Saturday, June 4, 2011

World Class

Last month a union minister known for tongue-wagging (-in-cheek-speaking?)  [1]
had a barb for IIT,IIM faculty - telling them not world-class, but for self, was benevolnet
towards IITians, though many question their utility for their changes as migratory
birds to USA or IIMs, while very few are in real love with science and technology.
Interestingly, the observer has forgotten to place current of self in any standard
(are our ministers of world class?). Fortunately, another came to rescue of faculty
for it belongs to the domain of his ministry.

Again adding to the issue, yet another barb came from a recognized (though his 
detractors say 'sarkari') scientist - who tells not more than TEN Indian scientists 
are world class [2]. Till now, there is no report, to my knowledge on this issue.

Seems there is some truth in all these statements. After Saha-Bose_Raman era, in 
recent past, the science in India is nil. The science in India now, almost a
patchy work - a bit of twist to a published work! Meet a professor in any Univ./
Institute in India, to hear the standard advise - Go and do the survey first and learn
what and how they have done!
 
Who are these 'they's? Mostly from west - we look for science and technology. In
default 'they' project world class - the class that belongs  neither to Indians 
nor to their problems !

Hrushikesha
a Sunday Musing
References:
1. http://www.samachar.com/Jairam-IIT-IIM-students-world-class-not-faculty-lfyjP8cafhi.html
2. http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2066308.ece

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very interesting. I really like that you have responded to these half-baked remarks of people in power.
BNP

Anonymous said...

I like the thoughts very much. We are the followers of the west. Not at all any innovation rather than patchy the matters.

ak

Anonymous said...

Hi!

At-least the minister will agree his team and party members are world class scam-masters!

WC

Anonymous said...

Namaskar,
The wold class discourse is truly amazing. What is world class about India now? Democracry, politics or life? Ours is a medieval society with no democracy around (Read fascism of the Govt. at RamalilaMaidan). Threfore talking of IITs not world class is as much out of place as saying that India is democratic. It is good that nobody talks of Universities in India are not world class. We are spared the agony.
Your musings are timley and good.
Thanks and regards,

A B Sagar said...

I wish all researchers in india read this post.

howdy said...

I do not have the statistics and therefore I shall reserve my comments only to a smaller group of people I happen to know. Go to a small village school (I have been there) and you will find bright students. Go to a college and you will see that they have very carefully taken (I mean selected) the best students but at the end of the year (or couple of years) they have been trained to be just average. Take any number of our bureaucrats and you will find that they have been really bright students once upon a time. So what happened in the mean time? How did we manage to turn our great assets into junk (I mean a set of trained file pushers)? There are two aspects: one we call training and the other is the environment.

A secure and decent job is dream of all (be it bright or ordinary student) and we have all worked for this. We also live in a terribly depressing environment where we are willing to do anything for money. So the moment the brilliant researcher gets a job he is relaxed. He does not want to topple the boat as he learns to control his ambitions. Let us be honest for ourselves for once.

The radicals are not welcome nor tolerated. If you just want to be a part of this system, then you are welcome (otherwise not). No cosmetic change will do: we need radical change.

C.K. Rajendran said...

Dear Sir,

Earlier Ph.D's were awarded. Later Ph.D's were given. Now I feel Ph.D's are distributed.

Time to take a note on this and one has to look for value and efforts put behind the Ph.Ds. before they are accepted.

Also how many Ph.D's are useful to the country Or to the people. Useful for the next reasher to carryon is not enough. It should produce some usefulness in real life by way of practical use OR by way of useful information.

C.K. Rajendran said...

Dear Sir,

I AGREE WITH YOU IN TOTALITY.