Dr. Kalam releases postage stamp to mark Hundred Years of turning point in Physics
Text of President’s Speech
The President, Dr. A.P.J.
Abdul Kalam, today inaugurated the
seminar on “Attracting Young People to Careers in Science” organised by the
Indian Physics Association on the occasion of the International Year of Physics
– 2005. The President also released a
special postage stamp on the occasion to mark a hundred years of the turning
point in Physics.
Speaking
on the occasion, the President said:
“I am indeed delighted to inaugurate the seminar on “Attracting Young
people to Careers in Science” organised by the Indian Physics Association on
the occasion of the International Year of Physics – 2005. I greet the
organisers, scientists, engineers, distinguished guests and the other
participants in the seminar. Keeping in mind the main theme of the seminar, I
would like to discuss with you about “Challenge to science: Attracting the
youth”.
Great
things – how do we achieve in science?
I would like to narrate an incident, which happened during a programme
for honouring Prof. Norman E Borlaug with Dr. M S Swaminathan award, at Vigyan
Bhavan, New Delhi on the 15th of March 2005. Prof. Norman E Borlaug, at the age
of 91 was in the midst of all the praise showered on him from everybody. First,
he talked about India’s advancement in the agricultural science and agricultural
production and the present status of agricultural science in India. He turned
to the dais; he talked about Dr. M S Swaminathan and a political visionary late
Shri C. Subramaniam who were the prime architects of First Green Revolution in
India. He also recalled about Dr. V. Kurien who was the father of White
Revolution in India. Then he turned to the audience and started identifying
scientists such as Dr. Raja Ram, a wheat specialist, Dr S K Vasal, a maize
specialist, Dr. B. R. Barwale, a seed specialist who was contributing in the
agricultural advancement in India and abroad. Dr. Borlaug introduced them to
the audience by asking them to stand and ensured that the audience cheered and
greeted them with great enthusiasm. Here, I noticed a unique way of a 91 year
old Nobel Laureate, who remembered and recognised all the key contributors to
the agriculture mission irrespective of their position. This lesson, I would
like the Indian scientific community to observe and follow, while dealing with
all young scientists.
Let me tell you about another incident. Recently, my friend Dr. Vasant
Gowariker sent me an executive summary of The Fertiliser Encyclopaedia prepared
by him and his team. The comment by Dr. Norman E. Borlaug on this document is
noteworthy. I quote: “Asian farmers in particular must now judiciously increase
their per hectare use of fertiliser, looking for greater efficiency in use and
also in dealing with deficiencies of secondary and minor elements of the soil”
Unquote. This is how he sets the targets and provides encouragement for
pursuing science across the world.
Another unique personality whom I remember, when I talk about science is
Prof. C.N.R. Rao. I have visited his laboratory. He is a pioneer and an example
of leading from the front. His research started from structure of molecules and
that opened newer frontiers in surface sciences and more recently in nano
particles and nano materials. He is one of the highly decorated Indian
scientists. He is a motivator par excellence and pursues science with passion.
Among the many awards he has received for his contribution in science, I would
like to particularly mention the prestigious “Dan David Prize” given to him by
the Government of Israel for his contribution in material science. In addition,
he is the first recipient of “India Science Award” announced on 28 Feb 2005.
Another important scientist in the
field of medicine, I would like recall is Dr. P. Venugopal, Director, All
India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. In his laboratory, he pioneered
stem cell research in the field of cardiology. One of the cardiac diseases,
where conventional medical and surgical treatment were ineffective because
of the affliction of the heart muscle, stem cells implantation into the diseased
heart muscles had been applied in order to improve the function of heart muscle.
This kind of application of this procedure is the latest and very few cases
have been done in the world, the first time in India. This is expected to
open new frontiers in the treatment of patients for regeneration of heart
muscles, thereby giving new hope for the patients suffering end stage heart
disease. The commitment of Dr. P. Venugopal for research ultimately results
in saving hundreds of lives. I have mentioned these names only to assure ourselves
that the Indian science has great future.
Empowering the
Young Scientists
I remember an incident with Prof. Vikram Sarabhai during the 1960’s.
There were a few scientists and technologists, whom Dr. Sarabhai nurtured. I
would like to share with you how he nurtured them. Whenever he comes to
Trivandrum, I used to discuss with him the proposal for the development of
Composite Products. At that time I was in the initial stages of my career as
rocket engineer, with less than 2 years of experience in ISRO.
Similarly, there was Dr.
