Nobel laureate Serge Haroche called upon India to promote basic research to nurture excellence and deliver the requirements under the ‘Make in India’ programme.
Talking to reporters, Prof. Serge recalled that he and other Nobel laureates had emphasised the importance of basic research for innovation and discovery during the recent Indian Science Congress. “In order to deliver devices under the ‘Make in India’ programme, you need to have good background of fundamental research,” he said.
Another advantage of basic research was that it nurtures excellence. “It will be much more useful to India to have bright minds in science and technology,” he added.
India must do more in basic research and find a way to bridge the gap between basic and applied research, he said.
Prof. Serge stressed that providing good education, starting from the elementary level, was also equally important, adding that South Korea’s education system was one of the best in the world. It invested lot of money and efforts in education. “Best investment a country can make is investing in young minds.”
In providing a good education, it is important to recognise the central role of a teacher, he said.
On attracting young minds to science, Prof. Serge said, “You can’t attract if they don’t have good science education. For that you need to have good science teachers.”
Replying to a question on the move of the Indian government to cut down funding to research institutions, the Nobel laureate pointed out that money needed to be well spent. For that, there is a need to overcome the problems of red tape and bureaucracy, which many countries face, including France, he said.
While hailing the recent pact reached at Paris on climate change, he called for developing new technologies to meet energy needs.
Answering another question, he said nuclear energy in the medium term was of absolute necessity. He said the risk had to be taken while ensuring that no “mistakes” like Chernobyl and Fukushima were repeated.
Later, Prof. Serge delivered G.P. Birla Distinguished Lecture and gave away B.M. Birla Science Prizes for 2013 and 2014 in mathematics, chemistry, physics and biology.
Governor of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh E.S.L. Narasimhan was the chief guest for the event.
