In search of research

Is Indian academia suffering at the hands of Information Technology? Could it be possible that the IT industry is so well scrubbed, buffed, manicured and styled as to present the image of an irresistible lifestyle, a future filled with promise, riches and security? Last month, the venerable Professor CNR Rao, renowned scientist and honorary president of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bangalore made an observation that didn’t quite ring right. He said that IT has destroyed Indian science as much as it has contributed to its economy. Could IT have truly affected scientific research in India? 

Rao was at a two-day international conference on ‘Recent trends in materials and characterisation’ at the National Institute of Technology, Surathkal. His view: The IT sector might have contributed to the country’s GDP, but its contribution to development was suspect. Apparently, the lack of innovation in Indian science can be directly related to commercialisation of the IT industry. Why did Rao think this was true? Because, as he observed, students were opting for IT jobs that had nothing to do with scientific innovation. And they were opting for these jobs because they paid more than what someone who opted for research would earn. 

Let’s do the simple maths first: a student does his MSc and then heads for Outer Ring Road instead of a PhD because…well, because the companies on Outer Ring Road pay more to do mindless repetitive tasks than a professor at a university would earn trying to build a knowledge society. It’s a triumph of materialism that has infected every part of our culture: from politics to economics and medicine to applied art. Or so we like to believe.
But, there are a couple of flaws in the argument. Even if a student wanted to pursue research, where are the universities and the faculty to ensure the quality of research that students aspire for?

Professor Ramesh Jain, Bren Professor of Information & Computer Science at the University of California, Irvine, who was in Bangalore earlier this week to deliver a lecture, says that 10 years ago, 25% of the research papers written by students of computer science under him in the US were by Indians and 25% were by Chinese. Today, that number has skewed in favour of Chinese students who produce 50% of the papers. But that’s a valid view only from the computer science labs and, as we will see, there is an irony to it.

So here we are, seemingly in a spiral of hopelessness: To begin with, we lack a culture of research; adding to it is the fact that faculty and facilities don’t quite encourage a life of academic and scientific pursuit. Let’s phrase it another way: We just don’t have the right fuel to fire a knowledge society. But, can we stop blaming the knowledge economy and the pay cheques that come with it? 
The odd thing is that Indian research is not suffering. It’s only a lame argument for a purpose that we may not be able to fathom (and don’t really care about). Here’s a reality check: In end 2008, the scientific business of Thomson Reuters published the results of data analysed from its National Science Indicators and Essential Science Indicators. The results, published in Science Watch, showed India’s steady increase in research output and impact since 2000. We’ll repeat the headline, just to jolt us back to reality: “India Scientific Research Continues to Grow.” Surprised, eh?

In 1985, Indian researchers accounted for 12,500 research papers indexed by Thomson Reuters. By 2000, India began to see a remarkable growth in its scientific output. By 2007, more than 27,000 papers were indexed by Thomson Reuters. But that’s not the real story. The real story is in the somewhat ironical influence of India’s researchers that had been rising. While India’s impact (average number of citations per paper) has not yet reached the world average within most scientific fields, the survey reported that India has made the most headway in Physics, with an average of 3.13 cites per paper for the period 2003 to 2007 — 80% of the field average.

“Our analysis indicates that India is moving toward greater participation in world science,” said Christopher King, editor of Science Watch.  “Besides a dramatic increase in its number of research papers and its average citation impact, the number of papers authored exclusively by India-based institutions has declined. This allows us to draw the conclusion that India’s presence is increasing in international science.” 

There’s a nice story in there: Indian desire to pursue research hasn’t exactly died. Far from it. But great Indian institutions and inspiring faculty to support the desire to pursue knowledge have slowly vanished.