A sagging magic

The India Science Report, released by the prime minister, should come as a wake-up call for Indian science. The report, published by the Ind...

The India Science Report, released by the prime minister, should come as a wake-up call for Indian science. The report, published by the Indian National Science Academy and NCAER, highlights a number of startling trends. It makes the point that India is woefully short of good and motivated science teachers. This is seriously hampering both the quality and quantity of science graduates. Second, while enrollment in science courses has increased slightly, it is still nowhere near the enrollment figures of our competitors. More alarmingly, the dropout rate remains very high. Sixty three per cent of all unemployed postgraduate students are science students. This is a reflection not on the demand for good science graduates but on the quality of education they receive.

There are a few islands of excellence in Indian science. But the base needs to be broadened and the peaks need to improved considerably if our science talent is to become our comparative advantage in the global economy. As with so many things, the growth of Indian science is hampered not merely by lack of funds, or lack of talent. Rather, the institutional structures we have created are inappropriate to the needs of the 21st century. Our science institutions are still too bureaucratic, too rigid and operate on inappropriate incentive structures. The disciplinary matrices we use to teach science have lagged considerably behind the frontiers of science. The name of the game all over the world is to break down boundaries between disciplines; our science teaching continues to be divided into compartments created 50 years ago. Creating nimble institutions that can adapt to rapid innovation and give the right incentives will be the fundamental challenge for the development of science in India.

But it is becoming apparent that basic research and pure science have had few champions recently. Our investment, public and private, in research and development is inadequate, and we are losing out on the vast wealth such investment can create. It also appears that the romance has disappeared from science, and unless we find ways of re-enchanting science teaching, our future prospects will remain dim.