Sunday, December 07, 2008
The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is the oldest and best postgraduate research institute of India
C N R Rao Chairnan Scientfic Advisory Council to Prime Minister of India
The Indian Institute of Science is the oldest and best postgraduate research institute of India, comparable to the Weizmann Institute in Israel, where there are only post-graduate students. There is no question that the Institute provides the best environment to carry out good research, and extraordinary freedom, independent of the rank of a faculty member. But this is history — what can we expect in future? The institute has to ensure that its position in the world is not only secure but also improves. In this age of competition, when all countries in the world, specially those in Asia, are competing for their place in the sun, we have to do everything to see that Indian institutions are also in the reckoning. In this respect, I do not see any other institution in India which qualifies to be amongst the top 20 or 50 scientific research and teaching institutions in the world. While I do not believe in competition where one is conscious of it all the time, thereby ruining the style of functioning as well as the very objectives of research, it is important that serious and constant efforts are made to improve quality and maintain our pursuit of excellence by supporting and promoting good ideas and bright, committed people. The institute has to plan new types of courses and educational programmes, which will promote higher education at the advanced level and research efforts of the faculty more effectively. I would encourage inter-disciplinary areas, like materials. Although there is some materials research going on, the quality as well as quantum of research are not sufficiently high. It will remain important and crucial as long as humans live. The institute should take up those areas which are closely related to the pressing problems of mankind, such as energy, water, climate and environment. The institute could offer major support for research on solar energy, hydrogen energy, fuel cells and batteries and related subjects, and even offer rewards for those who come up with real solutions that would help the country and world at large. We need to worry about water — not only availability and distribution, but also safe drinking water. With respect to climate change, we should improve our modelling capabilities and work on experimental approaches related to sequestration and beneficial conversion of carbon dioxide and related problems. IISc and industry have always been related. In fact, many years ago, a silicon plant was set up based on the technology of the institute. Many industries have benefited by their association with the institute. However, in future, we must see that Indian industry comes to the institute to support research in a big way. An important venture could be to establish a new organization within the institute, similar to ITRI in Taiwan. ITRI deals with training, education and research directed towards technological innovation. Young people educated in the institute come out with new ideas by the end of their two or three-year period, many of which become products and technologies. This would be a challenging task if IISc can produce future innovators. When we look at science today and the status of science at large, it becomes clear that it requires an entirely new approach. Indian Institute of Science could give serious thought to the kind of training and education we need to provide young people, so that at the end of their Bachelor’s degree in science and engineering, they are capable of taking up challenging problems related to society, industry and science. Such a new curriculum has to be planned very carefully. Most countries and institutions have not succeeded in providing the best kind of education suited to present and future needs. It will be worthwhile for the institute to plan a new inter-disciplinary undergraduate programme where students after Class 12, come to the institute to take up studies in diverse areas, which eventually help them work at the cutting edge, and also make major innovations for the advancement of science and engineering. I envisage courses that minimize compartmentalization of subjects like chemistry (organic, inorganic, physical etc.), physics and biology, and also attempt to bring about unity of all sciences. Engineering should be a significant component of such a curriculum.To accomplish many of these objectives, the institute has to have a large dedicated faculty, whose recruitment will be an important task. PM will open IISc celebrations Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will inaugurate the centenary celebrations of the country’s premier scientific and research institution, Indian Institute of Science (IISc) here on Wednesday. Security has been tightened at the campus. Singh, who will be arriving by noon, will launch the year-long celebrations planned by the Institute, and also unveil the centenary commemoration stone. Security has been beefed up, keeping in view the Mumbai attacks, and also the December 28, 2005 terror incident, when an assistant professor was killed and four others injured. VIGNETTES The Hopkins connection The Baltimore Sun on May 19, 1899, carried a news item with the headline: ‘The Hopkins, His Model’ and a small blurb ‘A Parsee Millionaire will Found a University in India along the same lines’, referring to Jamsetji Tata’s interest in adopting the John Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA, as the model for the proposed university (IISc). John Hopkins University had the unique distinction of being the first university in the world founded as a post-graduate institution. Ramsay’s right choice Writing on why the new institute was best set up in Bangalore, Ramsay observed, “The town of Bangalore does not present the same distractions as Bombay, Calcutta or Madras; but it is the seat of a geological survey, of an agricultural section, and of a government college; and these would furnish a certain nucleus of scientific society, which could not fail to be congenial both to the staff and the students of the new institute.” The Kolar Gold Fields, other mineral deposits of the state, its climate that would make it possible to work with energy during the greater part of the year, clinched the issue. (The writer is chairman, scientific advisory council to PM)
