The future of Indian science will emerge from smaller towns of the country, T. Ramasami, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology said on Sunday.
Delivering the key-note address at “Dhi Yantra ‘10”, the fifth workshop on brain modelling and supercomputing organised by the WAran Research FoundaTion (WARFT), Mr. Ramasami said a survey preceding the launch of the DST's flagship programme, “Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE), had shown that 66 per cent of the cream of student pass-outs in classes X and XII were from smaller towns while 54 per cent comprised girls.
Terming India's scientific talent pool as fantastic, Mr. Ramasami said the advantage of the country's gene pool had been negated by the modern educational system. If ancient science founded on inductive logic, modern science was based on deductive processes, he said.
“Both (approaches) are important and Indian science needs to integrate the inductive and deductive to rule the world,” he said.
Mr. Ramasami pointed out that one of the core aims of the DST-driven INSPIRE programme was to attract talent to the study of science at an early stage, communicate to the youth of the country the excitements of creative pursuit of science and thus build the required critical human resource pool for strengthening and expanding the Science & Technology system and R&D base.
Mr. Ramasami advised students against attaching too much significance to the awards system. “While awards are certainly a measure of recognition and encouragement, they should not become an obsession,” he said. In that sense, Ph.Ds too were only a licence to do research and had to be seen as the starting point of a journey and not the destination, he said.
V. Kamakoti, faculty of Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT-Madras, said students should invest in research areas related to what they had been studying.
Noting that there was tremendous social pressure against students taking up careers in research, he urged students to cross these barriers and engage in Ph.D work that would open up avenues in industry or teaching.
N. Venkateswaran, chairman, WARFT Trust, called upon scientists to come down to the grassroots and engage with school students to increase awareness about science and research. Raising awareness is one of the core aims of WARFT, he said.
N. Vijayakrishnan, faculty, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, U.S., said students should shed their “blaming attitude” and adopt a dedicated approach to research.
S. Udaya Bhaskaran, computational neuro-scientist, urged students to utilise opportunities and be motivated to take up serious research.
