The Hindu : Promote pro-poor scientific research: PM

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Sunday, Jul 13, 2003

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Promote pro-poor scientific research: PM

By Our Staff Reporter

The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and the Human Resource Development Minister, Murli Manohar Joshi, with the winners of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Awards for 2002 at the Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi on Saturday . — Photo: V. V. Krishnan

NEW DELHI JULY 12. Science can help liberate farmers, artisans and other marginalised groups across the country from the shackles of poverty if agriculture and energy scientists pool in their resources with technologists and make an effort to promote pro-poor research and development that can not only generate wealth but also provide gainful employment, the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, said today.

Presenting the Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar Awards instituted by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to 12 young scientists here, Mr. Vajpayee said linking research and development work with the efforts to generate productive employment was the need of the hour.

Expressing concern over the declining interest in basic sciences in all universities in the country, he said this was not so in the 1950s and 1960s when bright students chose science as a career.

"Not only do we need to restore the glory of scientific pursuit among the students and the academia once more but also need to make consistent efforts to create sufficient employment opportunities for them."

Referring to the Planning Commission reports on promotion of bio-fuels and bamboo, presented to him on Friday, he said while these subjects may sound unglamorous to some, they had an immense potential to generate productive employment, help millions of artisans and farmers to be liberated from poverty, achieve significant import substitution and earn considerable export revenue. He emphasised the need for awareness about water conservation among the farmers and said the scientific community had the responsibility of educating the farmers in this regard.

The Government, the private sector and the public sector research institutions, he said, should come together, to promote basic research in science by attracting bright students to the field. While the private sector institutions could establish Research and Development units, the Government and the public sector agencies could help create an enabling environment where India could become a global R and D hub. Otherwise, the "brain drain" would continue.

Echoing Mr. Vajpayee's sentiments, the Union Human Resource Development Minister, Murli Manohar Joshi, said despite scarce resources, developing countries such as India should not ignore basic science research. "Basic research is the foundation for Indian science and it must be strong if we have to build a strong edifice of cutting edge technology."

Expressing concern that the best minds were not "turning to or staying in science", he said the Government had launched schemes to attract young people. The Government was also aware of the need to integrate various scientific disciplines to spur research in basic sciences. The University Grants Commission was launching centres for studies in integrative sciences for offering integrated five-year M.Sc. courses to generate researchers of the highest quality.

Those present on the occasion included the Minister for Science and Technology, Bachi Singh Rawat and the CSIR Director-General, R.A. Mashelkar. Over 360 scientists and technologists have been conferred this prize in various disciplines of science and technology since 1957. Each prize comprises a citation, a certificate and Rs. 2 lakhs in cash.

The awardees for the year 2002 are Raghavan Varadarajan and Amitabh Mukhopadhyay in the area of Biological Sciences; Tushar Kanti Chakraborty and Murali Shastry (Chemical Sciences); G. S. Bhat and Sankar Kumar Nath (Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean and Planetary Sciences); Dipendra Prasad and Sundaram Thangavelu in the area of Mathematical Sciences; Avinash Anant Deshpande and Mohit Randeria (Physical Sciences); Sunil Pradhan (Medical Sciences) and Ashutosh Sharma (Engineering Sciences).

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