Reflections

One very important figure in the firmament of medical researchers in India who is today almost forgotten is Sambhu Nath De . S N De as he was popularly known was born and had his early education in the Hooghly district of present day West Bengal. The son of smalltime businessman, S N De was supported by his uncle to study and he turned out to be a brilliant student, receiving the District scholarship in his year and then went on to study at the Hooghly Mohsin College and then at the Calcutta Medical College. In his early days in Calcutta, his scholarship was not enough to support him and he was looked after by a Mr S K Sett who allowed him free board and lodging for as long as he needed it. He graduated in 1939 and then went on to do a diploma in Tropical Medicine (DTM) in 1942. He was then hired as a Demonstrator in Pathology in his alma mater and showed his mettle for research even in these early days of his career as he began doing research projects under the then Professor of Pat...

Now that I work fulltime in research I am beginning to have a clear idea of how the research establishment works and what it actually does. Research is today a holy cow. All emerging economies are told that the reason why the US and other major economies outpace us is their lead in innovative research. And this is undoubtedly true. Most of the world’s new discoveries which later become blockbuster commercial products are born in the US or in Japan. I cannot think of any Indian or even Chinese discovery in the last 50 which became a product in wide use. Thus, the mantra goes, you must spend money on research , particularly on the cutting edges of new scientific discoveries or risk being left more and more behind. India is slated to spend 2% of its GDP on research by 2012. This means a mindboggling sum of money and the Department of Biotehchnology, Department of Science and Technology and various others are flush with funds and grants are being written and sanctioned like there was no t...