An Interview with Dr G Padmanabhan, former Director IISc and Chancellor CUTN
There is a faculty mindset of publication of a paper as the end in itself. There is little attention to the impact of the publication. Those selecting papers for publication do not often look at the impact factor.
Science journals are also not above board in regard to bias. Covid-19 has seen very mediocre papers shown high impact. Unfortunately, Covid-19 has distorted attention through disproportionate coverage. Look at the fantastic work done on Malaria. Science journal Nature raised a number of questions but presented very inferior quality information. Time was when leading scientists were actively involved in presenting papers in reputed journals. Today this is not so.
There is a need for a high-quality science journal in India with international standards. It is a vicious cycle: renowned scientists should be interested in publishing their papers in such a journal; such a journal should also be closely working with the scientific community.
Government of India did well to institute the Ramanujan and Ramalingaswami fellowships to attract talented NRI scientists. Many young scientists from the US returned. Those with more than 5 years experience were assured of decent jobs. These were started on fellowships with an assistant professor’s salary. But the needed assurance of a secure job is not there.
| India had an excellent base in organic chemistry. Unfortunately, the regime of patents with a definite time limit led to a huge focus on the production of generics and led to the neglect of research in organic chemistry. |
Poor allocation for research…
The allocation for research is presently just around 2 per cent of GDP. It should be at least double at 4 per cent. Korea allots 6 per cent. These norms were fixed in 2007 but have not been revised since nor adjusted for inflation.
Scientists at institutions like IITs and IIScs have been working hard on research products with applications. Government has been prompt in sanctioning funds but release of funds don’t happen for long. There are both chronic and infectious diseases. So much attention is given to cardiac and cancer treatments. Large numbers flock to do research work on these. There is a serious dearth of research on poor men’s diseases like TB. Research on TB has been provided funds in budgets since 2000. It was cut by around 20 per cent this year.
Covid-19 impact on R&D…
Substantial progress has been made on Malaria research, including animal studies; the last phase of human trials suffered because of Covid-19. The National Institute of Malaria Research [NIMR], part of ICMR, selected two hospitals for human trials. But work is stuck at this stage. Research on every other disease has been affected or stopped due to the preoccupation with Covid-19. This focus, I feel, is overdone.
BIRAC – healthy support to joint research
Great progress has been made by the government setting up institutions like the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council [BIRAC]. Work began in 2000. Several research schemes received support under the scheme. Nearly 600 projects that received assistance have made substantial progress. Industrialists with good schemes come to academia for joint research. Several schemes are game-changers. Over 120 products related to medical products and diagnostics have been developed. Drug discovery received an impetus.
Under BIRAC, academic faculty is allowed to set up industrial enterprises. Several IISc scientists have started such companies. Large funds are made available by alumni. eg. Kris Gopalakrishnan of Infosys has donated Rs 150 crore.
When generics’ focus neglected organic chemistry
India had an excellent base in organic chemistry. The end of patent protection with a definite life led to a huge focus on the production of generics. True this helped making the drugs much cheaper. India made substantial progress in this. However, this also resulted in the neglect of basic research on organic chemistry and has led to the over-dependence on China for active pharmaceutical ingredients [API].
