Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Focus on science and technology' that was published in Newsband

Focus on science and technology

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh intends to position India among the top five global scientific powers by the year 2020. That’s great news.

Our government now understands the importance of science and technology for a developing nation. It is now fostering, promoting and sustaining, by all appropriate means, the cultivation of science and scientific research in all its aspects — pure, applied, and educational. Our government’s policy now emphasizes self-reliance and are all prepared to meet the challenges posed by globalization.

But in spite of all the efforts that our government is making, one still feels that India is falling behind in the race to use its scientific capabilities and that China is powering ahead. We produce more science than before, but several more ambitious countries like China and South Korea have outpaced us. China’s investment in research and development has been shooting up at 20 per cent annually over the past 10 years. India’s R&D spending, on the other hand, has yet to rise above one per cent of its GDP.

If India wishes to be a global leader in science, well-focused government initiatives are needed in a number of areas, rather than just some piecemeal measures, to flesh out the laudable objectives laid out in the science policy. The domestic market must, for instance, be leveraged, and indigenous technology should be allowed to flourish and compete internationally. That’s something China has done with remarkable success. Will the Indian government be able to match its words with action?

If there is anytime when Science and Tech would have played a major role in improving the socio-economic indicators pan-India, that time is now. We have a long history of various policies that were introduced to improve science and technology in our country. Though we have achieved a lot, there is still a long way to go in order to be in a position to compete with other developing countries like Brazil, South Korea and others.

Many Indian students move away from science and get attracted towards more lucrative careers. In our country one can come across many professionals who work in IT sector, though being graduated from prestigious institutions like ISM Dhanbad and IIT's which possess core competency in electronics and mechanical streams. So the real problem lies at the undergrad level and Government should look out for options to make students pursue Science as their career. If this is not done our country will continue to lag behind in science and technology.