Part of our year-end series revisiting Swarajya's most important investigations—stories that illuminate why India underperforms its potential, and what it would take to change.
This is one of my gripes with the government that has been at the helm of affairs for more than a decade now. They haven’t even woken up to talent creation or retention or bringing back, when the need for this has been so obvious all along.
Too much reliance on bureaucracy and too much hesitation for anything that might create even scam potential.
Gives me too less a hope for something like this happen any time soon.
A very relevant topic, with President Trump putting a lot of hurdles in the form of visa procedures, and the changing economy in the western world. The usually proactive Modi Government is surprising very lethargic in this case. It is high time a high level expert committee of a dozen or more retired Prominent scientists like Dr. Mashlekar, Dr. T.Ramasamy ( both former heads of CSIR) and the like, is formed to devise ways to attract good Indian talent from abroad to our research institutions and top notch universities/labs like IITs, NITs, IISC, CSIR labs, DRDO etc, with a good salary, a very good working environment and good funding to meet research expenses. It is saddening to hear that a lot of posts are lying vacant in the IITs, NITs etc .
The full solution is probably hard and complicated but there’s a simple first step any government can perform that will make things better. At the very least, as we are sinking and it will stop us from digging further. Eliminate all caste reservations in undergrad education to faculty hiring. Without doing this, talking about any other change is stupid and counter productive. This is the only change that matters, the very first step, the 1+1=2 of handling our country. Americans have revolted for far less, affirmative action is negligible compared to the caste reservations that we follow, it is honestly comical if not with a tinge of tragedy.
The whole concept of merit is retarded when >50% of our seats don’t go based on merit. A unified national identity is also impossible. A separate woman quota the government added in 2018 to IIT’s is equally retarded and has to go. Do this and at a fundamental level, things will change. Don’t do this and try offering high salaries, bonuses etc just means stupid people will further rent extract the Indian middle class and its geniuses that make us proud. And then maybe we can have a concentrated push to bring back all the Indians the Western world stole from us, which the western world is now scapegoating for their problems. Honestly, seeing the vitriol, resentment and mockery towards Indians on X, would make one wonder why even go to US, but then you see the equally retarded system back home and you realize maybe the US even with racist laws in the future might still not deny admission to >50% meritocratic Indians. A racist society is somehow better than what we have. I exaggerate, only slightly.
I fully agree with your view. Reservation only based on economic terms and that too a small % only in educational institutions and selections based on only merit in jobs will do the magic in future.
India has not coordinated its industry with universities and vocational training centres to develop curricula and training programmes that produce engineers and technicians ready to meet industry needs. The banking and finance sector in India is not prepared to handle the risk associated with commercially unproven inventions. For these reasons, it is unlikely that India will see scientists develop cutting-edge technology or systems on a scale comparable to the US or China. China and the US can attract top talent from India because they have well-established systems for commercialising inventions and discoveries. Since there is little demand for such talent in India, attracting scientists serves little purpose. The country is still far behind in creating an environment capable of attracting and retaining high-calibre talent at scale.
Yes very true ; the Indian industry and the universities don't have the same level of collaboration as in Europe or in the USA. I come to know that all researches ending in a Ph.D. in Engineering or Technology are all sponsored by the Industry there; no Ph.D.s otherwise. My friend's son did his Ph.D in applied mechanics at the Gothenberg University in Sweden sponsored by Volvo motors and is at present working with Volvo trucks there. Indian government must bring in a law exempting the amount used for sponsoring research in Technical Universities from Income tax.
This malaise is not new. It has been there from the time the British left. It will not change until our society goes for complete overhaul, beginning with the abolition of caste reservations. You can revisit this article a decade from now, and be sure the data will be the same if not worse. Nobody has the gumption to institute this reform. It can only be done when a political system evolves that is far better than the present version of democracy.
This is one of my gripes with the government that has been at the helm of affairs for more than a decade now. They haven’t even woken up to talent creation or retention or bringing back, when the need for this has been so obvious all along.
Too much reliance on bureaucracy and too much hesitation for anything that might create even scam potential.
Gives me too less a hope for something like this happen any time soon.
A very relevant topic, with President Trump putting a lot of hurdles in the form of visa procedures, and the changing economy in the western world. The usually proactive Modi Government is surprising very lethargic in this case. It is high time a high level expert committee of a dozen or more retired Prominent scientists like Dr. Mashlekar, Dr. T.Ramasamy ( both former heads of CSIR) and the like, is formed to devise ways to attract good Indian talent from abroad to our research institutions and top notch universities/labs like IITs, NITs, IISC, CSIR labs, DRDO etc, with a good salary, a very good working environment and good funding to meet research expenses. It is saddening to hear that a lot of posts are lying vacant in the IITs, NITs etc .
The full solution is probably hard and complicated but there’s a simple first step any government can perform that will make things better. At the very least, as we are sinking and it will stop us from digging further. Eliminate all caste reservations in undergrad education to faculty hiring. Without doing this, talking about any other change is stupid and counter productive. This is the only change that matters, the very first step, the 1+1=2 of handling our country. Americans have revolted for far less, affirmative action is negligible compared to the caste reservations that we follow, it is honestly comical if not with a tinge of tragedy.
The whole concept of merit is retarded when >50% of our seats don’t go based on merit. A unified national identity is also impossible. A separate woman quota the government added in 2018 to IIT’s is equally retarded and has to go. Do this and at a fundamental level, things will change. Don’t do this and try offering high salaries, bonuses etc just means stupid people will further rent extract the Indian middle class and its geniuses that make us proud. And then maybe we can have a concentrated push to bring back all the Indians the Western world stole from us, which the western world is now scapegoating for their problems. Honestly, seeing the vitriol, resentment and mockery towards Indians on X, would make one wonder why even go to US, but then you see the equally retarded system back home and you realize maybe the US even with racist laws in the future might still not deny admission to >50% meritocratic Indians. A racist society is somehow better than what we have. I exaggerate, only slightly.
I fully agree with your view. Reservation only based on economic terms and that too a small % only in educational institutions and selections based on only merit in jobs will do the magic in future.
India has not coordinated its industry with universities and vocational training centres to develop curricula and training programmes that produce engineers and technicians ready to meet industry needs. The banking and finance sector in India is not prepared to handle the risk associated with commercially unproven inventions. For these reasons, it is unlikely that India will see scientists develop cutting-edge technology or systems on a scale comparable to the US or China. China and the US can attract top talent from India because they have well-established systems for commercialising inventions and discoveries. Since there is little demand for such talent in India, attracting scientists serves little purpose. The country is still far behind in creating an environment capable of attracting and retaining high-calibre talent at scale.
Yes very true ; the Indian industry and the universities don't have the same level of collaboration as in Europe or in the USA. I come to know that all researches ending in a Ph.D. in Engineering or Technology are all sponsored by the Industry there; no Ph.D.s otherwise. My friend's son did his Ph.D in applied mechanics at the Gothenberg University in Sweden sponsored by Volvo motors and is at present working with Volvo trucks there. Indian government must bring in a law exempting the amount used for sponsoring research in Technical Universities from Income tax.
This malaise is not new. It has been there from the time the British left. It will not change until our society goes for complete overhaul, beginning with the abolition of caste reservations. You can revisit this article a decade from now, and be sure the data will be the same if not worse. Nobody has the gumption to institute this reform. It can only be done when a political system evolves that is far better than the present version of democracy.