Access
This article is part of Nature's premium content.
Please note this is News in Brief, and so will be a short article.
Published online 28 November 2007 | Nature 450, 599 (2007) | doi:10.1038/450599b
News in Brief
India commits to boosting biotechnology research
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
Please note this is News in Brief, and so will be a short article.
Comments
Reader comments are usually moderated after posting. If you find something offensive or inappropriate, you can speed this process by clicking 'Report this comment' (or, if that doesn't work for you, email redesign@nature.com). For more controversial topics, we reserve the right to moderate before comments are published.
While the Government is releasing enormous funds for research, it is not paying adequate attention to increasing the scientists' salaries. As a result, science is no longer an attractive career and only those with no other career option are opting for science. A more worrying prospect is that presently very few good scientists who are trained in the US and Europe are opting to return to India because of prohibitive cost of living and higher education for thier children, which a scientific job in India is hard put to provide. Unless this anomaly is rectified, the future of scientific research in Indian Biotechnology laboratories will only get bleaker. Needless to say, an effort to promote education, both primary and higher, needs huge inputs, which entails at least 3-4 fold higher salaries across the board for all Govt jobs including teaching.
Despite relatively good budget for biotechnology research in India, the progress in quality basic and applied biotechnology research has been dismal, as compared to that in China, mainly due to (i)shortage of comptetent manpower, (ii) recruitments of university teachers/scientists based on considerations other than merit,and at many places leadership in biotechnology in the hands of those, who never worked on the bench; (iii) almost negligible monitoring of research funded by the granting agencies; (iv) lack of efforts at the national level to bring back qualified NRIs from abroad to conduct research in India; (v) lack of incentives for quality research conducted by scientists, and so on. Serious efforts are needed to initiate remedial measures. PK Gupta, Meerut (INDIA)
This is a very good step, but to make it work the government must also take steps to (i)reduce beurocratic tangles and red tapes (ii)reduce the power of the clerks so that they can not dictate terms to extract favours from companies supplying research materials. Now this second problem has become rampant and often clerks try to dictate the scientists to which company they should place their orders and unnecessarily delay the procedure to pressurize both the scientists and the supplying companies. In certain cases they even try to pressurize the research scholars to give them cut money when the orders are placed from individual contingencies of the research scholars! Ananda Mookerjee, Ph.D
The following excerpt from an earlier news article in this journal on Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s genuine feeling about country’s science (Nature 445, 134-135, 2007) - "While our government will do its utmost to invest in science, I call upon the scientific community to also invest its time and intellectual energy in the revitalization of our science institutions ..... deeply concerned about declining enrolment in basic sciences, ..... decaying university system needs upgrading in a massive way ..... the decline in the standards of our research work in universities and even in advanced research institutes ..... we have to improve the productivity of investments already made ..... may submit India's research labs to international peer review†- makes direct sense here. His views should guide us when we commit to boost biotechnology research and plan to create 50 biotech 'centres of excellence' by 2012.
Mr. Jagmohan Singh has commented that scientists are not adequately paid. Well, this is to say that scientists working in the field of biotechnology are paid at par with scientists working in other fields. And you really need to sacrifice a little if you love your country, like with their salaries Indian scientists perhaps can not afford to live in a bunglow or have French cheese and wine every day. But given the costs in the internal market, they can live a good life and also provide best education (which is perhaps not the costliest) in India. Really you don't need a fabulously luxarious life and fast cars to do good science and nowhere in the world scientists are paid at par with people working in Research and Development sections of biotechnology or other companies. It is also highly inappropriate to comment that people having no other career options are opting to become scientists. There are several brilliant scientists who have chosen to become scientists because they love science. It is better not to project one's personal opinion as a general view, especially when one does not have any significant contribution except some epidemiological studies. Perhaps someone who does not really worth the position of a scientist can only make such insulting comments. Ananda Mookerjee, INSERM, France.
As a nation with the second largest population, the humpteen number of political parties in the ruling coalition and the infinite number of differences between the riches and the poors, every single step India makes towards progress is commendable. Yes, it does take time and motivation to get these issues into working. US 1.6 billion is a good chunk of money. As we are not part of the policy makers and implementers, we could only hope that this USD number gets utilized to the fullest for the intended purpose. I am not here to make any comment personal, but I couldnt help noticing Ananda Mookerjee's comments about being ready to sacrifice something to work in the Indian scientific arena "...you really need to sacrifice a little if you love your country...". I am not sure about that, but I also happen to notice his current location "Ananda Mookerjee, INSERM, France". I thought it had a taste of hypocrisy. - Arun Murugesan PhD
Mr.Ananda Mookerjee,INSERM, France (CNCI calcutta), commented in this forum without properly checking the contribution made by jagmohan singh. As per my knowledge Dr. Singh has made significant contribution in biological research he has published in Nature, Genes and Development, MCB,JBC and Biotechniques like high impact journals. Difference of opinion is acceptable but kindly don’t try to bring disgrace to any person. without properly enquiring about him.
Well, the step towards the establishment of a firm scientific era in India is really adorable. It becomes a matter of proud for us to make worth of the money and encourage the upcoming generations towards Science. Being a Scientist is a matter of grace, but when i look above the comments of different respectable people, everything gets shattered because this is not a place to criticize each other but to face the reality (which to some extent i agree with Dr. Jagmohan Singh) and come up with a positive critic. Being very practical, how many of us are really willing into put ourself totally into science without being materialistic. And, if we look from a positive and smart point of view, there should be something attractive to bring young intelligent brains towards research. I am very naive to the whole politics going in India and am afraid even to dig into it, but as a Ph.D student in abroad, i wish that we all Indians should bring together our experiences or suggestions to make India as smarter and competitive as other countries in this field.
Recently I post my views on Indian Science at nature network. One of important issue is money, it is required for building infrastructure as well as for paying good salary. Please have a look on http://network.nature.com/forums/india/870