Kashmiri students share their research and concerns

Nagpur: Rasy Faiyaz sat talking to her friends after a plenary session at the 108th India Science Congress (ISC). The research she is working on points to certain bacteria that are known to be found only in humans, but were also seen in fish bred in commercial ponds. This could be due to pollution and other reasons, she says.
Rasy is part of the 14-member team of research scholars from Kashmir who have come to the 108th ISC with a dozen research papers for presentation. Students from the department of zoology are presenting some of their work related to fisheries.
“We will be presenting some salient points of our research during the science congress,” said Nafi Maqbool. His research deals with use of probiotics, which can emerge as an alternative to antibiotics. Ishteyag Majid Shah is working on molecular identification of parasites so that antidotes can be developed on the basis of it.
Displaying zeal about their scientific pursuit, there were concerns about problems dogging research scholars in their state, and also in general. “Scholars end up devoting a number of valuable years of their life but there are not enough jobs,” says Ishteyag, who would like to take up a job in the teaching profession or even industrial research.
“Now, we have to completely depend on the central government vacancies, which are limited. For getting more jobs, there need to be more participation of the private sector. However, there are none in Kashmir. There can be pharmaceutical industries so that there are enough jobs for researchers,” said one of them.
They also called for more private institutions in Kashmir so that researchers can broaden their scope of learning. There is a need for institutions that can impart education on subjects related to research, said the students.