Research sector in India
needs a boost. We have top-class research institutes, like the IIT's, ISRO,
DRDO, TIFR, but research in India lags behind that of many developed and
developing nations. For example, BARC, which has some of the best researchers
and scientists of India, produces only 3% of the power in India. This shows how
much room exists for growth and improvement in research sector. With
the burgeoning requirements of power, technology, communication, transport, trade and commerce sectors, research industry is of utmost importance.
The Government needs to formulate policies towards this front. After all, what the Government can do is set up a favourable environment for research. It can divert more funds for research projects.
More students should be encouraged into joining academics and research. I think this is very much relevant in the current scenario. More students writing GATE, JEST, UGC(NET) and trying to get into top-class institutes, than previous years, shows that it is proceeding in a positive direction. A concern here is that the student assistantship is very less. I have seen many students who are really interested in India, but had to back off just because of the meagre stipend or institute assistantship they get every month. For an average M. Tech student, 8000 rupees is his only monthly earning for the next two or three years. Had he joined some corporate company, his earnings would easily have had jumped to millions in a few years time. So, it is important that students should engage in research without expecting only monetary gains.
It is a common misconception that you need to be extraordinarily brilliant and intelligent to do research. Fortunately this is not the case. It's the desire and passion to do original and relevant contribution which should drive you forward. Let me quote Harsha Bhogle, the famous cricket commentator, who once spoke, "Beyond a point, ability or talent is the most useless virtue to possess. It's what you do with that talent that really counts." He goes on to illustrate the point with an example of Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kamble, who displayed extreme dichotomy in their attitude towards cricket. Both of them started their careers under the same coach and were in the same team till they parted ways. While one of them went on to become a cricket legend world has ever seen, the other fell out of the race midway at the young age of 22 years. In short, attitude and passion should be the USP of a research scholar.
My vision about India is that India should become a breeding ground, more or like a mother hen, for the top-class research scholars in the world. Let us hope that this becomes a reality very soon. Let us all strive towards it.