CHENNAI: A panel of eminent scientists on Friday said more importance should be given to scientific research investments in the country. Speaking on the "150 years of science as seen through the pages of Nature" at the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation here, six eminent scientists spoke on various aspects of science in India.
Cautioning that India is described as a ‘hot zone’ for infectious diseases, Shahid Jameel, CEO, Wellcome Trust / DBT India Alliance highlighted the most recent coronavirus outbreak as an example of how we need to be prepared.
“It only costs a fraction of time for preparedness. However, we need to work when we don’t have an outbreak. Most ingredients for active pharma industry are from China. With the corona outbreak, what will happen to our drug industry? National security is therefore, not just about arms and tanks but about health; health security should be considered a national security,” he said.
T Ramasami, former secretary to the Department of Science and Technology, spoke about the top 44 nations investing in science research and development showing how much more India needed to do. “We need 1,200 scientists per million population to invest in research and development. We have just about 200 scientists per million population. The number of scientists has to increase manifold if our investment has to match, say the US” he said.
Chief editor of Nature India Subhra Priyadarshini traced the 150 years of research and landmark publications that had come out from the Nature stable. Also, it had transitioned from its earlier mission of aiding ‘scientific men’ to now focusing on diversity and gender equality.
In a fascinating talk that traced the ‘150 years of genetics’, M S Swaminathan, founder of MSSRF, spoke about various milestones brought out in Nature scientific journal, and how all major discoveries had been recorded by it.
In his eight points emphasising on the importance of communicating and popularising science, D Balasubramanian, distinguished scientist, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, called for use of simple language without jargons. He also suggested more regional language writing on science.
Nitya Rao, University of East Anglia, emphasised on gender equality in science and specifically focused on stereotypes. “Technology has diverse social impacts on different groups of people: Product design keeps the male user in mind, Artificial intelligence technologies can also include and introduce biases of gender and ethnicity,” she said.
Echoing her, Dr Koushika added, “There’s a clear pipeline problem in science, where more than 50% are women at the graduation level, but through the pipeline, that number drops drastically.”
Cautioning that India is described as a ‘hot zone’ for infectious diseases, Shahid Jameel, CEO, Wellcome Trust / DBT India Alliance highlighted the most recent coronavirus outbreak as an example of how we need to be prepared.
“It only costs a fraction of time for preparedness. However, we need to work when we don’t have an outbreak. Most ingredients for active pharma industry are from China. With the corona outbreak, what will happen to our drug industry? National security is therefore, not just about arms and tanks but about health; health security should be considered a national security,” he said.
T Ramasami, former secretary to the Department of Science and Technology, spoke about the top 44 nations investing in science research and development showing how much more India needed to do. “We need 1,200 scientists per million population to invest in research and development. We have just about 200 scientists per million population. The number of scientists has to increase manifold if our investment has to match, say the US” he said.
Chief editor of Nature India Subhra Priyadarshini traced the 150 years of research and landmark publications that had come out from the Nature stable. Also, it had transitioned from its earlier mission of aiding ‘scientific men’ to now focusing on diversity and gender equality.
In a fascinating talk that traced the ‘150 years of genetics’, M S Swaminathan, founder of MSSRF, spoke about various milestones brought out in Nature scientific journal, and how all major discoveries had been recorded by it.
In his eight points emphasising on the importance of communicating and popularising science, D Balasubramanian, distinguished scientist, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, called for use of simple language without jargons. He also suggested more regional language writing on science.
Nitya Rao, University of East Anglia, emphasised on gender equality in science and specifically focused on stereotypes. “Technology has diverse social impacts on different groups of people: Product design keeps the male user in mind, Artificial intelligence technologies can also include and introduce biases of gender and ethnicity,” she said.
Echoing her, Dr Koushika added, “There’s a clear pipeline problem in science, where more than 50% are women at the graduation level, but through the pipeline, that number drops drastically.”
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