I am really wondering how long the socialist policy will dominate the Indian education system, especially when the whole country is trying to project itself as the free-market democracy. By socialist policy I mean…..who-so-ever he/she is and how-so-ever hard he/she has worked in doing/publishing good science and bringing innovative technologies to the world, when it comes to a ‘Assistant Professor’ position in India, the offered salary and start-up package make one thinks a hundred times before accepting or even applying for a position in India. Salary plus/minus stays the same period !!! What-so-ever is the institute it does not matter TIFR/NCBS/NBRC/NII/ICGEB/CCMB/JNCASR/IISERs/IITs/IISc/some-universities. This is just ridiculous.

With a decent track record…
1) Ph.D. (5-7 publications with ~ four first authored & with average impact factor of >5.5 and a few in world’s top ranked journals)
2) Postdoc (3-5 publications with ~four first authored (in a post-doc tenure of three year with average impact factor >5.5 and one or two in world’s top ranked journals)
3) A clear indication that science research he/she is involved in is going to have an impact
4) Successful fellowship/grant writing experience (i.e. potential to bring money to the institute)
5) Undergraduate teaching experience with tutoring/labs/lectures during Ph.D.

…following options exists for Indian scientists who continually wish to contribute to science and academia (and quite open to come back to India or near India)
A) A tenure track ‘assistant professor’ position in USA with annual salary varying from US$ 60-110K with start-up money varying US$ 200-500K.
B) Singapore universities offering US$ 80-100K as annual salary and start-up money upto US$ 500K
C) Saudi Arabia (KAUST) offering annual salary >US$ 110K and technically open-ended start-up money
D) And if you happen to have Chinese connections a negotiable annual salary upto US$ 30K with start-up money US$ 500K
E) India
a. Academics: An annual salary of plus/minus US$9600 (including housing allowances …does not matter which institute you end up with ) with startup fund may be upto US$50-100K if one is lucky enough to get a call from NCBS/TIFR otherwise anywhere between US$10-30K in most optimistic considerations. Annual salary may take a high if one is super-lucky to get one of the best Ramalingamswami Fellowship of DBT (Govt. of India). It may touch US$18K but it’s a consolidated salary with no benefits attached to it and only few individuals gets it.
b. Industry: If scientist brings some transferable industrial skills annual salary may touch US$20-25K and of course we are not talking about start up money here in industrial settings.

We can discuss all the differences in the purchase-parity between India/USA/Singapore/China/SaudiArabia, illusionary democracy vs closed political system, emotional mother-land vs foreign-land, social ‘my people’ vs others etc issues but the bottom-line fact is that incentives given by Govt. of India and Indian Institute is not good enough to competitively attract a decent well-doing scientist.

I feel as of today there is no thought of attracting ‘best talent’ to Indian institutes by providing competitive free-market compensation and only thing which prevails is to offer a position to those whose CV looks okay and most importantly ‘are available’. With average compensation, Indian science can hire only mediocre scientist and this will keep Indian Science at mediocre stage only. I agree things are changing but as of today keeping a nearly flat salary across the board from universities to premier institutes of India only reflects a socialist-policy hangover of Indian government.