Dividing scientific research into discovery and translation is not a fair. If we go into the history of science in India, we will see that at various stages in the past we had people who became very important pillars of translational research. Whatever investments and research was done decades ago has led to benefits now.
Dividing scientific research into discovery and translation is not a fair. If we go into the history of science in India, we will see that at various stages in the past we had people who became very important pillars of translational research. Whatever investments and research was done decades ago has led to benefits now.
The ability to generate revenue and jobs we have today is because of the seeds sown in the past. People few times ask why is India not winning enough Nobel prizes? Of course, it would always be nice if our scientist received Nobel prizes. However, if our science can help our people in Indian and the rest of the developing world to progress, that would be even bigger contribution of science.
Q: Do we have enough skill sets in India? There are biotech colleges where even basic research facilities are not present?
Quality control is an important factor. My answer to this would not be just yes or no. There are courses where quality is compromised but there are courses that give us best quality people. For example, IISERs and IITs are training the students after class 12 in a remarkable way. RCB will start specialized courses in gap areas. We must continue efforts to improve. Because this is like that Alice in Wonderland story; to stay at the same place you have to keep running. We can’ t relax saying our quality is good but at the same time we can’ t also say that our quality is bad. If we didn’ t have quality, how could we have made the Bangalore and Hyderabad hubs successful.
Q: A big gap has always been felt between science and common man. How to bridge this?
I agree we should communicate with society better. We should be able to convenience the common man that science has been a major partner in progress so far. Whatever has been achieved by us is not known to the society. Our strengths are not understood by the people. We need to communicate our successes to the people as well as to our leadership. They should know that the investments made in science have given positive outcomes. That is true for all areas of science.
Of course, we honor the society’ s wishes that the science should produce the results faster. It is public money and they have right to ask that. We must strive towards that. We need to ensure that whatever we begin must continue with the higher level of quality.
Scientific excellence is a must as it will automatically lead to results for the benefit of people. We should strive for excellence but also make sure that everybody must understand what we are doing.
Q: Why do scientists lack in communicating on their work? Why do they avoid talking to press?
Traditionally scientists believed in doing their work in a focused manner without generally bothering to speak out or counter any public myth. Doing scientific research is not the same as any office job, which is mostly predictive. Here you are doing something and exploring. They build ivory towers and shells around them. However, it doesn’ t work anymore. They must communicate more.
Q: Should we expect any makeover of ICGEB in next few years?
We would like to make ICGEB a lot more international than it is today. We do have international students and post-doctoral fellows in small numbers. We need to increase that number. It would be nice to have senior colleagues also of varied nationalities. ICGEB’ s mandate allows us to do so without compromising on quality.
We have commitment to India as well as rest of the developing world. I am sure, lot many problems of the developing world could be addressed through biotechnology. We will make sure that we are an important part of this mission to develop viable solutions for mankind.
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