Date: 10/12/2005
..............WHY INDIANS DO NOT GET NOBLE PRIZE IN SCIENCE /// Bharat J. Gajjar/// Hockessin, DE 19707/// bgajjar@comcast.net/// Oct. 7, 2005/// Dear Editor, /// Please print the following message in your publication. Thank you. /// WHY INDIANS DO NOT GET NOBLE PRIZE IN SCIENCE /// Every time I turn around the Noble Prize is won by Americans, British and Australian Scientist. They are mostly Professors at the Universities and Research Labs. Now in India there are many Universities and we have very smart Educated Indians but they are not winning this Prize. That is the result, now I’m trying to investigate why? /// One thing American Universities do is, encourage their Professors to do research and they are rewarded internally if they make publications in Science and in their own field. Their jobs depend on their public progress. Indian Universities do not seem to encourage this aspect of research and publication. /// I mentioned this problem to a friend of mine who is a Professor in the US, he told me, that it is because freedom is restricted in Indian Universities. And in Indian Education the emphases is put primarily on memorization rather than developing expanded creative thinking. When I was in India, I remember that the only thing that seemed important to the teachers was how much you remember things. We were not encouraged to have free thinking. Now both of my Grandchildren here in the US, at the age of 9 and 7 ½ have already been requested by their teachers to go to the library, research speech material and deliver the speech to the class. This teaches them to think as well as other techniques that are used in their classes to force them to think independently. /// When I finished college here in America, I got a job at the DuPont Research Laboratory and I expected my Supervisor to tell me what to do, like in India, but on the contrary when I met my Supervisor for the first time, he told me, here is your project, here is your capital and tell me what research strategy you propose for you to persue. I had to come up with a plan, present it to my Supervisors group and they gave their comments and I then began my project. This freedom encouraged me to have free thinking and in the 35 years I worked at DuPont I invented and obtained 20 US Patents in Textiles. In Indian research places, the Supervisor controls everything, and gets the credit for the other peoples work from what I understand. /// In conclusion, Indian education has to be more thinking oriented and less focus on memorizing. Indian Universities should insist that their Professors do research and publish their findings, and Indian Research Institutions should open the possibilities for Individuals to persue free thinking. /// In India, things are getting better but further opening up is needed, then we will be more successful in research. /// Professor Bharat J. Gajjar /// ..........................000000000
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