The Government has approved a new Science Technology and Innovation (STI) Policy-2013 to suit the present condition.
The STI Policy seeks to: (i) Enhance India`s global share of scientific publications from the present 3.5% to 7.0%; (ii) Establish world class infrastructure for Research and Development (R&D) in some select areas; (iii) Make careers in science, research and innovation attractive enough for talented and bright minds; (iv) Create an environment for enhanced private sector participation in R&D, technology and innovation; (v) Seed S&T based high risk Innovation; (vi) Participate in international R&D projects that are high end science. The Policy seeks to establish a strong and viable Science, Research and Innovation System for High Technology-led path for India.
India has made significant growth in the field of science and technology during the last five years. There has been a continuous increase in investment in R&D in the country. The Gross expenditure on R&D in the country has doubled from Rs.24,117 crores in 2004-05 to Rs. 53,041 crores in 2009-10. India ranks 9th globally in terms of scientific publications output as per the latest UNESCO Science Report-2010. Its global share in scientific publications increased significantly from 2.8% in the year 2005 to 3.5% in the year 2010.
Further, a large number of new institutions such as Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs), Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Central universities, etc. have been established providing new opportunities for science education and research in the country. Creation of centres of excellence and facilities in emerging and frontline areas in academic and national institutes, induction of new and attractive fellowships such as Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) and establishment of National Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) have also given a boost to R&D.
Salvage science
INDIA is losing its position in science and technology and this decline must be attended to with a “sense of urgency”, the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister has urged India’s premier Manmohan Singh. The council met on November 8 and stated that there is a need to salvage the sector.
It has asked for bigger investments in research and development in public institutions, and for promotion of public-private partnership in research. It also asked for elimination of bureaucratic and outdated procedures in the education system, especially in state universities. Pointing out that many decisions are based on “emotions and individual preferences”, the council states, “dialogues on new technologies and mega projects should be based on reliable evidence and experience”.
Its chairperson Chintamani Nagesa Ramchandra Rao, recently been named recipient of the Bharat Ratna, told Down To Earth, “India’s performance is satisfactory neither in quality nor in quantity. Rather, for 10 to 15 years, quantity has remained the same unlike in South Korea and China where performance has improved.”
 | We want investments not just for scientists and science institutions, but also for innovators who have excelled in their fields |
| – C N R Rao, Chairman, Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister |
The 32-member council comprises scientists, doctors and industry representatives. IIT professors, heads of Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Indian Council of Medical Research and Indian Institute of Science, besides officials from the Ministry of Science and Technology are on its board.
India’s share in global research is a minuscule 3.5 per cent, states a report published by the department of science and technology in July 2012. It compares Indian science publications with those of developed countries. The report, however, stresses that even a slight effort could help India improve its current rank from ninth to fifth or sixth within three years.
The council has cited many success stories in Indian science, the recent being nano-science and the mission to Mars of the Indian Space Research Organisation. The initiative for nano-science started in May 2007 with a sound allocation of Rs 1,000 crore for five years. This resulted in India achieving the third rank in the cutting-edge subject. However, more investment is required, particularly in energy research, disease biology, agriculture, water management and bio-informatics.
The council holds that time is ripe to improve the sector. According to the latest census, 30.9 per cent of Indian population is under 14 years. In 20 years, this group will be the country’s workforce. The target should be to develop the scientific temperament of this group, a council member says.
At present, India spends only two per cent of its GDP on education, though as per education and science ministries’ recommendations, it should use up to six per cent. “The education system suffers from poor governance, over-regulation, inadequate output, skill deficit and faculty shortage,” says council member R A Mashelkar, research professor and chancellor at the Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research.
 | Education disseminates knowledge. Research creates new knowledge and innovation converts knowledge into wealth, social good |
| – R A Mashelkar, Member, Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister |
Many countries are investing heavily in education to form a strong foundation. India, which focuses its education on text, fails to do so. “The need is to integrate education with research and innovation. Education disseminates known knowledge. Research creates new knowledge and innovation converts knowledge into wealth and social good,” says Mashelkar.
This apart, many innovations happen at the grassroots level. “When we ask for investment in research and development, it is not limited to scientists and science institutions. It also applies to innovators, be it industry or individuals who have excelled in their fields,” says Rao.