Times of India 5th page 3rd December 2008
The Indian Institute of Science is the oldest and best postgraduate research institute of India, comparable to the Weizmann Institute in Israel, where there are only post-graduate students. There is no question that the Institute provides the best environment to carry out good research, and extraordinary freedom, independent of the rank of a faculty member. But this is history — what can we expect in future? The institute has to ensure that its position in the world is not only secure but also improves. In this age of competition, when all countries in the world, specially those in Asia, are competing for their place in the sun, we have to do everything to see that Indian institutions are also in the reckoning. In this respect, I do not see any other institution in India which qualifies to be amongst the top 20 or 50 scientific research and teaching institutions in the world. While I do not believe in competition where one is conscious of it all the time, thereby ruining the style of functioning as well as the very objectives of research, it is important that serious and constant efforts are made to improve quality and maintain our pursuit of excellence by supporting and promoting good ideas and bright, committed people. The institute has to plan new types of courses and educational programmes, which will promote higher education at the advanced level and research efforts of the faculty more effectively. I would encourage inter-disciplinary areas, like materials. Although there is some materials research going on, the quality as well as quantum of research are not sufficiently high. It will remain important and crucial as long as humans live. The institute should take up those areas which are closely related to the pressing problems of mankind, such as energy, water, climate and environment. The institute could offer major support for research on solar energy, hydrogen energy, fuel cells and batteries and related subjects, and even offer rewards for those who come up with real solutions that would help the country and world at large. We need to worry about water — not only availability and distribution, but also safe drinking water. With respect to climate change, we should improve our modelling capabilities and work on experimental approaches related to sequestration and beneficial conversion of carbon dioxide and related problems. IISc and industry have always been related. In fact, many years ago, a silicon plant was set up based on the technology of the institute. Many industries have benefited by their association with the institute. However, in future, we must see that Indian industry comes to the institute to support research in a big way. An important venture could be to establish a new organization within the institute, similar to ITRI in Taiwan. ITRI deals with training, education and research directed towards technological innovation. Young people educated in the institute come out with new ideas by the end of their two or three-year period, many of which become products and technologies. This would be a challenging task if IISc can produce future innovators. When we look at science today and the status of science at large, it becomes clear that it requires an entirely new approach. Indian Institute of Science could give serious thought to the kind of training and education we need to provide young people, so that at the end of their Bachelor’s degree in science and engineering, they are capable of taking up challenging problems related to society, industry and science. Such a new curriculum has to be planned very carefully. Most countries and institutions have not succeeded in providing the best kind of education suited to present and future needs. It will be worthwhile for the institute to plan a new inter-disciplinary undergraduate programme where students after Class 12, come to the institute to take up studies in diverse areas, which eventually help them work at the cutting edge, and also make major innovations for the advancement of science and engineering. I envisage courses that minimize compartmentalization of subjects like chemistry (organic, inorganic, physical etc.), physics and biology, and also attempt to bring about unity of all sciences. Engineering should be a significant component of such a curriculum.To accomplish many of these objectives, the institute has to have a large dedicated faculty, whose recruitment will be an important task. PM will open IISc celebrations Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will inaugurate the centenary celebrations of the country’s premier scientific and research institution, Indian Institute of Science (IISc) here on Wednesday. Security has been tightened at the campus. Singh, who will be arriving by noon, will launch the year-long celebrations planned by the Institute, and also unveil the centenary commemoration stone. Security has been beefed up, keeping in view the Mumbai attacks, and also the December 28, 2005 terror incident, when an assistant professor was killed and four others injured. VIGNETTES The Hopkins connection The Baltimore Sun on May 19, 1899, carried a news item with the headline: ‘The Hopkins, His Model’ and a small blurb ‘A Parsee Millionaire will Found a University in India along the same lines’, referring to Jamsetji Tata’s interest in adopting the John Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA, as the model for the proposed university (IISc). John Hopkins University had the unique distinction of being the first university in the world founded as a post-graduate institution. Ramsay’s right choice Writing on why the new institute was best set up in Bangalore, Ramsay observed, “The town of Bangalore does not present the same distractions as Bombay, Calcutta or Madras; but it is the seat of a geological survey, of an agricultural section, and of a government college; and these would furnish a certain nucleus of scientific society, which could not fail to be congenial both to the staff and the students of the new institute.” The Kolar Gold Fields, other mineral deposits of the state, its climate that would make it possible to work with energy during the greater part of the year, clinched the issue. (The writer is chairman, scientific advisory council to PM)
Times of India 5th page 3rd December 2008
