Kiran Karnik Member of the Prime Minister's Scientific Advisory Council has said that India’s contribution in the field of science and technology is very less due to low funding for scientific research in universities. He remarked that India is way behind China in contribution in Science and Technology.Speaking at a launch of book 'Constructing Culture of Science: Communication of Science in India and China', Karnik said that both the countries are developing economies and face common problems of poverty and rising population, but India has fallen much behind China in global contribution to science.
'There is a separate budget for science and technology in the country's Five Year Plan but majority of funding goes to organised centres and funding in university is strangulated,' said Karnik.
While drawing attention towards the poor state of science teaching in schools, he remarked that many schools do not have well qualified teachers, books and other materials to communicate science.
'Despite all this, the country still produces some great brains but unfortunately majority of them go in applied sciences like engineering, medicine because of peer pressure, parental pressure and career probabilities,' he said.
The book having contributions from scientists in India and China compares science communication efforts being made in the two countries.
Kiran Karnik has worked for over 20 years in the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). He held various positions related to the conception, planning and implementation of applications of space technology, focusing especially on the use of communications for development. In 1998, Karnik was awarded the Frank Malina medal for Space Education by the International Astronautical Federation. From 1983 to 1991, he held the position as Director of the Development and Educational Communicational Unit.
In 1991, Karnik joined the Consortium for Educational Communication (CEC) as its first Director. CEC is the apex body set up by University Grants Commission to co-ordinate and oversee the functioning of media centres in the universities, and is responsible for ensuring the production and transmission of educational TV programmes for college students. Karnik was the managing director at Discovery Networks in India where he spearheaded the launch of Discovery Channel in South Asia in August 1995 and Animal Planet (a Discovery - BBC joint venture) in 1999.
Kiran Karnik was the president of Nasscom, the premier trade body and the "chamber of commerce" for the IT software and services industry in India, till 2008.
He has authored/edited a large number of publications, and lectures occasionally at major national institutes. His educational background includes an Honours degree in Physics from Bombay University, followed by post-graduation from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
[Source: Sify]
