While there are huge opportunities in science and technology for youngsters in India and the government, too, is taking various steps to encourage science, technology and research, the work is only going on in pockets and efforts need to be scaled up in order to reach other areas, and ignite and encourage young minds to pursue science as a career, scientists asserted at the India Science Festival. The fifth edition of the festival held at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune concluded on Sunday. The two-day festival – which encourages science, technology and innovation – was organised by the New Delhi-based Foundation for Advancing Science and Technology (FAST India). The festival witnessed a variety of events, including keynote lectures, science talks, panel discussions, hands-on workshops, science exhibitions, and interactive demonstrations.
The second day of the festival started with an exciting panel discussion on the topic, “Vision for Indian science in the next 10 years”. Saumya Swaminathan, former chief scientist at the World Health Organisation (WHO); K Vijay Raghavan, former principal scientific adviser to the Government of India; and Thomas Barlow of Barlow Directory participated in the panel discussion that was moderated by T V Venkateswaran from Vignyan Bharti. Swaminathan said that this is an exciting phase for science and technology in India for many reasons such as huge interest from youngsters who want to enter different fields of science. “There are topics young people can work on. What we need is a team science. One of the problems we are facing now is climate change and this cannot be handled by one small team with one little solution. Hence, knowledge clusters are needed to be developed in many cities. Where, not only academia and research institutions but also private industries can come together and help address various issues which are not only local but broader scientific challenges for the country,” Swaminathan said.
The festival saw nearly 150 scientists from across the world from universities such as MIT, Harvard, IISc, IIT, AIIMS and IISER, explaining their work to the students. At more than 30 interactive stalls, including some set up by the industry, students were taught science concepts.
{{/usCountry}}The festival saw nearly 150 scientists from across the world from universities such as MIT, Harvard, IISc, IIT, AIIMS and IISER, explaining their work to the students. At more than 30 interactive stalls, including some set up by the industry, students were taught science concepts.
{{/usCountry}}K Vijay Raghavan said, “The challenges are extraordinarily complex in India. Migration due to climate change, loss of biodiversity, and demand for sustainable development are complex challenges today. However, from a science and technology perspective, no matter how complex the problem is, if you pare it down to its constituent elements, address them through top-down efforts, and allow self-organisation to come about in a certain way, it will help solve even the most complex problem that exists. I am optimistic that we can overcome these challenges with the help of science and technology.”
A very large trend in competitive science, technology and application today is based on design. The design of circuits, chips, electronics, equipment, and jet engines is very critical and combined with certain levels of manufacturing, allows Indian small industries to scale up their design capabilities across the country and export the designs which have huge intellectual property (IP) value. Combining this with manufacturing and localising them will bring a huge transformation. This way, science and technology will have tremendous opportunities in India, in the upcoming years, Raghavan said.
Thomas Barlow said, “De-bureaucratising science and technology is essential for future growth. The west is working in this direction. Here in India, people have their own way of dealing with the bureaucracy as they have long years of experience in dealing with this, therefore India has achieved a strong position in the science and technology sector.”
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Young scientists who participated in the panel discussion, “Role of young scientists in shaping science” said that they need more support in terms of communication and appreciation as the country is seeing enormous change in science and technology along with new sectors and new opportunities emerging. Four young scientists from different institutions expressed their views on the current situation in the science sector and what it requires. The scientists who participated in the panel discussion included Vineet Venugopal, MIT USA; Abhinaya Sampath, IIT Gandhinagar; Mayuri Rege, HBCSE TIFR; and Kaneenika Sinha, IISER Pune.
Sinha said, “A decade ago when I returned to India from Canada and started working at IISER Kolkata, the institutions were taking baby steps and students were taking this field on a trial-and-error basis as there was no proper mentoring or guidance available. But now the situation is different. Mentoring networks have developed, and people from the earlier batches and industry experts are now there to guide younger people. The opportunities, too, have increased these days…”