SC Gupta, a specialist in guidance and Dr. Amba Rao a specialist in Aerospace
structures. In spite of our being just introduced into the organisation with
few years of experience, noticing our interest in development of certain
materials and systems Dr. Sarabhai funded for the creation of laboratories. He
created fibre composite laboratory based on my proposal, which later became
Reinforced Plastic Centre. He created Gyro laboratory centred on the expertise
of Dr. Gupta, which later became Guidance Laboratory and space structures
laboratory centred around Dr. Amba Rao, which later become advanced dynamics
group. These centres became the centres of excellence and incubated many
advanced technology missions that fed critical inputs to space programme. Once
the potential of the young scientist is understood, the heads of the
organisation must invest on them boldly irrespective of the positions of the
scientists and their age considerations. If this philosophy is pursued with
sincerity the research would flourish and youth would be encouraged to embrace
science.
Great Indian
Scientists
In India, science and technology took a two-phase progress with the
momentum created in 1930s, by the great scientists of international repute.
They gave the country the confidence. We may remember the pioneering
contributions to science made by Chandrasekhar Subramaniam for his
Chandrasekhar limit and black hole, Sir CV Raman for his discovery of the
"Raman effect”, Srinivasa Ramanujan for his contributions towards number
theory, JC Bose in the area of microwaves, Meghnad Saha for
"Thermo-Ionization Equation". This phase, I consider the glorious
phase of Indian science. This scientific foundation laid by them always
triggered the later generations also. The unique similarities of all these
scientists are the one that they had dedicated their entire life for the cause
of scientific research and the spirit of inquiry for the fields that they have
chosen amidst all the hurdles and problems in their life as well as their
career. Science always gives lifetime missions to the scientists, and then only
success comes. They have not deviated towards the otherworldly prospects or
towards their own career advancements. This quality helped them to make
singular contributions for the benefit of science and the world. It is a
question of dedication, commitment and understanding and also the environment
for research in science, which gives birth to the scientists for the nation. They
inspired many later generation scientists including G.N. Ramachandran, the
originator of triple-helix.
Let me now discuss on how India has attracted large number of scientist
and engineers towards drawing the road map for achieving self-reliance in
critical technologies in defence, space and atomic energy.
The post-independence phase of
Indian science and technology
All of you know, in history, any country reposes its confidence
initially among a few stout and earnest knowledge giants. Particularly I took
interest to study the lives of three scientists, as I was interested in their
scientific technological leadership qualities that focused the relationship of
S&T and development of the nation. In the history of India, there may be
many but I was very close to these three great personalities for one reason or
the other. They are founders of three great institutions. I worked in two of
the institutions directly and one in partnership. Dr DS Kothari, a Professor in
Delhi University was an outstanding Physicist with special interest in
Astrophysics. He is well known for ionization of matter by pressure in cold
compact objects like planets. This theory is complementary to epoch making
theory of thermal ionization of his guru Dr Meghnad Saha. Dr DS Kothari set a
scientific tradition in Indian defence tasks when he became Scientific Adviser
to Defence Minister in 1948. The first thing he did was to establish the
Defence Science Centre to do research in electronic material, nuclear medicine
and ballistic science. He is considered as the architect of defence science in
India. His race continued and followed up with a momentum working and
contributing in the areas of strategic systems, electronic warfare systems,
armaments and life sciences.
Now, let me discuss about
Homi Jehangir Bhabha. He did research in theoretical physics in Cambridge
University. During 1930-1939, Homi Bhabha carried out research relating to
cosmic radiation. In 1939, he joined Sir CV Raman in IISc Bangalore. Later, he
was asked to start Tata Institute of Fundamental Research with focus on nuclear
science and mathematical science. He subsequently established Indian Atomic
Energy Commission in 1948. Multi-centres were born with his vision in nuclear
science to nuclear technology, nuclear power, nuclear devices and nuclear
medicine. These science institutions established multi-technological centres,
but basic science was the vital component.
The youngest of the three
was Prof Vikram Sarabhai and he worked with Sri CV Raman in experimental cosmic
ray. Prof Sarabhai established Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad with
Space research as focus. In later years he became the Director of Space S&T
Centre. The SSTC (1963) started with the launching of sounding rockets for
space atmospheric research. His vision transformed Indian Space Research
Organisation (ISRO) into multiple space technology centres. These centres are
responsible for development and leading to launch of PSLV in the sun
synchronous orbit. And we have also witnessed a launching of GSLV in the
geo-synchronous orbit with communication satellite.
I have talked about the
three personalities, Dr. D.S. Kothari, Dr. Homi Baba and Dr. Vikram Sarabhai.
All the three of them were physicists, who went on to build huge S&T
institutions that became the home of more than 20,000 young scientists and
engineers and also the kindler of their innovativeness. I believe strongly that
if the three scientists had gone on to concentrate only on science, at least
one of them would have got the Nobel Prize, but India would not have had the
advantage of having the atomic energy, space and defence research
establishments in the country with this magnitude. We must take the message and
the mission of successful scientists such as Raman, Chandrasekar, Kothari, Homi
Bhaba and Sarabhai to the youth so that they will understand the various ways
by which one could contribute to the growth of the nation, if they take science
as a career. This would surely attract many young people towards science.
