One wrong thing that India does

                                            One wrong thing that India does

     Business  Insider India, in one of its articles, pointed out, “Only 10 scientists from India featured

in the world’s ‘highly-cited’ researchers list compared to 482 from China”. It is even more terrifying

 to know that India accounts for only 0.25% of the 4,000 highly-cited scientists across the globe.

 Isn’t this horrifying? If this does not worry you, think about this. It's been decades since we won a

Nobel Prize in Basics Sciences. C.V. Raman won the prize in the year 1930. That’s around 90 years

 ago. If you look at the people who were awarded prizes in Basic Science, you will be amazed as

you would find it very hard to find Indians in there.

     What is the reason for this dreadful situation? If you think about it a bit, you will find that the

answer is obvious. “We don’t support Basic Sciences the way we support Engineering or Medicine.”

As soon as a teenager completes schooling, they are given the choice of either Engineering or

Medicine. They were advised strongly not to take up a career in Basic Science or even Arts for that

matter. But what choices does a parent have in this situation? They are very less number of jobs in

these fields in India. Furthermore, Engineering or Medicine is more hyped than Basic Sciences.

     One of my friends who is very passionate about Physics ended up pursuing a B.Tech degree.

Another friend of mine is also in the same trend. I have friends all around India and most of them

follow the same trend. But what’s hurting is that all these students should deal with the wrath of

Engineering and this does not help them much in their pursuits of the learning Physics. Moreover, a

lot of talent is wasted due to this.

     Another reason for this serious condition is that the Indian government gives more support and

more importance to Engineering than to Basic Sciences. Investment by the Indian government in

Basic Sciences is way too low. Institutes of Engineering (such as IITs, NITs) outnumbers the

institutes of Basic Sciences. I can only think of very few institutes based on Basic Sciences in India.

    Indian government should start to give more importance and support to Basics Sciences by

starting more institutes based on them. Due to this, more jobs will be created which increases the

scope of these subjects in India. The governments should start to invest more in this. More programs

by reputed institutes to increase interest in the general public should be conducted.

Reference:

         Only 10 scientists from India featured in the world's 'highly-cited' researchers list compared to 482 from China. (2019, January 04). Retrieved December 25, 2020, from https://www.businessinsider.in/only-10-scientists-from-india-featured-in-the-worlds-highly-cited-researchers-list-compared-to-482-from-china/articleshow/67377156.cms