Note: A part of my article was published in letter to editor section of the revered journal Nature in May 2014.
This has reference to Mathai Joseph and Andrew Robinson’s Comment : Free Indian Science(Nature, 3 April 2014, Vol 508,pg 36-37). It was eminently readable and after years of education in India’s premier institutes ( I am a PhD in biosciences from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay,IIT Bombay and hold degrees from universities like Calcutta University and Jadavpur University and I teach biotechnology to postgraduates in a premier college St Xavier’s College Mumbai in India) and teaching in a reputed college in India, I feel qualified to comment on this.
What they discussed is true. There is a distinct gap between what we achieved before and after independence in India in the scientific field. Almost independent of European school of relativity, thermodynamics and quantum mechanics Indian scientists Satyendra Nath Bose, Meghnad Saha and C.V.Raman made a brilliant group of Physics in Calcutta University. Half of the subatomic particles are today termed Boson in Bose’s honor; C.V.Raman discovered Raman Effect and Saha gave a theory of thermal ionizations in stars. Sadly after independence Indians did not participate in ground breaking work in science. We lost the nationalist fervor and zeal in science. We lost many of our brilliant minds to the western world ( e.g. H.G.Khorana – Nobel 1968, Subramanyam Chandrasekhar- Nobel 1983, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan – Nobel 2009 being the latest).There are two exceptions although - G.N.Ramachandran & S.N.De. Dr.G.N. Ramachandran of Madras University, India gave a triple helix structure of collagen (1) and Ramachandran plot of protein structures is now read by biochemistry graduates throughout the world (2). Dr.S.N.De of Calcutta, India discovered the nature of cholera toxin in 1959 which went unnoticed (3). This was a true discovery which was noticed so late that in his lifetime De did not get any honor (4).
In my opinion India made a mistake by weaning its universities. Countless research institutes were made all over India after independence which took away the good research students from the universities and these universities lag behind not only because of good researchers but also due to lack of funding. Paucity of good faculty and research students in universities has marred the educational spirit. C.V. Raman saw it coming from the very beginning and famously lamented these institutes as ‘Mausoleums of Indian Science’ (5).
Apart from bureaucracy and lack of funding, lack of talent in science is another factor for the poor show. Salary of scientists and academicians is abysmally low to inspire any to make it big. A PhD student gets a salary of Rs 18000 per month which is almost half of what an entry level engineer makes. An entry level scientist or assistant professor in a college makes less than Rs 50000 after so many years of PhD and post doc abroad. In tier I cities that salary makes a hand-to-mouth existence. Whereas his counterpart in industry of same age makes twice/thrice the money. This is very true in the field of software industry where India is seeing a boom and which the authors mentioned jubilantly to stress on growth and capacity of Indian knowledge workers. If tomorrow Universities, Research Institutes and colleges pay the salary what software industry pays, I believe there will be no dearth of talent. Since professional engineering courses promise high salary, better lifestyle and promise of foreign travel Indian parents make it a beeline to make their wards enter into IITs(Indian Institute of Technology), NITs(national Institute of Technology) and engineering colleges. After the best brains of science take admissions in engineering colleges and medical colleges and other professional courses like IT, only the left overs come to undergraduate science courses. Hence a vicious cycle of poor students and later poorer teachers (these same poor or average students become scientists or lecturers !!) drive the system of science to point of no return. And this is compounded with brain drain to abroad. Rarely one finds the teachers inspiring and motivated. And this situation in colleges breeds unhappy students who visions nothing but a bleak future in science as a career. Let’s face it. Money is a big incentive for a career and a living.
But recently due to economic growth Indian science is getting well-funded and doing better. Due to reverse brain drain many good scientists are returning to India ( Recession in the West is also driving many good scientists back!!). Please see a recent JCB paper where a couple of high impact Nature and Science papers published from India are quoted to show the changing face of biological sciences in India (6). Five of our journals have crossed the impact factor of 1.0 (7). Two of them are near to 2.0. With a lot of research happening in Ayurveda (ancient Hindu medicinal practice) pertaining to medicinal plants we hope a turn around in the biomedical and pharmaceutical sectors. DBT (Department of Biotechnology) is now flush with funds and with modernizing of infrastructure nobody can and should complain of lack of opportunity in big labs in biological sciences at least. Recently DBT and DST have introduced attractive scholarships to allow young post docs come back and settle. India Bioscience is another grand effort funded jointly by DBT, Wellcome trust in that line. The present UPA government in India led by Congress party , though mired in corruption and facing a possible routing out in next general elections, has done enough to increase the opportunities in higher education by setting up of 7 new IITs(The famed Indian Institute of Technology), several IISERs(Indian Institute of Science Education and Research) and NISERs(National Institute of Science Education and Research), almost one NIPER (National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research) and AIIMS ( All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences) in every state. They have upgraded many NITs and created places of national interest. Hence in recent past India has seen a significant increase in jobs in education sector and R&D.
If the present policy makers of India are allowed to do the good work that they have put in the past decade definitely we will see a sea change in Indian science. If we emulate the success of software or IT story by matching the salary of budding scientists with them, we can hope to retain and recruit enough talents to promote a scientific revolution. In fact the present government has been prudent enough to put us in a cusp of revolution in science by promoting institution building and flushing of funds. As of now at least in biology nobody can cry hoarse of lack of money or infrastructure as they did three or four decades ago. Things are changing and changing fast. Now the onus is on the scientists who have to think of original problems and match up to the international standard in publishing. Lack of originality in the realm of thought is endemic in Indian research which has to be rectified soon. If the post docs returning from abroad no longer rides on the idea of their mentors and rather start on their own extending collaboration to their foreign counterparts then the future is definitely bright. If Saha, Bose and Raman could make it independently in the 1920s and 1930s ,why can’t we today ?
Doing international level science is like a race. We fell behind, but thankfully we are catching up.
Reference:
1. Bhattachajee A & Bansal M. (2005) Collagen Structure: The Madras Triple Helix and the Current Scenario. IUBMB Life, 57(3): 161 – 172.
2. Stryer L. (1995). Biochemistry. 4th edition, W.H.Freeman & Company, New York, USA
3. S.N.De. (1959) Enterotoxicity of Bacteria-free culture-filtrate of Vibrio cholerae, , Nature, 183: 1533-1534
4. Joshua Lederberg (1990). ‘S.N.De- regicide of reigning dogma’ Current Science, 59(13 and 14): 628-629
5. P.Balaram.(1998). The Raman Legacy. Current Science. 75(10): 977
6. Vale R D and Dell K. (2009) The biological sciences in India Aiming high for the future. Journal of Cell Biology, 184(3): 342-353.
7. Jain N C. (2009) Five Indian journals cross impact factor 1.000 in 2008. Current Science. 97(9):1273.
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