Bringing all the Indian scientists together!
Govindsamy Vediyappan
Sunday, 24 February 2008 14:52 UTC
Hello members,
Its very nice to meet you all in this forum. As an NRI scientist, I have met bright, hard working and dedicated Indian scientists and students in foriegn labs. When I left the country for my post doc fifteen years ago, it was an exiting oppurtunity. I was so much thrilled to see the lab facilities, resources, freedom and the transparency of the US labs. I observed the same kind of exitement and enthusiasm in every Indian student or postdoc I met in those labs in the following years. This exitement drived us to work hard or by very nature we Indians are hard workers.
I would like to pose a question to our members. How can we bring our scientists back to India ? or If you are an NRI and scientist and wish to go back to India, WHAT are all your expectations ? Would you like to work in a government lab or would you like to join the private sectors ?
Is it possible for all of us, NRI scientists to come together as a group to start a Research Foundation? ! How can we put these words in to action? Please post your thoughts !
Thanks
Govind
Updated 24 February 2008 16:56 UTC
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Hi, Govind
Its been quite interesting to see the comments of people on this forum. I think its a very important question that you have posed. I am in my second year of post-doc here in US. My plan has always been to go back to India, after gaining some valuable experience here and have started thinking about move back.
I think the things that would motivate most scientists like me to move back is the salary ofcourse (which a few people have mentioned), but other than that, good science, innovative work, less bureaucracy and job stability.
The funding situation is getting bad here in US as well especially for young scientists and so is getting faculty position.
finally, i think the idea of a research foundation is a good idea and hope we all can build on it.
Deepak. -
Hi Gobind,
Thanks for bringing this up, its “the” question for many of us. I work in Immunology and when I think of moving back to India, my main concern is always research funding. Doing basic research with animal models is extremely expensive and I wonder how well it could be funded. I don’t know what the current funding climate is, since I have been away for a while, and would really like some information on that.
I’m also curious, like my fellow commenters, what do you visualize when you speak of a research foundation?
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hi everybody
i am a student and very much interested in going into research,but from the time i’ve started telling my plans of going into research i’ve been suggested by everyone including my faculty to try and go abroad as the scenario of research in india is very bad.initially i did not agree with them but then i started interacting with people and knowing more about it and found that even in good research laboratories there is very less research independence .since then i am all the more motivated to remain in india and find out the problems.
i am really very glad that this discussion has started and you people are so serious regarding this.
as seniors i would be grateful if you people suggest me the role that i can play in this ..thanks
ashutosh -
I don’t know whether this forum is still functioning. Except for a few places, it is very difficult to get a University job in India even after a good number of years spent on Research in US or anywhere abroad (and with goopd publication record). First of all, your application will not be considered at all because of one or the other reason, or you will have to be prepared to pay bribe. Or else, you have to have pwoerful people behind you. This is the situation even in remote Universities inIndia. This both my personal experience and the experience of my friends. When quality is compromised, no scope for improvement. Government doesn’t do anything as scientists do not form a vote bank and people do not understand the true potential of scientists as great educators. Neither science improves nor our educational standard increase. It is a vicious circle. We neither can help ourselves, nor help others. Only chance can change the situation in India, neither political will nor morality.
Raj
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I recently read an article in Sciencenews (http://esciencenews.com/articles/2009/10/08/reversing.brain.drain) and followed the lead (http://www.bioabroad.org.il/).
I was wondering that India has been hard hit by brain drain the most. Yet, we don’t have a very detailed stastical information about the Indian scientists/postdocs abroad. I wish we have a similar “non profit organization for helping Indian scientists, physicians and entrepreneurs abroad return to India and keep in touch with India while they are abroad” [http://www.bioabroad.org.il/].
Dr. Shiladitya (from Harvard-MIT) and few others reputed personalities from India have taken great initiatives in this regard. However, more is required to be done. I hope the more senior people in this forum with vision will take the lead and help the younger generation groom Indian science. A forum like BioAbroad for Indians might be useful to put (or help connecting) the “right people” at the “right place”. The earlier we have a similar platform the sooner we will be able to check the loss. -
I agree with you Dinesh that such kind of website will be very useful and is really needed. May be we should email the link to webmaster of (http://www.indiabioscience.org/) who are also planning to bring up somthing like that.
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I think, it will be a good idea to connect Indian postdocs/scientists working abroad to different schools in India. When they visit India they can interact with local students and have face-to-face discussions on their concerns about career, education and future prospect in specific area. There are many NRIs now running many schools. There are many private schools connected to many (relatives of) postdocs/scientists. That way, students at local level will have a better idea about their subjects. More importantly they can get a much better exposure.
I am trying at my personal level in my place in West Bengal. I think if there is a web based open database of schools interested in such exchange then many of us can join such efforts. -
I really appreciate Jayanta’s idea. If postdocs/scientists are looking to their Indian peers for connecting back to India, we have an equal responsibility to do the same for those who had less opportunity to see the other side of the world. If anyone (reading this message in this forum) is interested in pitching in for such an initiative to have a website dedicated to such effort, I would like to offer my service for the same. Just like Jayanta, I try to do my bit (whatever I can, however small that might be) for the place I grew up (WB) with the some help from some of teachers. But, I would to see that happening at a bigger scale. Hope we can do something.
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Anonymous
I highly appreciate Dinesh and Jayanta’s proposal. But I think it will be almost impossible to get school management to agree with the idea to allow people who talk too much about morality, ethics, truth etc to their students. Almost all private schools in India have only one target- profit, nothing else. Few Govt schools might allow them to interact with their students depending on the nature of school management (mostly it’s controlled by local political leaders and other influential people). I am not much hopeful about private schools to allow honest and straight-forward people to talk to their students or to the school management. They can not take risk that jeopardize their profit and some fresh new thinking among students that can create problems for school management in future.
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