'Indian R&D is depressing'

Prominent US-based IT businessman and philanthropist Romesh Wadhwani doesn’t have a high opinion of Indian research. In India last week to inaugurate a laboratory that he is funding, he expressed delight with the talent available in the country but was unhappy about the poor infrastructure and the quality of research resulting from it. “Much of the research happening is not just boring, but outright depressing,” he was heard saying. That prompted one researcher to comment that, hopefully, Wadhwani’s high opinion of researchers won’t change — at least for the five years over which he is providing the Rs 7.5 crore towards research at the lab.