BANGALORE: The Indian Institute of Science (IISc.) has sought an allocation of Rs. 700 crores from the Union Government for modernisation.

It has written to the Finance Ministry, which allotted Rs. 100 crores earlier this year to raise it to international standards, requesting that the plea be granted. The money will be used over a five-year period.

"Rs. 100 crores may look like a big sum, but it is not much. Every new laboratory that comes up costs us at least Rs. 40 lakhs. The new institutes that the Ministry of Human Resource Development is building in Kolkata and Pune have a budget of Rs. 500 crores," said IISc. Director P. Balaram. "Let us be clear. IISc. cannot become a Stanford or a Harvard just because it got a Rs. 100-crore grant. That expectation is unrealistic. It can begin modernising its facilities with the grant." For international standards in science, he said, a fresh energy needed to be brought to the study of the subject in India that would motivate more students to take it up. The institute planned to spend the grant for modernising the laboratories in the physics and biology departments.

State of laboratories

"Some of our laboratories are almost 100 years old. They need to be improved so that new equipment can be brought in," says a senior faculty.

A large share of the money would also go towards digitising books in the IISc. library, which is the biggest library for science journals in the country.

At present, there are no electronic records for the books and the old system of book records is still being continued. IISc. had also planned to start an earth sciences department with the grant, Prof. Balaram said.

The institute that has 40 departments also has an ocean science department and a geo-technology department but not an earth science department.

The grant will be used to focus on emerging areas of nanotechnology and nanosciences.

The first instalment of the grant is expected in November.

Prof. Balaram said the grant had given IISc. the opportunity to plan what it wanted to do.

"We may not get all the money that we asked for but at least we have been given a chance to plan the institute's future," Prof. Balaram said.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail