A meeting with the Prime Minister

There have been reports in the media of a meeting of the Prime Minister with around 30 scientists at his residence on 19^th August.  This blog is about my experience and impression of that meeting as (possibly) the youngest person present in it.  As the meeting was organized by the Department of Biotechnology, I thank Professor VijayRaghavan for this truly awesome opportunity. 

Disclaimer 1:  This post is not meant to be a comprehensive report about the event (one can read the news reports for that), but solely my own perception of how it played out.  A lot of it is from memory and some hurried notes I took during PM’s speech: so, I can only paraphrase his statements and not quote them verbatim.

Disclaimer 2: This is going to be a long post.

Although I am not very interested in politics, I have been very curious about Modi government’s thoughts and policies on science in India.  Sadly, be it mainstream or social media, our intellectual elite or journalists, the discourse on anything related to our Prime Minister seems to fluctuate between two extremes: one side considers him as the savior who will solve all of India’s problems in no time and the other side is extremely critical and suspicious of him.  It is very difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff in reading prevalent opinions.  At the same time, as a scientist at a new institute, I cannot help but notice the pressure under which our administration is functioning due to severe budget cuts.  Are the current science funding policies of the government formulated with a view to control the overall government expenditure across the economy or does it have something to do with how high (or low) they place science on their priority list? How does the present regime view science, science in India and the scientific community?  These are questions to which I have been unable to get reasonable answers through our biased (and may I add unscientific) media discourse.  Therefore, when I received an invitation to attend this meeting, I was very excited at the possibility of meeting the Prime Minister and hearing directly his views about science in India.

The agenda of the meeting had been designed carefully.  The PM wanted a discussion on the current state of Indian science and from what I understood in a smaller preparation meeting before we headed out to RCR, he had conveyed his eagerness to hear diverse viewpoints.  The secretaries of the science ministries (mostly scientists themselves), therefore, were to play a moderating role and let the other invitees from the science community do most of the talking.

Around 14 people, representing various fields of science, were to give presentations about the progress made and challenges ahead in their respective domains of expertise.  The meeting was to be conducted for two hours and therefore, speakers were requested to respect the time limitations so that there could also be adequate time for discussion.  Before heading out to RCR, some of the invitees wondered if the PM would be able to follow the numerous presentations and if someone should further summarise the main points of the speakers at the end.  As it turned out, however, Mr. Modi not only listened attentively to each and every presentation, but also kept asking very pointed questions from almost all the speakers.  For instance, when the first speaker presented data about the number of research papers that were published in India every year, Mr. Modi immediately asked how big or small this number was, in proportion to our population.  The very low number of scientists in our country was briefly discussed.  

As the presentations continued, he made several remarks, but I only remember a few.  For example, one of the speakers mentioned that in India, once a faculty member becomes a full professor, the only further possible ``promotion” beyond that is to become a senior level administrator.  This hinders research productivity and he therefore suggested that we create more positions, equivalent to VCs/directors etc, but in which one would only do research.  The PM caught on to this suggestion and requested the speaker to prepare a detailed proposal.  There were several other talks on topics including biomedical research, agricultural research, research in universities, physics, mathematics, research in industry and research in the north east. 

My personal favourite was Professor Spenta Wadia’s talk on physics, in which he beautifully outlined, in simple language, India’s recent contributions to several areas like string theory, high energy physics, condensed matter and materials science, statistical physics and physical biology[*].  I also liked Professor Gagandeep Kang’s talk on biomedical research.  Prof. Mythily Ramaswamy gave a talk on mathematics.  

(* A previous version of this blog post just mentioned string theory.  This is because (as I have stated in the disclaimer), I was writing from (limited) memory and in no way did I mean to imply that he only talked about string theory!  As a mathematician with an interest in modular forms, string theory stayed back in my memory.)

Among his many questions, Mr. Modi had one for mathematicians: he wanted to know if mathematics could solve the problem of call drops in mobile conversations!  Later, when the presentations got over, I made a comment about applications of cryptography and coding theory in communication problems, but that this field is underrepresented in most Indian institutes [please see addendum below for the mathematics behind call drops].  It was only after returning home that I came to know from my brother that the issue of call drops is, in fact, a very contentious issue nowadays and has also been raised in the parliament. 

In most presentations, the presenters explained and emphasized the need for sustained funding in science if we were to continue the progress and not slide backwards. 

After the presentations were over, it was time to elicit comments from the rest of the audience: by this point, we ran out of time.  But the PM continued to listen to the comments and personally called out the names of people who indicated that they wanted to speak  (either his vision is very strong or he had the seating plans laid out in front of him!). 

Since it was well beyond 6 pm, I thought with some disappointment that he would leave and I would not be able to hear his views on science issues in India.  But, he did speak, and from that point, Modi, the orator, took over.

