Back to school

At the 97th Indian Science Congress in Bangalore,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urged scientists to engage with the government for a new Decade of Innovation,and underscored the need to liberate Indian science from the shackles and deadweight of bureaucratism and in-house favouritism. Recently,an MIT-returned scientist embarrassed the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research by ranting about its draining internal culture,and raised questions about how the Indian science establishment could integrate those trained in a more results-oriented environment abroad,even if both sides were willing.

But while loosening bureaucratic fetters is an obvious good,scientific research in India needs to be fixed at an earlier stage. As Venkatraman Ramakrishnan recently said,his own career is a demonstration of the importance of conversation between scientific disciplines,say between genetics and biochemistry. In India,the focus remains narrowly careerist. The stress is on global competitiveness rather than research for itself. And once set off on a certain scientific path,we tend towards extreme specialisation,that is,to know more and more about less and less. But as Ramakrishnan pointed out,creativity occurs on the cusps,at the interstices between disciplines. In the US,he had the flexibility to take some undergrad courses after a physics PhD in India,one is locked into one path or the other without even getting to the point where a cross-pollination of ideas is possible.

As far as innovation goes,education must be geared towards action as well as exploration. Other countries facing the same dilemma are experimenting with the paradigm one new way is the professional science masters degrees,which,despite sniffiness and opposition from research scientists who want to continue with their own departmental cubbyholes,are a great way to integrate science with real-world issues. They aim to produce scientists who are competent across different domains and expert enough to inventively apply that learning to immediate goals for instance,if we are looking to deploy a scientific corps towards climate change or other challenges,re-imagining the science degree could stand us in good stead.