Ankush Nandi’s Post

I write about the state of science in Modified India at Index on Censorship https://lnkd.in/excBNCjn

India is not a scientific country? A few months back there were some loose comments made on the back of anecdotes and personal experiences by some prominent voices in the intellectual and industry ecosystems. India they said was no longer a scientific nation. It had gone back in time etc. etc. If one actually looks at hard data, the reality is very very different from the narrative. We are doing better than we have ever done on a number of things - IP, publications, number of researchers, funding, R&D expenditure, ventures, platforms etc. Yes, a lot of room for improvement exists (we sit still around 40 in the global innovation rankings when we really should be in the Top 10). But the fact is that we are an out performer in terms of input vs. output on innovation - doing much better than expected at our level of development. Innovation cannot be happening in isolation from science. Should we now be discussing what constitutes science? The Nobel prizes this year in physics and chemistry have gone to AI scientists. The lines are as blurred as it gets. Coming back to the point on narrative, there are perhaps some new challenges for sectors that had a free hand for many years. The kind of challenges that almost every other sector has had to face through the years. But one sector and a few experiences do not a country make at any point in time. Innovation is a lot more distributed today than it has been in the past in India. Its happening across sectors and across geographies. It's looking past the big cities, beyond the old institutions, beyond the old actors. Also tradition, myth, faith, culture etc. go hand in hand with science in India. There is often no friction between the two. The ISRO rocket men and women can be total believers in God's will and absolutely unwavering scientists at the same time. Our rockets and satellites may be powered by the latest in tech and garnished with Tilaks and Genda flowers and work just fine. Prayer is just another layer in the scientific stack of India. The man who knew infinity - Srinivasa Ramanujan - is the archetype. We don't know better than him. Who is more or less scientific should be judged by results and outcomes. One has to separate the signal from the noise. The system from the personal. Reality from narrative. The Global Innovation Index report may help build some understanding of key trends and challenges. https://lnkd.in/gnyuFAw4

Is Indian research credibility at risk because of self-citation? Phil Baty of Times Higher Education recently defended it, and they’re right - https://lnkd.in/eEKjUEh8 Giants like Einstein, Curie, and Hawking built on their own work. But in India, self-citation is sliding down a risky path. Some institutions, in the race for higher rankings, are using it to artificially inflate impact metrics. This may seem harmless, but, it’s eroding trust in our research community. Let’s talk about where it goes wrong... In India, we’re seeing self-citation patterns that aren’t always ethical. Some institutions and Professors use it to artificially boost impact metrics, Professors are gaming the system for a “better” ranking. Now it harms the credibility of our research community. When credibility is questioned, even deserving researchers lose trust. Self-citations aren’t the enemy. Misuse is. As Indian institutions, let’s set the right standards. Let’s make sure our research is about true discovery – not just climbing the ranks. Why? Because overuse of self-citations can distort genuine research impact, and this manipulation affects how the world sees Indian academia. Image Credit: Phil Baty

Creative & Scientific Discovery (Generally) inspired by All-Mighty Creator : 1. Mathematical Genius Srinivasa Ramanujan encounter with Namagiri Thayar Amman (or Namagiri Lakshmi) Namakkal district of Tamil Nadu, India 2. On 16 January 1913, Srinivasa Ramanujan, an unknown Indian petty clerk from Madras, sent nine pages of mathematics to the esteemed mathematician of Trinity College, Cambridge, Prof. G.H. Hardy. Previous attempts to share his work with British academics had failed. M. J. M. Hill of University College London had seen some talent, but commented that Ramanujan’s papers were riddled with holes. H. F. Baker and E. W. Hobson, returned Ramanujan’s papers without comment. Even the esteemed mathematician G.H. Hardy of Cambridge first suspected that these nine pages of notation could be a fraud. 3. Today, the legendary story of Ramanujan is being told through the big screen in the new film: The Man Who Knew Infinity. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg recently named Ramanujan as one of his favorite scientists. He points out that all that genius – an intelligence that transformed mathematics and physics – could have been lost, had Hardy not responded in those early pre-war years. #Indonordicassociation(dot)org Indo Nordic Strategic Association, India https://lnkd.in/dx2ed5HJ

