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 .
BIOVOICENEWS . COM 15