 After addressing us as ``Aap Diggaj Log,” he started his talk with the observation that we cannot make much progress in the current scenario.  The lack of  openness between the cabinet and scientists as well as overwhelming administrative regulations hindered science.  He recognized that research needs flexibility, and while there had to reasonable checks and balances, one could not expect scientists to keep, in his own words, ``pai pai ka hisaab.”   This generated some laughter and applause.

The next point he made was that there was a lot of overlap between the work done by different science agencies, which do not communicate adequately with each other and are unable to work towards common scientific goals of the nation.  He emphasized, as the news reports mention, that instead of working in isolation, scientists have to come together and take a multidisciplinary approach to solving problems.

One point that the PM kept making repeatedly was that the solutions to most of the problems, be it coordination of resources or addressing specific needs of the nation such as Swachh Bharat, cleaning the Ganges, low agricultural productivity, the contradictory problems of malnutrition and food wastage, better utilization of solar energy, the solutions would have to come from the scientists and not the bureaucracy.  ``Can you do it?” he asked us directly.

He also made some remarks about a disconnect between writing research papers and translating the research into technology.  One of the examples he mentioned was why agricultural research has not addressed the problem of poor yield of pulses in India. 

Towards the end of his speech, he said that he has noted our complaints to him: those of science policy, budget and administration.  But, he too has a complaint, namely the scientific community is not broadminded about optimum sharing and utilization of resources.  His wish list for us was sensitivity to India-specific problems, better coordination among science workers and a multidisciplinary approach. 

 All in all, I certainly understood the PM’s attitude towards science better than before.  It was heartening to note his awareness of science challenges in the country and that his thoughts on science are not restricted to Ganesha and plastic surgery, as many journalists would have us believe.  But, I am writing as an assistant professor whose research work is mostly of a solitary nature and who does not have to deal (much) with administration and bureaucracy.  People in positions of responsibility, who deal directly with the consequences of budgetary cuts and lack of a coherent science policy would have higher expectations of this meeting and its consequences. 

Speaking personally, I came back with a strong feeling that this government perceives the science community as underperforming and wants it to produce more.  Therefore, it is absolutely essential for us early career scientists to keep improving our performance so that we do not feel unempowered in front of any administrator or bureaucrat.  For a scientist, empowerment comes only with productivity.

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Addendum: 

My comment is not entirely accurate.  Professor Vijay Chandru (Co-founder and Chairman, Strand Life Sciences), who was also present at the meeting, pointed out the following in a private correspondence:

``While cryptography and coding theory are at the foundations of computing and fault tolerant communications, the problem of call drops is driven more by cellular transmission capacities (# of cell towers and energy considerations) and protocols for handoff between cells. 

The multiple co-existing cellular technologies GSM, 3G, LTE would also add a layer of complexity. I believe the math disciplines involved would be more like stochastic dynamical systems and congestion modelling.

Anurag Kumar, D. Manjunath and Joy Kuri have authored a nice book “Wireless Networking” that makes these connections."

In distinguished company

Today’s Sunday edition of Mint newspaper carries a profile of six young mathematicians by Dilip D’Souza (who writes a regular column, “A Matter of Numbers” for the Mint).  The Sunday Mint also carries an editorial by R. Sukumar on the slightly uneasy relation between journalism and Mathematics. 

Moron alert

Overheard the following conversation between two academics, a man and woman from two European countries:

M: So, how long are you here for?

W: A couple more months.

M: Where will you go after this?

W: I don’t know yet.

(A normal person will leave it that that. But this gentleman continues. It gets  worse after this.)

M: Have you applied for jobs?

W: Yes.

M: But you don't have an offer?

W: (Laughs)

M: Are you staying in the residence here?

W: No. I stay elsewhere with my children.

M: Oh, you have children. Where does your husband work?

W: I don't have a partner. 

M:  Oh. I am married and my wife stays with me.

Hats off to the woman for maintaining her composure through this conversation. I would have replied, “sorry to hear that”….(and then regretted afterwards of course).

Home is where the office is

I am now a resident member of IISER Pune.  I’ve been longing for this day ever since I first stepped into IISER Pune and saw the construction site of the faculty housing.  For the last two and a half years, I have looked at it wistfully while driving into campus every day and imagined the good life post-moving-in.

Just imagine the possibilities: I can walk to my office every day, work as late as I like without any safety concerns about returning at night, my father will worry about me a little less, I will not have to navigate painful Pune traffic every evening and my building residents will not ask me if I can tutor their children (!!) in Mathematics.  I can now enjoy life in two of India’s best campuses and so can Abhishek (although something tells me that his enjoyment will be mostly centered around the milk shakes at Shiv Sagar, our on-campus food joint).  Oh yes, one more thing: I will not have trouble receiving Amazon packages.

I have already written before about the smooth manner in which house allocation was done.

