Indigenus - Details

Thenewsof the Rs 1500 (~ $ 35) laptop is making waves in India. Next year it is expected to become an ubiquitous equipment, strewn across the length and breadth of the country -- every child under the Union government's literacy programme clutching one. Provided all that is promised is delivered, on course on time. Also if issues of connectivity and mass production face no roadblocks.

Before I digress into more cynical questions, here are some essential details of the touchscreen device, being hailed as a cross between an I-Pad and a tablet PC. Designed by IIT techies from Kharagpur, Kanpur and Madras and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, it is a green product powered by a solar panel, has 2 GB RAM memory and no hard-drive but can be fitted with one via its USB port. It supports video-web conferencing facility, has a multimedia content viewer, a searchable Pdf reader, unzip tool, computing capabilities, printing support and a media player. Besides the inexpensive use of material, it will employ open-source technology to cut down costs.

It's officially called a "low-cost computing-cum-access device" and will be manufactured in Taiwan as of now. Isn't it the same one earlier announced to be priced atRs 500and manufactured at the government-owned Semiconductors Complex in Chandigarh? The government, of course, has promised to bring the price down gradually from Rs 1500 to Rs 500 with more innovation and private participation.

We will wait for 2011 to see how this pans out.

Indian Space Research Organisation has released some beautiful pictures taken from the Cartosat, its hi-tech mapping satellite.

The CARTOSAT-2B satellite, launched by PSLV-C15 on July 12, 2010, sent in these high quality pictures, some of which are generating a lot of interest among the religious minded. One among them is a lovely picture of the Triveni Sangam, the confluence of the three rivers Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati in Allahabad, which is a pilgrimage site for people from far and wide. Another picture shows the architectural wonder Meenakshi Temple in Maduari standing tall with a prominent shadow.

The Sangam in Allahabad.

Part of Madurai showing the Meenakshi temple.

We all have been witness to the religious side of our space scientists. We know there's a tradition of the ISRO top brass visiting temples before a satellite launch to pray for its succeful take-off and landing. So it was nice to see them proudly exhibit their religious bent again. I have always found this an amusing mix, this blend of high end science and deep-rooted faith in god. Some time back, an interestingsurveyhad pulled out some such deep secrets of the Indian scientists' mind.

Some things are perhaps best left unexplained by high end science.

The 24 June, 2010 issue of Nature will talk about some interesting results that came out from its first ever international career and salary survey conducted on scientists and postdocs in 16 countries, including India.

The results are a showcase of how 'satisfied' our scientists are from across the world.

Some results for emerging superpowers such as India and China reflect the trends in these 'in-trasition' countries. For example, one question on whether scientists are 'satisfied' with their jobs or not found Japanese scientists not so happy, with only a very small percentage of respondents saying that they were “very satisfied”. While India and China also had low satisfaction ranking scores, in a separate question, a higher percentage of respondents from China and India reported increased overall job satisfaction in the past year as compared with respondents from most other countries.

The survey concludes that although such dissatisfaction can cause brain drain, the signs of improving satisfaction among scientists in China and India could 'stem the tide'. As these countries become well-supported research hot-spots, the brain drain may increasingly turn into ‘brain circulation’. This is an interesting observation that could be used by policy makers of this country to harness the scientific manpower resource. The survey, however, has also taken into account the fact that residents of some countries and regions may be predisposed, for cultural or lifestyle reasons, to report lower satisfaction or happiness levels regardless of profession.

Another index -- purchasing power parity (PPP) which takes into account costs of living -- shows that the relative salaries in India have got a huge boost. Average industry salaries exceeded average academic salaries by 50% in Asia and by 40% in europe and North america.

When the survey compared salaries on the basis of gender, it was found that men’s salaries were 18% to 40% higher than women’s in the countries with significant sample sizes — Australia, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, India, Japan, canada and the United states. Despite such discrepancies, overall job satisfaction levels among male and female researchers were remarkably similar. India, however, was found be an exception -- 62% of men reported being very or somewhat satisfied, compared to 45% of women (though the sample of female Indian researchers was modest).

The top three satisfaction drivers were guidance received from superiors or coworkers, salary and degree of independence in that order. The percentage of respondents who said that they were “satisfied” or “somewhat satisfied” with their degree of independence was less than 60% for only three countries — China, India and Japan. That again could be a cultural trait in Asian countries.

An interesting observation came from the ‘two-body problem’ question — the challenge researcher couples face in finding jobs together. The problem seemed lower for Asian countries including India.

More information on the methodology of the survey will be available at go.nature.com/aSZqch once the survey goes live.