President Trump with his MAWA has unwittingly provided us this opportunity.
Will PM Modi grasp this and leave a legacy of ushered in scientific and technological revolution, asks Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Indians take pride in citizens of Indian origin heading top global tech companies.
In reality it is an advertisement of our failure to nurture and retain talent.
While we are yet to put a man in space, China operates a space station.
In fields of aerospace right till the 1960s India was ahead of China; remember the HF-24 Marut aircraft designed by us!
Along with the factor of non-corrupt and honest leadership, Chinese success can be attributed to their ability to reverse brain drain.
The pioneers of the Chinese aerospace industry were mostly US returned scientists and technocrats. We have a golden opportunity to emulate China and benefit similarly.
Donald Trump's second term has started with a bang with all the attention on his so-called 'trade war' where he has given up on the long held US advocacy of 'free trade' and begun a tariff war.
The jury is still out on the effect this will have on the world economy and the US job situation. This has obscured his other obsession, immigration.
Shorn of verbiage, President Trump wants to 'Make America 'White' Again' (MAWA)!
The slogan of MAGA, or Make America Great again, is a camouflage.
His moves to get Afrikaners from South Africa to migrate to the US while he acts against other immigrants is a dead giveaway.
This has sent shock waves through the large Indian community of Green Card holders (permanent residency permit) who typically are technically qualified engineers and scientists trained at Indian government institutes at our cost but are generating wealth and technology for the US.
Some years ago something like 60% of top IIT graduates migrated to the US.
Our institutes had become a source of supply of trained manpower to the US.
India's niggardly expenditure on science and technology along with our private sector's total apathy brought about this situation.
The situation was so bad that a scientist once justified migration to the US with a quip, 'Brain drain is better than brain in the drain.'
These were the 'push' factors. Greater resources, a good life, freedom and recognition of merit were the pull factors.
With anti-immigrant sentiment on the rise in the US and massive cuts in research funding, the pull factor for migration to the US has virtually evaporated.
This provides a great opportunity for India to retain talent and even attract back high achievers. Many of whom are Green Card holders and face uncertainty for their own stay and status of their children who are not eligible for US citizenship on the basis of birth.
To stop the brain drain and reverse it needs the government to increase funding for scientific and technological research.
Politicians need to beware of clever bureaucrats who may actually recommend cutting back or 'saving' on expenditure since talented individuals have no escape avenue!
This is not bizarre as it sounds, just take a look how medical graduates pursuing post-graduation are exploited at low wages as interns!
But a mere increase in funding for the sake of optics will not work unless we reform the administrative procedures and remove bottlenecks that hinder research.
On the lines of 'Ease of doing business' (?) we ought to also carry out changes for 'Ease of doing research'.
There is also a need to understand that obsession with only technology and neglect of research in fundamental sciences is myopic.
It is scientific research that creates new technology and gives us a first mover advantage.
Without the scientific breakthrough we forever will remain 'followers'.
In layman's terms while technology builds power, it is science that can build national strength.
Technology is important to solve immediate problems but it is only science that can build national strength in the long run.
National security needs power and power is born out of strength.
This link of science and technology for short and long term national security needs to be understood and imbibed by our leaders.
Else we would have a situation where even a patriotic leader like Indira Gandhi wanted to shut down the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research by saying that a poor country like India could not afford the 'luxury' of fundamental research.
Fortunately, better sense prevailed and TIFR was saved when she was convinced that doing so would condemn India to a permanent second class status.
The three-point agenda for improving ease of doing research in India and make it an attractive destination (remember British scientist J B S Haldane who was attracted to India in 1950s):
1. Pay student fellowships on time and give funding for PhD and Postdoc positions to institutes of national importance (ini) and naac a++ universities with autonomy for directors
2. Remove need for GeM for research grade equipment altogether.
The purchases through GeM by government users have been authorised and made mandatory by the ministry of finance by adding a new Rule No. 149 in the General Financial Rules, 2017.
Research equipment or research grade materials should/cannot be equated with mass produced materials/equipment. These are produced by small firms, many times a single source in the world.
Since demand is miniscule it makes sense to import. For materials, it must be noted that unlike in normal purchases, the purity needed is 99%.
3. Give full GST exemption for such research grade equipment purchases on the authority of the director of research institutes.
Since these are bought with government grants it makes little sense to charge duty.
In any case the loss of revenue due to this is miniscule but its imposition has the effect of reducing the government grant.
The ministry often makes an arbitrary percentage cut in the requested demand, expecting the researchers to be able to buy a 'half elephant'.
To utilise the greater talent now available as the US shuts its doors, an across the board increase in the fellowship by 25% is a must.
To attract scientists and technocrats settled abroad ambitious new projects need to be started in the public and private sectors.
Ease of doing business should be implemented on the ground and not remain a slogan.
'Inspector Raj' needs to be abolished so also extortion by local political goons.
Time is of essence and one hopes the education and finance ministries would show the kind of nimble footedness that the foreign ministry has shown in changing an uncertain world.
President Trump with his MAWA has unwittingly provided us a golden opportunity.
Will PM Narendra Modi grasp this and leave a legacy of ushered in scientific and technological revolution in India?
Colonel Anil A Athale (retd) is a military historian whose earlier columns can be read here.
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
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