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DST is also scouting for ideas from ITIs Risk factor in Basic research -
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 About Nobel Prize: how important is it?
does not encourage creative thinking.

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 some might win the Nobel Prize eventually.
substantial. These projects would be judged The Prize is an indicator of the underlying
in a different way where the possibility of health of the system.
failure is acceptable. The candidate needs
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
risks. Then DST would fund such projects on supports it. The industry needs to look at
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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