Postdoc Salary in India
Arun P. Sikarwar
Saturday, 21 February 2009 18:36 UTC
Hello All
I am Arun, pursuing postdoc in India. I am personally not satisfied with the postdoc stipend offered in India and I believe that the handful of students doing postdoc in India might concur with my view.
The low salaries offered to Postdocs in India is one of the major factor which is impelling Indian students to either pursue postdoc abroad or to join private R&D establishments. This is slowly devolving the scientific future of India.
As a postdoc, I receive stipend of just Rs 15,000/-per month, which is just Rs 1,000/- more than what a SRF (Senior Research Fellow) gets in India. The salary is too low to ensure proper running of a family of even two. Whereas, private R&D establishments offers anything between 50,000-70,0000 per month, which is a decent salary, so why not the young researchers be attracted to such establishments? A call centre employee (with Bachelors degree or diploma holder) gets more than a Post doc fellow. Such disparity enrages us and makes us to feel that is the years of long and hard research pays off only this much? Is our studies worthless?
I dont understand, on one hand we acclaim that India is an evolving superpower, but when it comes to investments in Scientific Institutions and thereby encouraging them, India seems to be still a poor country. I wonder is technology alone can drive a nation and science as such has no role to play. If not, than why the science is lagging behind in this country? I feel that in this aspect India must learn from its neighbor china, which is doing much better in Science than India despite being a developing country.
Atlast, I feel that some immediate steps be taken and postdoc problems be addressed at the earliest or else India will soon face the dearth of scientifically skilled people and such a loss will be irreparable.
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Anonymous
I think postdoct salary is not low in all over the world.Some of the countries in EU have given very competitive salary and we can consider that as a standard slary,e.g.,in spain,Spanish Govt has introduced some kind of PostDoctoral schemes which salary really very high.They have given value to the postdoct and equal facility like other jobs also.I think In india research is one of the most neglected area,our govt. is still not given proper value to fundamental research.I think We are thousend miles lags behind with China in the field of Basic Research.China govt. has given quite importence in fundamental reseach then Indian Govt and hence We show the advancement of China in all aspects.So public awareness is most essentil so that our govt. can take necessary steps to increase the valu of research as well as researcher.
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There are some nice articles regarding postdocs.
Not your father’s postdoc
In today’s scientific labor market, just doing good science is no longer enough. Postdocs need realistic expectations, good information, and an entrepreneurial attitude toward their careers
“Simply put,” notes the report in a model of understatement, “there are not enough tenure-track academic positions for the available pool of biomedical researchers.” Between 1993 and 2000, the number of U.S. life science Ph.D.s under age 35 holding coveted tenure-track jobs in major research universities declined by 12.1%, to 543; meanwhile, the number of U.S. biomedical Ph.D.s in that age range increased by 59%, to nearly 20,000, and tens of thousands more scientists with foreign Ph.D.s came to fill postdoc positions in U.S. labs.
Benderly, B. L. (2005). Not your father’s postdoc. Science 308, 717-8.POSTDOCTORAL TRAINING: NSF, NIH Emphasize the Importance of Mentoring
Like apprentices in other fields, U.S. postdocs work for peanuts and are discouraged from pursuing their own ideas in return for the chance to learn the profession……The NIH statement (grants1.nih.gov/training/q&a.htm#mentor) says that grantees can count time spent training students and postdocs as grant-related activities provided the training is related to the research being funded.
Bhattacharjee, Y. (2007). Postdoctoral training. NSF, NIH emphasize the importance of mentoring. Science 317, 1016. -
To Anony
http://www.prouaw.org/home/home.php
PRO/UAW is the Union for over 5,800 Postdoctoral Researchers at the University of California.
Agreed with your comments and hope things will improve!!
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Anonymous
I am a postdoc in US and I would like to say that the condition in India is much better compared to US. Compared to engineering, bussiness, and IT sector, life sciences do not conduct research of commercial applications and that is the primary reason for the low pay. Second is the supply demand ratio. Ther are 60,000 postdoc just in US and the total no. of faculty positions created is between 1800-2300 per year. You do the math and the picture is very clear. Postdocs are unable to find jobs and doing 2,3, or even 4 postdocs. I am getting NIH guideline, that’s 38K per year. It’s less than what an electritian, plumper, or cook gets in US. So compared to that, the condition is much better in India.
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