I had an enriching visit at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras where I talked about our research on the challenges of crisis informatics research in the Indian subcontinent and our recent IJCAI 2024 paper on the toxicity rabbit hole framework. In this talk, I covered our papers on 1. Detecting de-escalating content during warlike situations (ECAI 2020, IJCAI 2020) [https://lnkd.in/g7HFBUYZ; https://lnkd.in/gKFsYcvM] 2. Identifying social media attributions to sustainability challenges such as water crisis (EMNLP 2020) [https://lnkd.in/g2WsWxaY] 3. Detecting anticipatory infrastructural failure concerns (WWW 2024) [https://lnkd.in/gkiebayz] 4. And our recent IJCAI 2024 paper on the toxicity rabbit hole framework [https://lnkd.in/gj8GnwEm] Thanks to Krishna Pillutla for being such a wonderful host!!

The Constitution says it is the fundamental right of every citizen to develop scientific temper, but.. Along with the rise of Hindu nationalism, the voices of the proponents of pseudoscience also got louder. They want people to believe that all the scientific advances which you talk about today had happened in ancient India, much before modern science discovered them. - D Raghunandan, former president, All India Peoples Science Network and currently with the Delhi Science Forum. #india #Pseudoscience #science

Grim situation... pretty much! In the persisting era of PUBLISH OR PERISH 😐 "India is one of the countries where so-called “paper mills” are concentrated — factories that churn out scientific studies which are already written and ready to be published in specialized journals. Co-authorship is offered in exchange for money. EL PAÍS requested price rates from one of the Indian companies that sends their offers to Spanish scientists: iTrilon, based in Chennai. The company’s scientific director Sarath Ranganathan offered the possibility of being the first author of a study that was already written — entitled Next-generation neurotherapies against Alzheimer’s — in exchange for about $500. It’s also possible to be the fifth co-author of an article titled Emergence of rare microbial infections in India for $430." #scientificpublishing #publishorperish

The article from The Hindu highlights the evolving focus areas of research publications in India, emphasizing the nation's growing contributions to global academia. Analyzing data from the Web of Science, it reveals India's key areas of expertise—engineering, technology, and the physical sciences—while fields like healthcare and social sciences are gaining momentum. The article underscores the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration and how India’s research output is aligning with global scientific challenges, from sustainable development to healthcare innovations. This shift indicates a promising trajectory for Indian academia, positioning the nation as a significant player in the global research community. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gaxE4f6G

Top 27 Journal of international Business and Economics ... AI Chat for scientific PDFs | SciSpace https://typeset.io › journals Showing papers in "Journal of international business and economics in 2019" The top research publication listed by Journal of International Business and Economics Growth in Home Purchase Price Preceding Crisis Explained by Technology Advancement: Eddison Walters Risk Expectation Theory of the Global Financial Crisis of 2007 and 2008 Confirmed Eddison T. Walters 31 Dec 2018-Journal of international business and economics TL;DR: The lack of evidence in the literature supporting the widely accepted theory of a real estate bubble, or a financial bubble which was the cause of the Global Financial Crisis of 2007 and 2008, prompted the researcher to raise questions as mentioned in this paper. Abstract: The lack of evidence in the literature supporting the widely accepted theory of a real estate bubble, or a financial bubble which was the cause of the Global Financial Crisis of 2007 and 2008, prompted the researcher to raise questions regarding the cause of the Global Financial Crisis of 2007 and 2008. Walters (2018) presented evidence which suggested there was no statistically significant evidence in changes of net FDI inflow for developed countries for periods preceding and subsequent to the Global Financial Crisis of 2007 through 2008. The development of Eddison Walters Risk Expectation Theory of the Global Financial Crisis of 2007 and 2008, in Walters (2018) presented an alternative theory for ......... https://lnkd.in/ehsHDBpV

In 2022, India produced around a quarter million academic papers. Not only is this impressive in terms of volume, but India’s contribution to global research has also grown, increasing from roughly 6% in 2018 to around 8% today. However, should we take pride in these numbers? #research #iit #iim #researchpolicy