Improve quality, not quantity
India, at present, has three categories of researchers and scientists, says a council member from IIT, who did not wish to be named. The first works in isolation and has the prime goal of publishing its research papers. As high as 85 per cent of the scientists and researchers come in this category, he says. Ten per cent of them work for industry, and a meagre 5 per cent work for specific social goals. As per UNESCO Global Science Report 2010, as many as 36,261 research papers were published in 2008 with a work force of 154,827 research and development professionals. “That is why our innovations and discoveries do not reach the ground level,” he adds.
 Source: Ministry of Science report, 2012When the success of a scientist is based only on the number of his research papers, the outcome will not be good because the applicability of research was not tested. In the Indian research system, promotions are based on the number of papers published, he says. “There is a need to reform the way scientists’ success is measured,” he adds.
A senior science and technology ministry official, however, says that according to their 2012 study, the number of Indian research papers cited by international scientists is increasing. “It is not that Indian scientists do not work,” he argues. In fact, the output of Indian scientific papers is growing at a rate of 66 per cent, the study states. The citation impact of papers emanating from India has increased from 0.35 in 1981-85 to 0.68 in 2006-10. The figure is reached by dividing the sum of citations by the total number of papers in any given data set. According to the study chemistry, physics, material science, engineering and clinical medicine are active research output areas in the country. “Success of a scientist should be based on quality, not quantity,” says the council member from IIT. “This is one of the major reasons for failure of scientists in India,” he adds. Bureaucracy is another.
Eliminate bureaucratic hurdles
According to Rao, bureaucracy hinders smooth functioning of the system. For instance, appointment of a director in a research institute can take months. It requires approval from the Department of Personnel and Training. The management of technical institutes or the ministries should be given the freedom to appoint scientists, he says. If a director has to be re-appointed, an application must be given once again. This is a time-taking procedure.
“The retirement age of a science institute’s director is fixed. It is not caliber, but a scientist’s age which decides his job,” says 79-year-old Rao, who is an international authority on solid state and materials chemistry. He is the only scientist in India whose work has reached the H-index of 100 in April this year. H-index is the quality of scientific paper based on its number of citations.
Scientists need more freedom in India, says a scientist and council member. “Research on genetic modification, for instance, has come to a standstill because of people’s perceptions about it,” the scientist says. “From a pen to an air-conditioner, everything is the gift of science and technology. We should be rational rather than emotional in taking decisions.”
Rao says salary will become secondary if scientific temper of the new generation is built and people are given a good work environment. But for all this, the government must act.
No. of scientists India needs
Between 2004 and 2006, India had one research scientist per 7,100 people, China had one per 1,080 people, South Korea one per 240 and Sweden one per 163 people. To become a global force, by 2025 India must add the following numbers to its present scientific workforce, the Science Advisory Council to the Prime Minister has recommended:
1.5 million: Graduate scientists
0.1 million: Post-graduate scientists
30,000: PhD
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Healing a tradition
Baiga tribals have in-depth knowledge of herbal healing, says Vijay Chaurasia. “In fact, I learnt a treatment for asthma from a Baiga healer and have successfully treated hundreds of patients using the nuskha (indigenous remedy).” Coming from an allopathic physician, the statement means nothing but hard facts about traditional healing. Chaurasia, who runs a private clinic in Gadasarai village in Dindori district of Madhya Pradesh, says, “I used to wonder why very few Baiga people come to my clinic for treatment. I realised the reason after a Baiga healer cured my wife’s asthma.”
Healing traditions of indigenous people have always been a thorny subject—many of their methods do not conform to modern science, there is no standardisation, and recognition is a messy affair. In the last week of September, some 50 traditional healers gathered at a meet organised by C G Net Swara, a citizens’ journalism initiative, in Bhopal to deliberate these issues. But, most importantly, they celebrated the authenticity of their art and its continued relevance in modern times. They also formed an online network, Swasthya Swara. Its aim is to share the traditional healing knowledge and bring scientific recognition to their art.
Science in traditional wisdom
This is not an easy endeavour. Traditional healing is fraught with possibilities, says Surya Bali, head of the telemedicine department at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhopal. But it is difficult to make out what exactly is useful.
A lot of people term healers’ activities like going into a trance or claiming to be possessed by deities as useless antics, but sometimes these are crucial for building trust between the healer and the community. On the other hand, the veracity of actual healing practices can be doubtful. Bali, who is born to a traditional healer in Uttar Pradesh, recounts that his father used to prescribe the juice of a leaf growing nearby his house for treating jaundice. The remedy was known for its effectiveness in the area. “But as a medical student, I learnt that jaundice is a viral disease that heals on its own. Since then I have wondered if my father’s remedy was authentic.” Bali suggests that separating the wheat from the chaff by backing information with scientific evidence and systematic documentation will help the healers’ science get the recognition it deserves.
