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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  What scientists say about Narayana Murthy’s jab at science in India
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What scientists say about Narayana Murthy’s jab at science in India

Scientists have mixed views about Murthy's speech and what it reveals about the elite institutes such as the IISc and IITs

A file photo of N.R. Narayana Murthy. Photo: BloombergPremium
A file photo of N.R. Narayana Murthy. Photo: Bloomberg

N.R. Narayana Murthy, co-founder of Infosys Ltd, has lamented that India hasn’t made a single invention that has become a household name globally. Murthy, addressing the convocation ceremony of the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, on Wednesday asked students whether they could name a single such invention, or a technology that has transformed the productivity of global corporations, or an idea that led to a path-breaking invention. Indian academic institutes, he said, has failed to deliver “impactful research".

In the 2015 State of Innovation report by Thompson Reuters analysing innovation activity across the world using patents and scientific literature, only one institute made an appearance in all 12 categories ranging from aerospace and pharmaceuticals to telecommunications. The Indian Institutes of Technology made it to the list of top 10 most prolific scientific research institutions in the automotive sector between 2004 and 2014. But Chinese companies and institutions dominated innovation in most categories including home appliances, biotechnology, information technology, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and telecommunications.

Scientists had mixed views about Murthy’s speech and what it reveals about the elite institutes such as the Indian Institute of Science and Indian Institutes of Technology. Edited excerpts:

Akshay Anand, additional professor, Neurosciences Research Lab, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh:

“He highlighted an important issue. Discovery phase is good in India, but there is no mechanism to go further than that or take an invention from lab to market or society. Those cycles are well established in countries like the US. Why is it that Indians are doing so well in labs in other countries, but not here?"

“There are three issues that I can identify: there is no incentive-driven discovery, not much focus on how to get inventions from lab to markets or society, research administration system is practically non-existent."

V.V. Krishna, professor of science policy at Jawaharlal Nehru University:

“Rather than criticizing scientific institutions this way, Mr. Murthy should have talked about the reasons behind these problems. Our scientific institutes are not being funded like (in) other countries such as China where they are investing 1.89% of their gross domestic product (GDP) on R&D (research and development) unlike India, which is stagnated at 0.8-0.9% of the GDP."

“If we want blockbuster inventions that become household names, that kind of money also has to be invested. Why are private companies not investing more in R&D? That is the question Mr. Murthy should be asking."

Mayank Vahia, a scientist at Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Fundamental Research:

“I personally think that the situation of Indian research is not that depressing. You may ask why there are no Nobel Prize awardees from India. It is because science is not simple anymore, it also involves massive publicity and institutes in other countries have departments dedicated to that."

“Science in India is much better than 10-20 years ago, but we need more investment in research and teaching, more competition in labs, and science should be left to academia without interference."

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Published: 16 Jul 2015, 10:27 PM IST
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