‘High growth not possible if we don’t do our own science, produce own tech’: Principal Scientific Advisor Ajay Kumar Sood

“Improving our science and technology output is linked to our economic growth… essential for our goal to become a developed nation by 2047. The kind of economic growth that is required to take us there — 8 or 10 per cent or more — would not be possible without deployment of breakthrough technologies. It is these technologies that will drive economic growth in coming decades. Most of these technologies are still being developed, and there is an opportunity for India to make fundamental contributions in these areas, take leadership, and reap the benefits…A Viksit Bharat will have to be a leader in science. There is no other way,” said Sood.

He said India had a strong scientific base and good scientific traditions but its contribution had not been commensurate to its size or capabilities, as was evident from the commonly used science indicators.

“We must improve on (these commonly used science) indicators… We should be in top three or top five. But I am not a great fan of just increasing the numbers. There has to be quality output… Take the example of publications. India is currently third, I think, in the number of publications. But we have to ask how much of those are appearing in the top one per cent of the journals,” he said.

“At the same time, we cannot have a small pool and expect everyone to be making fundamental contributions. So, both numbers and quality have to be improved,” he said.

Sood, who was with the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, prior to becoming the PSA, is one of India’s leading physicists, best known for his work in condensed matter physics overlapping with material science and engineering.

As PSA, he advises the government on all matters related to science, and acts as the main interface between the scientific community and the government.

Sood said the scientific community needed to be provided the right environment, adequate resources and the right incentives, and the government was trying to address their concerns. He said he was aware of the difficulties being faced by the researchers, particularly with  regard to funding delays, and bureaucratic hurdles.

“I have a first-hand experience of these difficulties. After all, I have been a researcher myself for 40 years. These complaints (from the scientists) are not without substance. And we have to make sure that these are addressed to their satisfaction. Some of these have been,” he said.

Underlining the need for industry to become a partner in scientific research, Sood said:

“Science and technology have to get tied with business, with economic activity. They have to be integrated with our economic model, our economic vision. There has to be indigenisation of technologies — not existing technologies but new technologies. We need to do new technologies, otherwise we will only be following others. We can never be able to achieve 10-12 per cent economic growth if we don’t do our own science and produce our own technologies,” he said.

Sood said India was in a position to take advantage of existing opportunities in emerging technologies, but it required very hard work.

“Take the example of quantum technologies. A lot of work needs to be done in developing human resources, laboratories etc. But we would like to be there, in the leadership position. Frankly, we are not way behind. We are very much in the race. But we have to work very hard. It is a similar story in a lot of other areas,” he said.

“The bottom line is that we must ensure that we are not left behind in terms of these new technologies. In the past, we have missed the bus on some very crucial technologies – supercomputers, for example. And we have suffered because of that. We have been at the receiving end of technology denial regimes because of which our nuclear programme faced challenges, our space programme faced challenges,” he said.

Sood said recent government interventions like the setting up of the National Research Foundation (NRF) were aimed at making some necessary structural changes, like getting universities and colleges involved in scientific research, increasing the scientific base, and attracting private sector funding into science.