Global leadership challenges are tough: C N R Rao

India is facing extraordinary competition from countries like China for global leadership. If India wants to become a global leader, it has to move into productive and creative areas now. It has to advance from service sectors like information technology and concentrate on producing more scientists for undertaking innovative research, said scientist C N R Rao in Mysore today.

“It is not that we are not doing well. But, others are doing better. China Is a big competitor. It is trying to become No. 1 in science, engineering and education. America is already No. 1 in science,” he said.

A small country like Singapore was investing half its national income on science, engineering and research. It was investing a billion dollar on scientific research and millions of dollars on education. That was the interest it was showing.

“Competition has become extraordinary; it is huge and tough, and not as simple as we assume. To become equal to them, we have to make more investments,” he said.

Rao, who was declaring open the newly-built “Ramanujacharya Bhavan” of the NIE Institute of Technology of National Institute of Engineering (NIE) Foundation, was happy that the present Manmohan Singh government and the previous ones had a positive approach towards science and education.

“In the last two years, investments on science and research have grown 200 per cent and it will double in the next few years. Investments on science and technology has risen to 2 per cent of the GDP and 6 per cent in higher education from the past 3.5 per cent,” he said and added what was lacking was ambition, aspiration and dedication among the youth and academic institutions to take up the challenges of modern science and research, despite its huge potential.

Bemoaning the present condition of engineering education, the Linus Pauling Research Professor said, “About 635,000 undergraduates are being added to engineering education every year in India. In the US it is only 75,000. But when we look at the quality, 50 per cent of our students are not employable. Similarly, our engineering colleges are producing a huge number of IT students. But, only 21 PhDs were produced last year,” Rao lamented.

Universities were doing the same research that was done 50 years ago though science had changed and expanded into engineering and technology today. Research encompassed a variety of areas. It was towards what is directly applicable by the industry.

“ We need good scientists and researchers with quality education and a spirit of dedication. India needs young and challenging persons, highly dedicated, co-operative set with high aspirations. It does not want people staying satisfied with huge bank balances. What we need is a young India that can boldly and successfully take on these global challenges,” Rao added.