Importance of
science in the present context
As soon as we became independent, the country was infested with problems
to bring in urgently needed technologies for steel, civil structures, hydro
dams and thermal power stations. Our concentration was directed towards solving
burning problems like feeding the population, providing water, shelter and
health care. The political visionaries at that time, in spite of our having a
very weak economy, decided to wisely setup what ultimately has become the
science base of our country such as Atomic Energy, Space, CSIR, DRDO, DST etc.,
The country also setup the powerful educational base including the creation of
IITs and many universities, which had a unique blend of science and technology.
Today the country has
become one of the strongest in the world in terms of scientific manpower in
capability and maturity. Our economy has also become strong. Hence, we are in a
position not only to understand the technologies that we may have to borrow,
but also to create our own technologies with extensive scientific inputs of
indigenous origin. This, in fact, would do a value addition. In many areas such
as Pharma, we are delivering to the world, products which are backed by large
amount of R&D. Basically we have come a long way since our independence,
from mere buyers of technology to those of who have made science and technology
as an important contributor for national development and societal
transformation. In a world where the powers are determined by their share of
the world’s knowledge, reflected by patents, papers and so on, the WTO starts
to play a crucial role in the economic development. It is important for India
to put all her acts together to become a continuous innovator and creator of
science and technology intensive products. The science that we do today must
have the innovativeness and the foresight and the vision for it to be the
centre of the technology that we develop tomorrow for the competitive world.
Scientific
challenges for the future
In the last three
decades, we have witnessed an unstinted growth in miniaturisation of IT
products in the world. Central to this is the silicon technology. The feature
size of the transistors has been decreasing relentlessly. It is predicted that
the miniaturisation using silicon – micro electronics will find its plateau and
its limit will be reached within the next decade. The world is on the lookout
for an alternative to silicon. The transformation from microelectronics to the
nano science and nano technology is knocking at our doors. The endless
alternatives include molecular transistors, quantum computing, nano electronics
and so on. India has the good science base needed for being a pioneer in making
this breakthrough a reality.
In addition to the above, the challenges facing Indian scientists in the
coming decades will be the development of anti vaccine for HIV/AIDS and
development of seeds for agricultural products which requires minimum water and
can provide high yield per hectare to compensate the reduced availability of
land. Apart from this, there is a need to work on thorium based nuclear power
plants, integrated mission for stem cell research, launching of hypersonic
reusable launch vehicle and take discoveries and innovations to provide better
quality of life to the differently challenged people. These are some of the
challenges facing the scientific community in the coming decades.
I would like to make the following suggestions for attracting the young
people to careers in Science:
1. It is essential to have an assured career in science for a certain number of
high quality committed scientists with aptitude towards research. There should
be a minimum annual intake of about 300 M.Sc and 100 Ph.D scientists with
proper emoluments and assured career growth in the organisations such as ISRO,
DRDO, Atomic Energy, CSIR, DST and the Universities. The private and government
funded universities must be encouraged to appoint M.Sc and Ph.D who have been
selected through a nationally co-ordinated competitive selection process. This
will be a great motivator for the science students and also their parents for
pursuing advanced courses in science. This is the first and foremost need for
attracting young people to career in science – an assurance to the youth and
the parents that the future is secure, once they take science as a career.
2. The experienced scientists and
policy makers of the organisations must recognize the talents available in the
organisation irrespective of the position and empower the young scientists to
create state-of-the art laboratories once they have concrete thoughts and
vision. Prof Vikram Sarabhai in the initial stages of ISRO brought in a culture
of management, which encouraged and satisfied the vision of the young
scientists, which collectively succeeded in making the mission of the
organisation, a reality.
3. Universities and Research and
Development institutions must encourage and facilitate the young scientists to
write quality research papers in frontier areas and in prestigious journals.
They should also facilitate the youth to present the papers in national and
international seminars and symposiums, which will enable them to assess their
standard against international benchmarks. Encouraging youth to be lead authors
while publishing the joint research would be a very good gesture that the
youngsters would cherish for many years.
4. Based on my experience during my
interaction with the 600,000 students, I realise that they are looking for role
models, whom they would like to follow after their 10+2 career. Approximately 7
million students appear for plus two examinations every year. Out of which 3
million students are from the science stream. To attract this youth towards a
career in science, we need many novel ideas. The youth must be made to
understand the beauty of doing science, the pleasure of doing science and the
ultimate bliss when the results of science make you understand the nature,
master it, control it and finally make things that improve the quality of life
of the human kind. Every one of us, scientists must pledge that we will at
least spend sometime visiting the schools to ignite the young minds by
recounting our own experiences.
My best wishes to the
organisers of this conference for fruitful discussions and generation of ideas
for attracting young people with passion and aptitude for a life of science and
in science.”
RK/VSR
(Release ID :8294)