CHALLENGES BEFORE INDIAN RESEARCH SCHOLARS
The major challenges faced by Indian researchers based in
India or abroad are similar in nature, although the difference
lies in maneuverability through them. In a nutshell, they include
(but are not limited to):
• Funding
• For India, limited industry options for PhD
• Too many PhDs but the lack of career counseling. Where will
this labor pool generated be absorbed?
• Lack of awareness among industry regarding the talent pool
which PhDs can bring to their doorsteps Jobs after
Ph.D./Postdoc
• Career awareness in and beyond academia
• Lack of training in schools on how to network, write basic
cover letters, resumes and CVs
disseminating their research in a
simplified form, i.e., “Scientists
Simplifying Science.” With time
the repertoire of articles on
ClubSciWri diversified, and soon
it started talking about the lives
and careers of scientists from
across the world.
On February 21, 2016, the
ClubSciWri organized an open
interview with Prof K
VijayRaghavan, Secretary of the
Department of Biotechnology
(DBT), in the Twitter townhall,
#AskVijayDBT. There was an
overwhelming response with 30
active participants in 7 countries
joining the discussions. The sheer
turnout at the event and the
variety of questions asked, as per
the organizers, were not only
heartening but also demonstrated
the very evidence of fire in the
belly of a young and dynamic
Indian research sector.
As a first step towards connecting
Indian researchers from across
the world to the DBT, it was a
major move because this Town
Hall made virtual bridges for
ClubSciWri with other science
policy makers on Twitter. Dr
Viswanadham Duppatla (UK), Dr
Kartika Shetty (UK) and Dr Ankur
Sharma (Singapore) have
continued to strengthen these
twitter bonds with their tweets.
“We actively use the twitter
handle @ClubSciWri as a medium
to communicate with Policy
makers, Science Journalists and
students. It is very good to see
@DBTindia @IndiaDST being
very active and promptly
responding to any query about
new policies and schemes. It is
commendable development that
social media space being used to
solve the simple problems which
otherwise would have wasted so
much time and resources,” says
Dr Duppatla.
“India faces multiple challenges
on sustainability, and one way to
solve would be to bring in the best
ideas on the table,”says Dr Ghosh.
Both CSG and ClubSciWri bring
together individuals who share
common interests like music,
nature, photography, etc. and
therefore creating such small
subgroups interested in varied
things is one of our goals to keep
the forum culturally engaged.
These have a network of PhDs
who are spread over the world,
and many of them are involved in
projects involving sustainability
issues. The founders hope to use
the networking platform and
harness those intellectual assets
to solve problems faced by India.
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