The Indian National Science Academy in New Delhi. 
Gautam Desiraju, a chemist at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore and a fellow of all the three academies, is spearheading the merger effort.
"It is time we had a united academy broadly representing the scientific community to be a single source of advice to the government on scientific issues," he told Nature India. Having three academies is an artificial anachronism when they all survive on government grants and the pool of scientists involved in them is largely the same, he says. "A united academy would also mean a more diverse fellowship in terms of age, regional origin and subject affiliation. There's greater chance that it being taken more seriously by the international community."
Desiraju's proposal is getting encouraging response from academy fellows which he says is more important than the opinion of their presidents which is muted. Vidyanand Nanjundiah, a development biologist at IISc says, "Having three national academies of science is an absurd situation all right, and embarrassing when one tries to explain it to someone outside India."
The three academies — Indian National Science Academy (INSA) in New Delhi, the Indian Academy of Sciences (IAS) in Bangalore and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in Allahabad — were born long before India's independence in 1947. They owe their creations to larger-than-life science personalities at that time. The oldest at Allahabad was founded by the famous astrophysicist Meghnad Saha in 1930. Four years later Nobel laureate C. V. Raman established the Bangalore academy and presided over it till his death in 1970. The third academy created in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1935 shifted base to New Delhi in 1947 with Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar as its president and began representing India in the world's scientific councils.
Efforts by political leaders to merge the three just before independence failed due to disagreements among Raman, Saha and Bhatnagar on finer details. "What prevented the merger in 1947 is history," says Marthandavarma Sankaran Valiathan who was president of INSA during 2002-04. "The present fellows belong to a different generation. I hope the merger happens now."
The move is welcomed by highly influential scientists including Monkombu S. Swaminathan of the green revolution fame. "In 1976 as president of the Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA), I called for a merger of the academies with ISCA to form a joint coordinating council but the academies refused," he told Nature India . "The Bt brinjal case emphasizes the urgency of having a coordinated scientific voice in policy formulation."
Padmanabhan Balaram, IISc director and editor of Current Science published by the Bangalore academy admits in an editorial that the academies have become "sterile and elitist clubs which serve little or no useful role in the context of the larger scientific community in India."
Desiraju says each academy has isolated niche activities within which to function but plays no role advising government on issues like nuclear energy or genetically modified crops. As a result, the government leans on secretaries of scientific departments or its two Science Advisory Councils (SACs) — one affiliated to the Prime Minister and the other to the Cabinet — whose members are picked by the SAC chairmen, who in turn is appointed by the government.
Desiraju says Prime Minister Manmohan Singh need not have set up separate panels for climate change or water policy had there been a credible nodal academy as the UK's Royal Society or the National Research Council in the United States.
Though the merger move is widely discussed among Indian scientists, the academy presidents are lukewarm to the idea. "The proposal is better discussed in the academy councils first instead of each president shooting his mouth," Ajay Sood, president of the Bangalore academy told Nature India . He does not see any benefit in the merger as 50 per cent of fellows are anyway common to all the three academies.
Asis Datta, president of NAS says the academies "are already working together" on specific issues. INSA president Mamannamana Vijayan admits that merger is "a good idea" but says it can not be forced on the academies. Mambillikalathil Govind Kumar (or M. G. K.) Menon, who had been president of both Allahabad and Delhi academies, was explicit. "I do not think it is practical or feasible. And if it is ever taken up, it has to be properly worked out."
Pushpa Bhargava, a leading biologist who gave up his fellowships of all the three academies on ethical grounds says India needs just one academy of science and social science. "We have to start afresh and should not carry over any tradition from the past."
