India's top sceintists last month rang alrm bells, pointing the steady attrition of scientists from Government institutions to the the private sector.
Responding the crisis Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday advocated incentivising research productivity of scientist and greater freedom for the bright young sparks.
"We can consider incentive payments related to the research productivity of scientists measured in terms of a variety of criteria" Singh added at a meeting of the CSIR Society on Wednesday. The PM also called for a review of the efficacy of the existing arrangements that provides for handling consultancy project and selling intellectual property right.
"Talent in today's world is very mobile" he acknowledged, noting the "concern" among leaders in the science and technology community about attrition of scientists to the private sector.
The PM's prescription went deeper into problems afflicting research in the country. For, one he made clear that scientists playing the role of administrators at research institutes may not always be a very good idea and suggested "managerial reform" at CSIR as well as other universities.
This also shows growing opinion among leaders and scientific community that Scientists should get some thing special by the Sixth Pay Commission.
The steady attrition now taking place from Government institutions to the the private sector, is not confined to the field of scientific reserch. Many other professionaly qualified senior officers also are doing or considering the same. The remedy is to provide special allowance to all such officers. Moreover physical science is not the only field where reserch and development beneficial to the nation is conducted. For example economiic and financial reserch as well as reserch in the field of corporate law contributes much for the economic growth of the country. The well qualified, talented and experinced professionals now officiating in these areas are also much sought after by the private sector.
ReplyDeleteThe actual remedy is to provide special compensation to such officers wherever the pre-requisite qualification for a post is a professional degree with experince.
Salary should be linked to their performance. When comes to Salary these so called scientists starts crying and when it comes to output they start giving big lectures. Look at private sector companies in India how they are performing. In short better candidates will always get good salary.
ReplyDeleteScientists play key role for our country growth.but when youg talant scientists sre targetting corporate world, out country's growth will be adversely affected.so government immediately must pay good salary,incentives and good work atmosphere.if government pays Rs 120 as daily allowance for a scientist working in Thar desert for discovering a mineral deposit,then who will like to be in Government job. We can not blame young scientists if they go for corporate world.
ReplyDeleteFOOD FOR THOUGHT: For a Government which can’t pay reasonably (rather better) and do justice and welfare for it’s employees, there is serious doubt that it would be able to do justice and welfare of rest of the citizens. Mr. P. Chidambaram think about it, before Congress losses all over India (already the alarming bells are ringing in several recent State election results for Congress) and it throws you out of your job.
ReplyDeletePhD students and Post-doctoral fellows are backbone of science, not only in India, but all over the world. The average age when a student enters into PhD is 25 years, and by the time he completes PhD his age is 30 years. A PhD student gets 8000/ 9000pm + 30% HRA. He is on contractual basis and avails no other allowances eg Medical facilities etc. His working hours are normally 12 hours/ day. It is needless to say that his terms of services are HIGHLY UNATTRACTIVE. So, no good student wants to do PhD. Students who were earlier interested in science either opt for any other job or go for MBA. Only a filtered mass of students who dont have any option enter into PhD. Others go to countries like Germany, UK, US for PhD.
ReplyDeleteThese students carry on almost all the ground work of science that comes from top intitutes like IISc, NII, ICGEB, CCMB etc. 100% of students completeing PhD from these intitutes go to USA for Post-doc stints and a majority of them never return to India.
So when attrition of 'scientists' and revision of their pay is talked about please don't forget PhD students and Post-doc fellows, who are workhorse of science.
If India is really serious about science, doing PhD has to be made attractive.
It is nice to have good salary. But productivity of the scientist must be increased. In my opinion it must seriously thought how to improve the productivity conducting brainstorming with scientists (not Managers), industries and professors from IIMs. It is my feeling bureaucracy in the research organization is creating problems, which must be reduced. Most of the research lab should be made deemed University. Most of the reputed institutes in the world are tagged with teaching and industrial consortium. In this way thoughts of scientist are dynamic and make you thing how to makeup your knowledge useful. Young students have there own ideas and they can do much better. If they work on some research project and feel to start some industry they can do so. Also scientist should also involve in technology development and interact with industries and allowed to give consulting to any industries without bureaucracy. After all our country will progress with the freedom of scientists with his financial and intellectual benefits. Rotation of heads of Institutes/ departments is very essential for good progress of the organization. Scientists should also work on advancement of science and technology along with indigenous problems. They must be free to interact and collaborate with nationally and internationally. In my opinion freedom to scientist is important. A good interdisciplinary teamwork, good collaboration with focused deliverables make all success.
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