 Traditional healers practise posting their remedies on Swasthya Swara’s mobile network at a meeting in Bhopal; (Right) A Baiga healer shows wild mushrooms that can help reduce fatigue and speed up recovery after childbirth
But this is easier said than done. “Methods of traditional healing do not always conform to mainstream science,” points out A K Arun, homoeopath and public-health expert from Delhi who was present at the meet. A herb or a concoction can be effective in treating a particular disease in actual experience, but chemical examination of the constituents may not throw up corresponding results, explains Arun, also the chief editor of health journal, The Heritage.
Traditional healers at the meet agree with Arun. “It is not easy to quantify the exact medical properties of a herb in the way satisfactory to conventional science,” says Anantram Shrimali, an elderly vaidya from Sagar, Madhya Pradesh. “Our science says properties of herbs change with the environment. A herb will have different healing properties depending on whether it grows on dry land or in a marsh, or the kind of vegetation it is surrounded with. Its effectiveness gets significantly impacted if it is cultivated rather than collected from the wild,” Shrimali says. So, standardisation along the lines of modern science may lead to confusion and loss of valuable knowledge, he cautions.
Arun points out another disadvantage of trying to live up to scientific standards. It requires following protocols like clinical trials, which are expensive and beyond the reach of healers. Bali offers a solution: healing need not always be molecule-centric. Proper records and testimonies of patients who benefited from the treatment can also serve as scientific evidence, he says.
Traditional healers agree with such general idea of scientific standardisation, but advise caution. “Our art by its very nature is highly individual and localised,” says Ashish Ratre, vaidya from Janjgir-Champa district in Chhattisgarh, who learnt the healer’s art while trying to cure herself of a skin disease. “There are different cures for the same disease, which may vary depending on local conditions, factors responsible for the disease and availability of herbs,” he informs.
It must be realised that the efficacy of our cures depends on social and environmental factors, including community dynamics, says Beer Singh Padda, tribal healer from Kanker district in Chhattisgarh. “Hence, a balance will have to be found between this variability and scientific standardisation.”
Whether Swasthya Swara will be able to achieve this balance is yet to be seen, but it is garnering interest from traditional healers as well as people.
Swasthya Swara holds out hope
Shubhranshu Choudhuri, veteran journalist who heads C G Net Swara, says the idea behind Swasthya Swara is to make the information on traditional healing accessible to people, especially rural communities. “Despite government efforts to provide modern health care, a large section of the rural mass still trusts and depends on these healers for first-line health care,” he says. The network would help strengthen this tradition.
The process for connecting with the network is simple. All it requires is a cellular phone, which is nearly ubiquitous in the country. One has to give a missed call on Swasthya Swara’s phone number—08602008111. Moderators of the network will then call back on the number and record the patient’s query. A traditional healer can share his remedy in a similar manner. The committee of moderators, which constitutes medical practitioners and traditional healers, ensures that if there is a remedy available for an ailment, the patient gets to know about it.
Those who have access to the Internet can listen to the audio recordings by subscribing to Swasthya Swara’s website swasthya.swaranetwork.org/. All recordings are being stored online through an arrangement with Google. The forum thus serves as an informal documentation tool, informs Choudhuri. He claims that in one month, the network received 1,000 posts. A vaidya received 35 calls for a remedy he had posted.
“We healers are rarely all-rounders. While one has the expertise in treating asthma, another can treat only digestive or rheumatic ailments. It is thus helping us learn from each other and expand our repertoire of skills,” says Jahaar Singh from Tikamgadh district of Madhy Pradesh, who has shared a series of remedies for reproductive problems on Swasthya Swara.
“The forum will help boost the morale of healers,” says Harisingh Sihar from village Nanjora in Kondagaon district of Chhattisgarh. Choudhuri says the meet would be followed by networking activities to rope in more traditional healers. “We will upgrade the software based on the specific needs of this forum,” he says, adding that University of Washington has shown interest in providing technical support for upgradaion.
Folk cures
IN MANY parts of Ethiopia, traditional healers are tackling malaria quite easily with the help of a few medicinal plants. This was found during a study, carried out by researchers from Germany-based Martin Luther University.
