhubaneswar in January 2012, many speakers — young and old — talked at length about ‘creating space’ for the young scientists of this country in policy making bodies. The sentiment echoed in many speeches given by top science policy makers of this country.

It would be wonderful to see these talking points converted into action. Yes, there are funds, awards, scholarships and grants to recognise and encourage young scientists, but including bright young minds in shaping the future of science in this country would be another step forward.


					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
Science meet

			
						

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The 99th edition of the Indian Science Congress happening this week in Bhubaneswar appeared different from its recent predecessors in one big way — on day one, the halls were packed to capacity and were spilling over. Some of the plenary talks saw standing crowds. A particular talk by Nobel Laureate Rolf Zinkernagel from the University of Zurich actually had over 200 scientists and researchers banging at the auditorium doors, which were closed by the organisers to avoid overcrowding inside!


Now, is that an indication of the growing popularity of the annual mega-meet of scientists, policy makers, researchers and science students? Organisers said close to 15, 000 delegates were expected to attend the event over six days.


The second day onwards, however, the crowds started to thin. Some sessions were cancelled as the speakers did not turn up. Special sections were dedicated to children and women scientists, though they also failed to attract too many participants or interested onlookers. Delegates were missing in hordes, perhaps allured by the many tourist destinations in the state of Orissa.


Despite these usual goings-on associated with a mega event of such nature, there have been a few bright sparks. One among them was a session discussing the new science policy being formulated by the India government.




It saw some key science policy makers of the country — Planning Commission member K. Kasturirangan, Secretary to the Indian government V. M. Katoch, Director General of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Samir Brahmachari and secretary to the  department of science and technology T. Ramasami among others — deliberating on what must go into the new science policy. At the inaugural session of the congress India’s science and technology minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had promised to give the country a new, “well-balanced, transparent and evidence-based science policy”. Ramasami confirmed that “we will present to you the new policy before the next science congress”.


Nature India will discuss the new science policy in some detail soon.