Indian science needs more faith and a lot more funds
Scientists who work on issues like food selfsufficiency and lowcost drugs need far more support than ever
S cience has always been driven by wonder. The ancient man who watched the flow of water, the growth of barley seeds or the orbit of the sun did so for the wonder of it. The wonder that revealed the secret workings of nature, which we harness today to run our world of drugs and crops and computers. To equate science to technology or product development is short-sighted.
In the scientific method, I would notice an interesting behaviour of nature, create a hypothesis to explain the observations and then do experiments to test whether the hypothesis holds true or not. If not, I go back to the drawing board to start with a new hypothesis. So, science by definition, is about mistakes made and mistakes corrected. It is about being wrong until you arrive at the truth. This makes science a slow and iterative process that takes time, expense and effort.
The United States of America, the undisputed leader in scientific research and discoveries spends more than 2.5% of their GDP on research and development enterprises (according to a study by Nature in 2015). The USA employs an estimated 790 per lakh of their labour force in scientific research. In contrast India has spent less than 1% of its GDP on research and employed only 40 researchers per lakh labour force for the last decade or more.
Indian science has reached where it is now through 70 years of struggle; as India worked on building indigenous infrastructure, as we reeled under sanctions by international communities and as we learned to live in a globalised economy. The priority for Indian science was never a Nobel Prize, but food self-sufficiency, affordable drugs and low cost satellite launches. And Indian science has met these goals more than admirably. But the work is not done, not even begun. For India to be competitive and at par with the scientific enterprise in developed nations, we have to have consistent and generous funding for science.
Science is a way for us to solve the problems that humanity as a whole faces and the specific problems of malnutrition and poverty and disease that India faces. These are not new problems; they have been our companions since Independence. A concerted effort by successive governments to jump start the stalling engine of science in India is needed; along with increased funding, increased faith in science and increased trust in scientists.
The India March for Science, which follows and has the support of the international March for Science held across 600 communities in April, was led by such a need. The March should remind us that science is part of our everyday lives - that science is important, essential and that we cannot live without it!