A total of 44 traditional healers were studied from two areas in Ethiopia -- Butajira and Addis Ababa. Other than general information, the healers were questioned regarding their perception about the cause of the disease, symptoms and the process of treatment.
Analysis of the answers showed that most healers considered mosquito bites and a dirty environment as the major causes for malaria. Only one healer could relate the disease with its pathogen. However, most of the healers knew the precise symptoms of the disease. The researchers identified 16 plants that were being used for treating the disease. Amongst them, eight were used more often; and included plants like papaya, garlic and fennel. Leaves were the most commonly used part of these plants, followed by the roots.
On the basis of the study, the authors conclude that these healers should be trained to provide better medicare, especially as the public health system in Ethiopia is not quite efficient. This is essential to educate people about the usefulness of biocontrols like bednets.
Commonly
found malaria cures |
| Plant | Medicinal
formulation |
| Carica papaja | Hot water
extract of leaves |
Adhatoda
schimperiana | Squeezed leaves
mixed with milk |
Vernonia
amygdalia | Hot water
extract of whole plant |
| Artemisia rehan | Aqueous
solution of powdered leaves |
Croton
macrostchys | Juice of
squeezed leaves |
| Allium sativum | Extract of
grinded and macerated bulb |
Withanai
somenifera | Aqueous
solution of powdered leaves |
Foenicum
vulgare | Hot water
extract of grinded root |
Traditional
healers also need training |
Causes
perceived by healers | No of healers |
| Mosquito bite | 18
(54.55%) |
Dirty
environment | 5
(15.2%) |
Hot/cold
weather | 4
(12.1%) |
| Malnutrition | 3
(9.1%) |
| Evil spirits | 2
(6.1%) |
Small germs in
mosquitoes | 1
(3.0%) |
Source:
Tropical Doctor, October 2002, 32, 206-209 |
Centre to accord priority for research in S&T
Union Minister of State for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences (Independent Charge) Jitendra Singh said on Saturday that the government will prioritise correcting the deficiencies in funding of scientific institutions through budgetary provisions as well as through private sector initiatives.
Mr. Singh was talking to journalists after dedicating to the nation R.V. Sindhu Sadhana, the first indigenously built research vessel, acquired recently by the CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography (CSIR-NIO) at a function held on board the vessel at Mormugao harbour.
P.S. Ahuja, Director-General, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and S.W.A. Naqvi, Director, NIO were present.
Expressing concern over the inadequate priority ocean research had received in the country and also lamenting that “very few youngsters have been taking to science research,” Mr. Singh vowed to give adequate attention to these issues as part of the seven-week-old government’s overall policy initiative to encourage science and technology and research.
To a question over autonomy to research institutions, the Minister said the government’s thrust of “minimum government and maximum governance” would be applicable even to research institutions as regards their functioning and independence.
The Minister said the government was seriously considering giving priority to science and technology and the recent budget allocation for this field was the first step in that direction.
In a bid to attract more and more youth into the field of science and technology the government has recently selected 20 students across the country on all India merit basis and were sent abroad to work with Nobel laureates. Even several NRI scientists had shown interest to come back and work for the motherland, he said.
Mr. Ahuja earlier said that the first-ever big project of Rs.20 crore was given to the NIO by the ONGC for research in Krishna and Godavari basin.
For NIO, the premier ocean research institute under CSIR involved in multi-disciplinary studies of marine processes and resources in sea and around India, the vessel was expected to serve as a platform to launch oceanographic research programmes of global importance and translate this knowledge to the benefit of the nation, Mr. Naqvi said.
State-of-the-art vessel
A multi-disciplinary research vessel, which is 80 metres long and 17.6 m wide, Sindhu Sadhana can accommodate 57 personnel, including 29 scientists. It is designed for a cruising speed of 13.5 knots and an endurance of 45 days. It has 10 laboratories that are fitted with state-of-the art equipment, facilitating high precision data and sample acquisition. The ship is equipped with a number of laboratories for online data collection and data processing.
What the Indian space programme can teach the US
The purpose of India’s space programme is ‘the application of advanced technologies to the real problems of man and society’
 NASA launched its own $671 million Mars probe days after the Indian one. Photo: ISRO
What can the US space programme learn from the Indian one? Not much, if the standard is outer-space achievement. India’s modest record mostly includes feats the US accomplished decades ago.
But if the standard is having a clear vision of what you want to accomplish—and getting that done quickly and economically, there might be a lesson or two.
