Improve in 5 years or miss the bus: CNR Rao to IISc

BENGALURU: Showering praise while also being blunt, Bharat Ratna Prof C N R Rao cautioned the 106-year-old Indian Institute of Science (IISc) that it may miss the bus to becoming an institute of global standards if it fails to improve in the next 5-10 years. “Don’t let anything come in the way of excellence, get rid of everything that causes hindrance,” he told IISc director Prof Anurag Kumar, while speaking at the IISc Global Conference on Friday.
Stressing that the Bengaluru institute is the only one in India to match the MITs and Harvards, Rao said, “I am not sure how we are going to achieve this if we do not improve in the next five years, or at best, a decade.”
“I say this because it isn’t enough to be good in the present scenario, one has to be outstanding and an institute like the IISc must be the best. I have seen institutes that did not exist 10 years ago in China and South Korea that have made it to the top 100 today. Why has IISc not been able to do it?” Rao said.
READ ALSO
Science taught in schools is most boring, outdated: CNR Rao
Do something different, CNR Rao tells students
Incidentally, a focus area of the conference is also to improve IISc’s global standing. Following a TOI report on how IISc had dropped 130 ranks in a decade, reflecting growth of other institutions or drop in its own quality, IISc director Anurag Kumar said a committee will be formed to improve standards.
“Anurag, I know you since you were a boy. I am telling you that you should not let the unimportant things hamper excellence in this institute,” Rao said urging researchers to improve quality of papers and to take up research in areas untouched by the rich nations.
Answering a question from TOI on the sidelines, Rao said: “How does an institute become renowned? One, through the achievements of its alumni who have gone places. But more importantly, its current students and faculty must produce work that the world takes notice of and cites in other research papers.”
READ ALSO: Quality of science in India "lousy", improve quality — CNR Rao
Stating that IISc today has grown tremendously in terms of infrastructure (compared to his student days), he said: “Many of us simply left because the facilities weren’t enough. Today, there is great progress and we have fancy devices.”
The culture of research and development in India too must change, he said. “Of all global institutes, I keep naming MIT because not only is great research work happening there but on every visit I find a startup. I want that here. I was not a man who could do that, I was a scientist. But it must be done, great research must be applied and cutting edge technology and products developed simultaneously,” he said.
Scientists agree:
Calling for the need to have a competitive ecosystem, IISc alumnus and Nasa scientist Dr Gajanana Birur said: “You see why many with that kind of spirit are leaving India. One has to understand that as youngsters, people want to do things that everyone is doing. Today with the internet they can read about the kind of work happening in other parts and want that here. I see IISc going a long way in this direction as arguably it is the best here.”
Echoing Rao’s views on the need to do something others have not done, atomic scientist Dr Baldev Raj, pointed out, “When we speak of the nuclear pact with US for example, we should understand that India is not a beneficiary or a partner looking up to the US. Here, we are equal partners and that says a lot about why it is necessary to try and do things that others have not tried and become successful at it,” he told TOI.