HIGHER RESEARCH IN INDIA

The quality of scientific research in India needs self-introspection now than ever before. The contribution from Indian Scientists to general science is meager when compared to U.S.A. and Europe. We have to compare ourselves with Pakistan or other such smaller states and get satisfied that we are better. However we have a very great potential that has not been tapped properly. Several reasons can be traced for this state of impasse.

Primarily the selection of the members into the scientific community or academia is not free and fair. Many a times merit is not given due consideration but all other means are adopted to appoint incompetent persons (political influence, bribes or otherwise). The casualty is good science. The proof for this can come from a nation-wide performance analysis on all the teaching and scientific staff and bringing out a status-report on them. How many of us have guts to do this or to volunteer to the appraisal. The only proof would be their research output.

Secondarily proper evaluation is not done at frequent intervals. By the result there is no accountability. The individuals enjoy all the benefits and retire without any scrutiny. Every five years there should be an evaluation as this is a minimum gestation period for a person to show results. The number of scientific papers published and the quality of such publications (Impact Factor) should form the basis for such evaluations. This can be relaxed to some extent to those subjects in Arts and Humanities or Mathematics where publications in journals are sometimes difficult. Every funding agency should expect publications for the projects they fund. If the research/teaching staff don't perform well they should be served one or two warnings and finally terminated. Only such punishments will make the scientists/academicians accountable as otherwise we will witness a majority, who are sundry, filling their pockets at the end of each month. Several institutes are running due to the fame left by the earlier workers who would have been stalwarts. In the university departments teaching load is less, as they have to teach only post-graduates. Even here the normal practice is the faculty members don't teach but give all their workload as assignments to the students. Whatever be the reason the faculties in the universities can devote most of their time for research. Unfortunately, once again, mostly we have non-performers. On the contrary a handful of faculty members in the colleges outperform those in the universities in spite of lacking several facilities that are available in the universities. There is another problem from non-performers. They have jealousy on performers and some of them try to sabotage or curtail others work.

It seems the establishments cannot do anything with those who do not perform. But to those who perform well one of the blockades is the administrative wrangle. The administrative staff is basically supporting staff to the research staff but they don't realize that and cooperate properly. The purchase department does not procure the equipments or chemicals in time. They show their one up-man ship when things come to their hands. Due to this reason some performing scientists become demoralized. Sometimes there will be indefinite delays in the correspondence between the funding agencies whose offices are in Delhi and research institutes which are spread all over India.

Third reason is there is no proper leadership or motivation at various levels. It is unfortunate that some members have to be driven while others have to be motivated at the age of 35-60. But there is no other go. Many consider one or two scientific publications are enough and they feel that they have lifetime achievements. We do not know where from such feelings come while there is no limit for scientific accomplishments. We should learn from westerners who work at all ages with full vigor. We need people who can inspire others and be the role models. Most probably such people don't get a chance to come up in the ladder. We should inculcate and imbibe the scientific temperament that our counterparts in the west have.

Spending on higher research has to be increased manifold. Compared to U.S.A. and Europe our per capita expenditure on higher research is dismal. Allocations should be generous for awarding projects, appointing scientific personnel, sophisticated instrumentation and their maintenance.

Though we claim that English speaking are more in India and the claim that we have an edge over China seems to be incorrect as far as scientific writing is concerned. Whether one likes it or not 90% of the scientific publications are in English and it will continue to be so. Those who are not at ease with English give all sorts of excuses for their non-performance. Such people neither fare better in vernacular languages. If they really have any great inventions there will be any number of people to help them to translate or correct the grammar. Unfortunately this is not the case. Japanese, Russians, Germans also face such language problems but they are great scientists and they publish in their own languages that are highly graded. To bring the science within the reach of common people some of the important inventions and discoveries of the last decade may be translated into vernacular languages of India to facilitate a better understanding for all sections of the society. Many in the age group of 30-50 or above would have missed these developments in their curricula.

Finally it should be remembered that the only way of evaluation of research output is journal publications and nothing else. There should be some soul-searching and debates as to why our contribution to science is very meager.