Consider the speech that India’s new Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, gave on Monday, shortly after India’s space programme successfully launched five satellites belonging to far wealthier countries on an Indian-designed rocket.
Combatting criticism that India’s space programme is a profligate waste when so many of the nation’s citizens struggle to fulfill basic needs, Modi offered a concise vision for why such launches are necessary:
Many misunderstand space technology to be for the elite. That it has nothing to do with the common man. I however believe such technology is fundamentally connected with the common man. As a change agent, it can empower and connect, to transform his life.
Modi spoke of space:
It drives our modern communication, connecting even the remotest family to the mainstream. It empowers the child in the farthest village with quality education, through long-distance learning. It ensures quality healthcare to the most distant person, through tele-medicine. It enables the youth in a small town, with various new job opportunities.
This is high-flying rhetoric, but what matters is how closely it hews to the original vision for the Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO), established in 1969. On the ISRO website, Vikram Sarabhai, the physicist regarded as the patriarch of the space programme, is quoted dismissing the notion that India should compete with rich, developed countries to explore the moon and planets. Rather, the purpose of India’s space programme is “the application of advanced technologies to the real problems of man and society.”
It’s interesting to set that against the uncertain priorities of the US space programme since the end of the Apollo moon-landing program more than 40 years ago. President Richard Nixon’s space shuttle gave way to renewed visions of moon-landing under both Bush presidencies—and later to President Barack Obama scuttling a return to the moon and setting a long-term goal of reaching Mars via a series of steps beginning with a preposterous asteroid landing.
Meanwhile, expert committees appear with regularity, offering visions of exploration that are then ignored for lack of political consensus. (It’s worth noting that India’s Congress is more dysfunctional than the US’s, and yet it has remained consistent on its space objectives.)
To be sure, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has accomplished a lot in the last 50 years, in spite of flighty, shifting priorities. But the absence of a national rationale for space exploration has resulted in a space programme that lacks clear direction and is hamstrung by an aging bureaucracy incapable of spending the agency’s considerable funding in a manner that satisfies anyone.
Contrast that with ISRO, whose low budgets and expectations, combined with a pragmatic, results-driven vision, have more than met its modest goals. (India’s programme has budget of approximately $1 billion, about 6% of NASA’s.) ISRO has launched communication and Earth-observing satellites on Indian-designed and -built rockets (that now serve commercial clients), thereby benefiting Modi’s common man and generating profits.
India’s space policymakers and scientists have—modestly—begun looking beyond Earth’s orbit. In 2008, they launched Chandrayaan-1, a lunar probe that, in line with Sarabhai’s vision, was focused on technology demonstration. More ambitiously, in 2013, the Indians launched their Mars orbiter mission which—if it succeeds—will allow India to beat out even China in becoming the first Asian nation to visit Mars.
What makes the Mars mission so compelling, aside from its origins, is the $75 million price tag— “less than the Hollywood movie Gravity,” as Modi noted on Monday —and the mere 18 months it took the engineers to design the vehicle and bring it to the launch pad. How did the Indians do it? The relatively low-tech effort benefitted from the mistakes and successes of the missions that preceded it, as well as the relatively low cost associated with hiring high-quality Indian engineers.
But the biggest advantage may have been a tolerance for risk that simply wouldn’t fly in the US space programme—which launched its own $671 million Mars probe days after the Indian one.
The Indians, rather than going the traditional route of building multiple models (including a spare) took a direct, go-for-broke route and built the final probe outright, skipping the other expensive, time-consuming (but risk-averting) steps. So far, that seems like a good gamble. But even if the probe fails, the Indians can claim that at least some of their technical goals were accomplished at a relatively cheap price.
Could NASA take similar risks? It would take a big cultural shift in an institution that does things such as building a multi-billion dollar rocket system that has no planned mission except, perhaps, as a jobs programme. Likewise, speeding up development and reducing costs like the Indians may be acceptable for robotic probes, but it’s simply not going to be acceptable for human space missions where lives are at stake.
For the foreseeable future, NASA will remain the world’s space leader, both in technology and funding. But the rise of India as a budget spacefaring nation suggests that the US may no longer be the most determined or ambitious. Certainly, NASA can’t—and probably shouldn’t—be like its Indian counterpart. But it can take inspiration from India’s bootstrap willingness to go where no Asian country has gone, and to do so with a clearly explained purpose, on a veritable shoestring. BLOOMBERG
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