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Does STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) education get enough attention in India? This seems a strange question to ask in a country where parents are obsessed with sending their children to cram schools to prepare their young ones for engineering and medical college examinations. However, this has been a concern in policy making circles for a while as the question does arise whether Pure Sciences (as contrasted with Information Technology) gets sufficient prominence in the new consumerist & materialistic Indian society that India has become.
According to the Indian National Science Academy, science education in the country has suffered due to its chequered history. In its much referenced book, 'Pursuit & Promotion of Science: The Indian Experience', it traces Indian science education to its early period when the ancient University of Taxila in the 6th century BC attracted scholars in varied fields, including mathematics, astronomy, medicine, surgery and metallurgy. Sadly, this spirit of free enquiry was lost in the medieval period only to be followed by resurgence in patches under the new & alien language of English when provincial Universities were created in the 19th century. Under regulated conditions only those developments were permitted which did not go contrary to the colonial interests as education was tailored to producing clerks for the civil system or at best teachers to serve the administrative interests. Consequently, not much scientific enquiry could be expected under this regime. Despite this adverse environment, the genius of a few scientists did shine through the haze: notably men like C. V. Raman, M. N. Saha, S. N. Bose, S. Ramanujan, S. Chandrashekhar, to name a few, who largely worked in Indian universities.
'The temples of modern India', to paraphrase the visionary leader of free India, Jawaharlal Nehru, slowly came into being, with the Prime Minister providing the thrust for science and technology. Backed by the exhortations of eminent scientific minds like Homi Bhabha, the father of India's atomic energy programme, ('What developed countries have and what developing countries lack is modern science and an economy based on modern technology. The problem of developing countries is therefore the problem of establishing modern science and transforming their stagnant and traditional economy to the one based on modern science and technology.'), the government did take steps to foster science. But as in many other aspects, sustaining the early interest with deeper commitment has been a challenge.
But there is some recent good news to console us! According to a well-reported recent study by Elsevier, a globally respected publication, as against the global average growth of 4.1%, the volume of scientific publications from India has risen by 13.9%.
Before we start becoming complacent at this data, the following table presents some stark numbers which serve as a healthy reminder of the immensity of the task before us to raise standards:
 Be that as it may, the other piece of encouraging news from the same Report is that when it comes to citations, the share of Indian papers has risen to 20.8% in the share of top 1% cited papers, and likewise, its share of the top 5% cited papers has grown 15.4%, leading the Report to conclude, 'that there is growth in scientific excellence and this growth is aggressive at the top end of the excellence scale'.
Thus both quantity & quality from Indian academia show upward movement, certainly a cause for cheer. In fact, estimations are that India has risen to become the 6th largest R&D spender in 2016 (at USD 71 billion, both private & public sector investment aggregated) and will overtake South Korea & Germany by 2018. However, the sobering fact is that for the same period, the two largest spenders are the United States (at USD 514 billion) and China (at USD 396 billion)! When you keep in mind also that China's stated ambition is to be the global leader in science by 2050, the yawning gap stands as a huge wake-up call.
The message is clear, while both the government & the corporate sector should raise their investment in the scientific arena and build global infrastructure to enable the pursuit of excellence, there is also a need to increase the appeal of 'pure science' as a source of societal advancement and nation-building, thereby strengthening the sourcing base of new scientists. Part of the challenge is to make scientific education more exciting & increase its popularity among young students. In particular, there is a need to widen the attractiveness of pure science for girls. While this is a global quest (much debated every year when male Nobel prize winners vastly out-number women scientists), in the Indian context, this requires greater urgency.
Is this a feasible journey? Given the major steps that Indian science has taken in space research, bio-technology, medicine, etc., and the emergence of science-based start-ups seeded by some world class universities with the mentorship of brilliant academics, on this issue, there is optimism all round. Can more institutional support be offered to accelerate the pace of development & to create Indian Scientific Heroes? Undoubtedly, yes! That is the real task at hand before us, the non-scientists - create an atmosphere that genuinely appreciates & brings to life the words of the Nobel winner, C. V. Raman: 'There is only one solution for India's economic problems and that is science, more science and still more science'.
To read the complete issue click here.
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