Page 40 - Scientech 2016-17

DST is also scouting for ideas from ITIs Risk factor in Basic research -
Thrust for
innovation
Incisive and candid, Dr. Sharma lays to rest
misconceptions about funding which has
increased by more than 60% since last year.
The state of the art Laboratories are impressive
by global standards, the infrastructure is not
a question anymore, input to output ratio
in term of scientific papers being published
is remarkable….so we ask – Given all the
facilities available why are we not at the
cutting edge of science?
“To be at the cutting edge of science – it is a
culture…it does not happen overnight. Even if the
funding increases it does not mean that the next
day scientists will start producing technology
that is cutting edge. It takes a minimum of
one generation which is about 20 years. These
nations which are developed are at the cutting
edge of science because they have been doing
research and funding them for over a 100 years
and it was not built overnight.”
But having said that Dr Sharma explains that
the – “…whole transformational and creative
process has to start from the school. To get fresh
ideas in science
it is required that
we train children
deeply interested
in science in a
different way. Our
school education
does not prepare
children to be
creative. Not
everything is in the text book. Text books are
just guidelines. Students need to think of
problems and solution on their own. At PhD level
it is already too late…”
40 Scientech
- www.sifbahrain.com
-
Dr Ashutosh Sharma
Secretary, Dept of Science & Technology, New Delhi
Field: Chemical Engineering & Nano technology
One of the programmes that lay stress on
innovation is structured from the school level
onwards where by 5lakh schools are invited to
participate – “Through a competitive process 2
ideas will be selected per school which translates
into a million ideas which can be submitted in
any language. There would be large number of
mentors and experts who go through these ideas
to select 1 lakh ideas. These 1 lakh students would
get Rs5000/ each and a certificate to motivate
them. After that they will convert the idea into
a prototype using workshops set up for the very
purpose. This gives them the confidence that
ideas are important and they can be translated
into reality. From these 1 lakh we further
filter out to reach 10,000 models which will be
displayed at state level. About 1000 models will
be selected to be displayed in Delhi and the final
100 would be displayed in Rashtrapati Bhavan.”
This festival of innovation will be carried
forward by giving mentorship to the 1000
students so that the innovations can be
further developed. A concentrated sustained
effort is required to bring to fruition the ideas
put forward by these young minds and bring
them into the scientific fold whereby 10 years
from now they would be more attuned to
thinking out of the box and more creative.
www.sifbahrain.com
and polytechnics which are often neglected.
Relevant ideas can come from there. Already Dr. Sharma says – In basic science to really
National Innovation Foundation is doing do something path breaking, risk has to be
a commendable work in interacting with taken. There are two kinds of research –
farmers and rural sectors and scouting for Basic research which is incremental where
innovative ideas and then converting some many other scientists are working on the
of these ideas into patents and prototypes. same and risk is not high and there is no
In terms of basic science India has done question of failure and the other one in
extremely well given the inputs – India is which an innovator works on an open ended
number 6 with regard to the papers published problem where there is possibility of failure.
in science and engineering in the world. Also At present we are encouraging risk taking in
the output to input ratio is much higher than
other countries comparable to China. In terms Basic Scientific research.
of input we are behind USA and China… In
China inputs in R & D is about 6 times more
than India.
Qualitatively we are in 13th position but
quantitatively we are in 6th position according
to a survey conducted by Nature Publishing
Group which publishes a wide range of
scientific and medical journals. So we see
that there is a disconnect between quality and
quantity. To address such a multidimensional
problem we must explore the root which lies
in the way our education system works that
does not encourage creative thinking. About Nobel Prize: how important is it?
DST has started a limited programme about The Nobel Prize in itself is not important; it is
risk taking in doing fundamental research. the manifestation of an ecosystem. You cannot
We must take risk to evolve. Our culture is design a Nobel Prize….it mostly happens
“risk averse”. A typical student would rather by accident. It’s not like preparing for the
take up a job than floating a business. This Olympics like China did. China prepared her
scheme which is called – High Risk High Gain athletes scientifically to win medals…. But in
– which would encourage candidates to take science one cannot engineer success; one can
risk and fail, the only criteria being that in only prepare a large number of people and
case of success it would lead to something
substantial. These projects would be judged some might win the Nobel Prize eventually.
in a different way where the possibility of The Prize is an indicator of the underlying
failure is acceptable. The candidate needs health of the system.
to present his proposal and convince DST
of its value, explaining the risk factor which But there are many aspects to it. There is
he understands and has analyzed in detail a whole culture whereby there needs to be
and his methodologies in dealing with such an ecosystem outside the academia which
supports it. The industry needs to look at
risks. Then DST would fund such projects on
priority basis. supporting Basic Science R & D and the
society needs to appreciate the work being
done. For example we might have cutting edge
technology in photovoltaic cells but there is
no manufacturing happening which is very
disheartening to the scientists. A scientist
beyond a point cannot work in isolation as
his work needs recognition and a practical
output.
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