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“I have great pleasure in participating in the
platinum jubilee celebrations of the National Academy of Sciences. This
Academy is one of the proud inheritances we have from a visionary
generation of Indians who fought for our freedom and independence. I
salute the memory of your founder-President, the great nationalist and
scientist, Professor Meghnad Saha, who took the initiative to create this
great institution. The main objective of the Academy, as Professor Saha
saw it, was to provide a national forum for the publication of research
work carried out by Indian scientists and to provide opportunities for
exchange of views among them.
Most of the founder fellows of the National Academy of
Sciences were on the faculty of three universities – the universities of
Lucknow and Allahabad and the Benaras Hindu University. This fact reminds
us of the great talent that universities were able to attract at that
time. It also reminds us that it was in fact universities that were at the
center of advanced research in the sciences. The universities of Calcutta,
Madras, Delhi and Osmania, also had very active departments of science. I
draw your attention to this fact because we do see today a disconnect
between research and teaching in the sciences. Research has increasingly
been concentrated in specialized institutes. The university system is
unable to mobilize adequate financial and intellectual resources in
support of creative research and development effort. The resulting divorce
between teaching and research hampers the growth of the spirit of
inquisitiveness and enquiry among students coming out of our universities.
We need teachers who will inspire their students by operating on the
frontiers of knowledge. Then alone can we realize the full creative
potential of our students. I have spoken often, in recent months, about my
concerns in this regard. It is my sincere intention to once again restore
this link between research and teaching in our universities, especially in
the frontier areas of knowledge.
Allow me to also remind you that the generation of
scientists who built great institutions of modern science in India, were
also known for their humanism and social commitment. Professor Saha was
one such. Professor Saha was a product of the Bengal renaissance that gave
birth to many distinguished men and women of science. They were all deeply
committed to modernism, rationalism and the spread of scientific temper.
In rekindling a new interest in the sciences among
today’s youth, I urge you to also inspire in them a modern, rational
outlook and a worldview shaped by scientific temper.
We are now living in a world in which advances in
science and technology have made it possible as never before in human
history that chronic poverty does not have to be the inevitable fate of
the majority of humankind. Poverty removal in our lifetime is a feasible
societal goal. We must harness the enormous potential of modern science
and technology to deal with vital societal concerns such as food security,
education and health for all and energy & environment security.
Science and modern technology must become an active instrument of social
and economic transformation.
There is today widespread recognition of the fact that
leadership in the modern age rests on the way we harness science for the
development of the economy. Even newly industrializing nations like China
and South Korea have leap-frogged ahead of us by their mastery of science
and technology. In recent months I have encountered growing concern among
our scientists that China has over-taken us in the field of science. If
this is true, then we must ask ourselves why is it so and what can we do
about it?
India has to remain in the forefront of scientific
research if it is to achieve its development ambitions. How can we achieve
that goal if we do not perform well in the field of basic sciences? There
is widespread concern about the decline in the standards of our research
work in Universities and even in the IITs. A more fundamental challenge is
to attract more and better students, both boys and girls, to the sciences
at the school and college levels. Teaching of science and mathematics in
our schools and colleges ought to be made sufficiently interesting for the
pupils. I make a specific reference to girl students because they are
performing very well in the sciences at the 10+2 stage. Our challenge is
to encourage girl students to pursue a career in science teaching and
research. Overall, the economic incentives and rewards have to be so
oriented that more and more of our bright students opt for a career in
science.
Our Government is evolving a strategy to rejuvenate
science. We have increased financial allocations for science teaching in
India. I have asked Dr. C. N. R. Rao and the Scientific Advisory Council
to the Prime Minister to come forward with specific steps we need to take
to foster scientific research and make science a preferred career option
for our youth.
For a hundred years we had only one advanced institute
of research in the sciences. In the last six months our Government has
launched three such new institutions. I am confident that this quantum
leap in high quality science education will herald a new era in the
development of modern science in India. I hope the new Indian Institutes
of Science Education and Research will emerge as world-class institutions
with an intellectually alive atmosphere for research. We are also
committed to increase the annual expenditure on science and technology
from less than 1% of our GDP to 2% of GDP in the next five years.
I would also like to draw your attention to the growing
privatization of advanced research in science and technology in developed
industrial economies. Multinational corporations are playing an
increasingly important role in the generation of new knowledge in areas
such as biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, information technology and energy.
The challenge before us is to find new pathways to sustain adequate
incentives for the generation of new knowledge and simultaneously to make
the fruits of this knowledge available at affordable prices to the poorer
countries in the world.
I would, in conclusion, suggest to you that we must
find easier ways to enable researchers in India to work with their
counterparts elsewhere in the world. Equally, we must try and attract the
best and the brightest, especially from within the global Indian diaspora,
to come and work in India, teaching and guiding research at our
institutions.
You will agree with me that in the past few decades
some of our brightest students have gone abroad and have done well in
advanced fields of research. I am aware of the fact that many of them have
been returning home, for varying periods of time, as visiting faculty at
institutions in India. Many are taking up work assignments in private
sector research institutions and in research-based companies. This
“reverse brain drain” must be encouraged.
Our visa regime, our employment regulations and rules,
especially in universities and in government institutions, and related
issues must respond to this new phenomenon. Our Government will address
these issues so that our knowledge economy can benefit from a `reverse
brain drain’.
Finally, let me once again pay tribute to all those who
have been associated with the National Academy of Sciences. I hope you
will continue to inspire good science and spread scientific temper. The
responsibility of making India a leader in the global knowledge economy of
the 21st century rests as much on your shoulders as it does on those of
our political and business leaders.
All stake holders must willingly accept the challenge
of working in concert to make India a major growth pole of the evolving
global economy. As I see it, our country is on the threshold of exciting
new opportunities. We must mobilize all the potential for exercise of
intellectual creativity, spirit of education and enterprise that exist
among our people. We are going to make the future happen.”
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