Rishabh Sachdeva’s Post

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bitter sweet sense

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

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Debojyoti Roy

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2mo

Well articulated. Thanks Rishabh for sharing it :)

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