Science needs bigger investment for better results

Pallava Bagla

Science Commentator 

The National Science Day being celebrated today is a stark reminder that it is now 92 years since an Indian scientist won a Nobel Prize in science. Prof Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman discovered the Raman Effect and the 1930 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to him. The drought continues, but have Indian scientists and technologists failed to live up to the expectations? Seventy-five years after Independence is a good time to take stock of our science and technology (S&T) capabilities. Blue-sky research may not have blossomed but technological achievements dot the last 75 years.

Raman’s Nobel was indeed sweet, but the hard reality is that while the discovery was made in India, its massive commercial application happened in the West. Raman spectroscopes were developed, but India lost out. Today, almost all the bomb or explosives detectors one sees at the airports use Raman spectroscopic signatures to sniff out explosives.

Fortunately, there has been bi-partisan support for science from India’s political class and India invests heavily in S&T with almost 1% of the GDP being set aside for scientific research. Should it more? Certainly, since all modern nations invest about 3-5% of the GDP on R&D. This year, the Ministry of Science and Technology has been granted Rs 14,217 crore.

Around the time Raman was carrying out his basic research, the country was in the grip of great food shortages and the Great Bengal Famine of 1943 took a toll of 2-3 million people. The foodgrain shortage continued to dog India till the 1960s when we depended on doles of foodgrains under the PL-480 scheme of the US and the moniker ‘ship to mouth’ was common, while long queues outside ration shops to buy a few kilos of rice and wheat were a general sight. But then came the Green Revolution pioneered by scientists like Dr MS Swaminathan and today India is a net exporter of foodgrains. This journey from being food-deficient to becoming food-surplus was important since achieving independence in food production was as vital as gaining freedom at the stroke of the midnight hour. But today, the same Green Revolution of yesteryear needs to turn into an ‘ever-Green Revolution’ to find solutions to air pollution caused by stubble burning in northern India. Again, national science will have to come to the rescue.

India has always sought a seat at the high table in the comity of nations and to assert its position, the nuclear explosions at Pokhran — in 1974 and then in 1998 — played a key role. India boldly declared itself a responsible nuclear power having detonated both atom and hydrogen bombs deep inside the sands of the Thar desert. Since nobody shares this technology, it was Indian scientists who made it possible. But the crowning glory was how a motley group of boffins using good old Indian jugaad fooled the eves-droppers of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the US, which failed to predict the explosions. India became the sixth nation to have atom bombs. Another big strategic big bang took place in 2019 through ‘Mission Shakti’ when India blasted its own satellite using an anti-satellite missile to establish it had precision capabilities of hitting a bullet with a bullet, almost 300 km above the Indian Ocean.

India has indeed done remarkably well in technology development where mission mode programmes were undertaken. The space programme started in 1963 with borrowed Nike Apache rockets that weighed 32 kg. Today, India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) has had its 54th launch and weighs 321 tonnes and the ‘Bahubali’ rocket or the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk III weighs 640 tonnes and can carry a 4,000-kg satellite into space. From carrying satellites on bullock carts, today India’s satellites are proudly orbiting both the Moon and Mars.

Finding solutions for India’s unique local needs has been the hallmark of Indian technology development and not many realise that India’s scientists have contributed more to cleaning up India’s voting and in empowering India’s democracy than they are credited for. The creation of the indelible India Ink by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has prevented double voting and more than that, the hack-proof stand-alone electronic voting machines (EVMS) developed by teams of Indian engineers has prevented large-scale malpractices on polling days.

The Covid-19 pandemic brought out the best of swadeshi science. In 2019, each imported RT-PCR cost Rs 4,500 per test. Today, thanks to local development and industry, it costs just about Rs 300. The development of Covaxin in less than a year by Bharat Biotech International Ltd is a shining example of how if timely investments are made, then Indian scientists can even develop vaccines which normally would have taken a decade to make.

There is one area where Indian S&T has not been able to make big breakthroughs. It is in the energy sector that India remains hungry and energy independence remains a distant dream. Oil, coal, gas and even uranium are imported in ship-loads to meet our energy-hungry society. Much emphasis is being put on solar energy, but unfortunately all solar cells are also imported, mostly from China. In the next 25 years, India needs to strive to become energy-independent. In fact, a similar story repeats in the digital world. We may be a software superpower, but nearly all semi-conductors are imported.

A new India that Prime Minister Narendra Modi dreams of can only take off when local science and technology can be catalysed more. A self-reliant India needs to at least double its investment in S&T. Nobel prizes will follow and the long drought could end sooner than later.

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