Indigenus - Details

The premier science academies of the country -- Indian National Science Academy, the Indian Academy of Sciences and The National Academy of Science, India -- had a brainstorming meeting earlier this month. Following extensive deliberations, the trio has prepared a position paper on the post-school science education in the country. The need for reforms in learning sciences at the post-school level has been duly emphasised in the paper.

The academies have mooted an integrative and broad-based training -- the four-year B. S. degree -- at select centres. The programme would enable graduates to directly enter the professional job market, or to pursue a doctoral degree (Ph. D.) research programme.

If everything goes well, the +2 qualified student could chose from the following options in science and technology next year on:
1. A 4-year B. S. followed by Ph. D. in basic sciences, with a provision for early exit with M.Sc degree or dual degrees after completion.
2. 4-year B. Tech. followed by Ph. D in basic sciences.
3. 4-year B. S. followed by M. tech/Ph.D. in professional (technology) field.
4. 3-year B. Sc. followed by 2-year M. Sc. and then Ph. D or 3-year B. Sc followed by integrated M.Sc.-Ph. D.
5. 3-year B. Sc. followed by 2-year B. Tech.
6. 5-year integrated M. Sc. followed by Ph. D.
7. Vocational courses.

Looks like science education in this country will finally get the long due overhauling it deserves.

Here’s good news for Indian physical sciences.

The National Science Indicators of Thomson Reuters show that the number of papers indexed from India has grown from about 20,000 in 2003 to 27,000 in 2007. Of this, the main field indexed is the multi-disciplinary category (papers published in multidisciplinary journals Nature, Science, PNAS etc) – 5.47 per cent. Close behind is Materials Science -- 5.45 per cent.

Materials Science has had the steepest growth from 432 papers in 1981 to 2,300 papers in 2007 with India-based authors. India's share of world papers, in the latest five-year period, was also comparatively high in Agricultural Sciences (5.17% of the database), Chemistry (5.04%), and Physics (3.88%).

Overall, all but three of the top ten research fronts with the highest representation of India institutions were in high-energy or theoretical physics.

Kudos to the physical scientists of this country!

Reading about Rik Sengupta, the 18-year old soccer-crazy, piano-playing academic whiz from Kolkata, who was offered full scholarships by seven top U. S. universities as also the Indian Institute of Technology, I wondered why he chose Princeton over the rest. The answer comes from the boy himself: "IITs have very good science and maths courses, but I won't be able to take a course in creative writing or music alongside these."

For new age kids with interests ranging from nanotechnology, Julia Roberts, cross-country car racing and Amitabh Ghosh to Salsa and Carnatic music, this is almost like a 'quality of life' issue. They are academically brilliant but it isn't a surprise when they declare with a shrug, "We have a life beyond the lab, don't we?"

This brought me to think of the science and technology schools back home. How many of our schools actually help nurture the extra-curricular interests of these youngsters? I know for a fact that the University of Hyderabad is thinking of a centralised time table where science students can pursue their love for the arts -- music, dance, literature -- without missing classes. But that's still on paper. There's a similar (though not on a large scale) nurturing of 'out of the box' ideas at the National Centre of Biological Sciences, Bangalore, too.

So, apart from foreign tags and Nobel Laureate mentors, the young scientists' love of the arts looks like another key area that could trigger brain drain in times to come. Do our universities and institutes plan to get equipped to arrest this trend? Or shall we, like many other things, overlook this one too and cry hoarse when it is too late?