Indian Prime Minister Talks of Support Upgrade for Science. (January 8, 2012)

Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, last Tuesday told the 99^th Indian Science Congress in Bhubaneswar: "Over the past few decades, India's relative position in the world of science had been declining and we have been overtaken by countries like China," and went on to note that "poorer prospects in science" are driving India's best students to seek careers outside science: "things are changing; we cannot be satisfied with what has been achieved. We need to do much more to change the face of Indian science".

Dr Singh's 32-member scientific advisory council -- comparable to US President Barack Obama's PCAST -- is chaired by chemist CNR. Rao. It advised the Prime Minister last month that the nation's support for science was "somewhat discouraging" and needs to take "many steps in a warlike fashion" to make India a science leader at least by 2030".

Reporting for NatureNews KS Jayaraman writes: "India's universities have decayed owing to years of neglect; and even its leading institutions 'are not performing well'. South Korea and China have 'out-classed our performance in terms of the number of PhDs, scientific research papers and so on'". And its not just a question of money: "the overall environment for innovation and creative work".  A crisis in leadership is looming, not enough young people are becoming available to take on such roles.

The Council's recommendations include:

• as many as 1,000 young people must be sent to advanced centres abroad for PhD and postdoctoral studies;

• mediocrity must be eliminated from educational and scientific institutions;

• bureaucracy must be curbed to allow structural changes for better administration;

• "a large number of small centres of excellence" around outstanding individuals need to be created.

Lingadahalli Shashidhara, a developmental biologist at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Pune told NatureNews: "This is a real bottom-up approach; it is good to push the average standards upwards; it is key to the success of Indian science." And he hopes that India will also provide well-funded, flexible research positions for foreign researchers.

And both Gangan Prathap, director of the National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources in New Delhi, and Mamannamana Vijayan, a biophysicist at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and former president of the Indian National Academy of Sciences, are very much in favour of the proposals. Nevertheless, there is also some voiced scepticism if not downright cynicism as to the implementation of the recommendations. Gautam Desiraju, a chemist at the Indian Institute of Science says: "All this has been seen before but the will to implement it is totally missing. As long as the present dispensation continues in the present way, no progressive change can be expected."

However, Professor Rao told NatureNews he has indications that the government is taking the panel’s advice seriously. "It has asked us to prepare a set of priority recommendations for rejuvenating science and the structural reforms needed for the purpose," he says. "We have just sent these and we are promised that these will be given place of importance in the coming 5-year plan."