Financing science in India

Monday, 13 February 2012

Financing science in India

S. Nair

Tamil Nadu, India

6 July 2005 | EN

I am impressed by the question by Avishek Ghosh, "What are the financial incentives for a scientific job in India?" (see How to sell science to India).

I can quote my own personal experience. I work in human genetics for a government institute. My laboratory generates funds through services and consultancies — on average 2.5 million rupees (US$57,000) a year, which is an enormous amount by Indian standards.

But none of this money comes back to support my laboratory's infrastructure, human resources, or even its day-to-day running costs. In fact, these services are heavily exploited by the institute I work in for its political survival.

This has been an extremely horrible experience for me and as a result I am sceptical about initiating any such support to translate research into services. Such a discouraging trend is likely to poison Indian science.

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