Ansari calls for greater involvement of youngsters in science and technology

Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari has called for introspection and change of mindset to address the issue of India lagging behind China in the field of science and technology.

Releasing the Observer Research Foundation's new book, "Science and Technology in China: Implications and Lessons for India", Ansari said that till around 1985, India had almost the same number of PhDs in sciences, but by 1995, China went ahead.

He further said that while China, in the last 15-20 years, made big progress, why is it that in India young generation was not that much attracted towards research in science and technology.

He said while comparisons between India and China are natural, but various factors like uniformity in social structures, ethnicity, social values, etc should be taken into consideration as while China has uniformity, ours is diverse.

The vice president said there is a need to have a change in mindset to improve research in science and technology and should introspect why young generation is not that attracted to this area.

He said the book, comprising papers by reputed scientists and edited by Mr M. Rasgotra, was a highly educative volume.

Former Foreign Secretary Maharaj K. Rasgotra said that in the last 25 years, while student enrolment in science kept declining and our universities, by and large, abandoned scientific research, China made massive investments in science and technology. And it resulted in China's meteoric rise as a great economic, military and cyber space power.

Rasgotra said a nation cannot become a world power simply on its competence in software and services.

Professor U.R. Rao, former ISRO chairman, said our earlier policy of import of technical equipment actually affected country's scientific progress. He said India, instead, should have invested more on scientific research and development. He pointed out how the investments, though initially costly, on technologies like radars have helped the country in the long run.

The essays, by Professor Rao, Dr Ashok Parthasarathi, Dr. V.S. Ramamurthy, Dr. Roddam Narasimha, Dr. R. Rajaraman, Dr. (late) V.P. Kharbanda, Dr. N. Balakrishnan and Dr. Smita Purushottam, focus on China's nuclear programme, space technology, aviation, aeronautics, IT and industrial development.