The move today went off without any major glitches.  The movers were polite and sincere: but the supervisor tried to fool me in many ways.  He had asked for a certain sum (higher than what he quoted to my colleagues) with the assurance that he will bring good packing material: but that did not happen. The electronic items were wrapped in bubble wrap and the kitchen utensils, including coffee maker and other fragile stuff were wrapped in newspaper (which I provided!) and brought in open plastic crates.  His justification: “the quality lies not in the packing material, but in the handling.” Later, the household luggage did not fit into the vehicle brought by him and the supervisor stayed back with the remaining stuff while I followed the vehicle to IISER.  The vehicle then returned for a second trip and the guy very cleverly extracted some extra money saying that local labourers had demanded “Mathadi.”  I knew he was lying (since this has not happened to anyone in my former residential society), but I was alone and completely dependent on these people for unpacking and unloading.

After unloading at IISER Pune, he told me that his boys would be unpacking only major items like furniture and I would have to do the rest myself.  I requested him to empty all the boxes and put the things in the appropriate rooms, and I can take care of the arrangement later.  He argued a little, but gave in.  Finally, he demanded an extra two thousand rupees as tax.  Since this was not in the original quotation, I refused to pay.  Another little argument, but he gave in.

This happens to me a lot: people assume that I am nice and can be fooled easily. (They are right occasionally:  I can’t believe I paid an extra three thousand rupees for a handful of bubble wrap.)

Nonetheless, by the end of the day, everything was in the apartment and in its proper place.  No glass items are broken, but I will only know in the next two days if there has been any damage to the electronic items.  His boys were certainly very sincere and did all the packing and unpacking as per my instructions.   They also did not damage any furniture. 

 My lesson from this is that if one really wants to be free of worries and wants finesse in the handling of items, it is safest to go with a reliable, big name mover (the movers who brought my items from Canada to Mohanpur and later to Pune gave me no cause at all to worry).  With local movers, one has to be really watchful as they will try to cut corners.  But, they do the job eventually and the end product is not much different from what a big mover would have done, at least for an intra city move!

During the unpacking, an agile, middle aged lady rang the doorbell and before I could respond, walked right into the house, unpacked some of the boxes and arranged many items in the kitchen and store room.  She is now my cook and domestic help, my very own Mrs Doubtfire.

Anyways, the reality is that I am on campus, tired, but very happy.   I wanted to take a long walk on my first evening here, but could not do so as my feet are hurting a lot from standing and carrying things all day (may be I need to make my strength training routine a little more intensive!)  I hope to enjoy a nice walk tomorrow morning.

Meanwhile, here’s how I celebrated … on campus of course!

Finally, a picture of faculty housing as it looked at dinner time:

If I could survive the next two weeks..

The next two weeks are going to be a handful.

By Saturday, I have to finalize a paper and lecture notes for a series of lectures.  In between this week, I have to examine a PhD thesis viva voce (thankfully via Skype). On Sunday, I will travel to Bhubaneswar for an ATM School in which I am giving the above mentioned lectures.  The scary part is that temperature at BBN is on the wrong side of 40, but the good thing is that I will get to stay in my favourite guest house.

Immediately after returning, I have to move to my new apartment at IISER.  The idea of packing, moving and unpacking is a bit daunting.  Instead of a big brand, I have hired a local packer and mover this time and even though I have good feedback about this company from my colleagues, I am still worried about things breaking or getting lost.  What if the packers show up late? The apartment security does not allow moving out after a certain time.  What if they don’t pack the items properly and it starts raining? On top of that, the movers mention that some local goons may gather around the truck and won’t let it pass unless you give them some money (it is called “Mahtari” in local parlance).  What if I don’t get the apartment keys on time (I am working with very short deadlines here as I have to travel again for a few weeks immediately after the move)?  What if the movers misbehave and don’t unpack or reassemble the furniture? What if this? What if that? Even as I write this, I realize that half of my fears are unfounded.  Strangely I had no fear at all while moving from Mohanpur to Pune, which was a much longer commute than the upcoming 4 kilometer move!  Then of course, there was the big move from Canada to Mohanpur!

My colleagues who have already moved seem to be settling down well – in fact, our registrar was the first to move into campus housing and has already taken care of a lot of issues.  So, I don’t have too many concerns about what happens after moving. Our new apartment offers pipeline gas – that itself takes care of one major hassle, that of going to a gas agency for issuing cylinders.  The dining complex is nearby: so, no worries if the kitchen is not set up immediately. 

I will finally get to live on campus: something for which I have been waiting for a very, very long time [remembering a campus housing experience from another lifetime :) ].

Now, if only I could survive the next two weeks…..

On motivation and competence

A commenter to the previous blog post, Aravind asks the following question:

“From my experience of a KVPY interview, I understand that you look for motivation in candidates. How do you assess motivation? How much of it figures in the final score? And what about competence?”

Motivation and competence are strongly related. A high score on a school board exam displays a certain level of understanding of textbook content. But a competent student doesn’t just work to score high marks: she will spend time in thinking about what she learnt, would seek conceptual understanding over a mechanical one and will keep practicing an idea beyond what textbook exercises demand. This competence can only be developed if the student is motivated enough to think of the subject as something exciting and not something on a “to-do” list [1]. Regarding your other question of how one assesses these qualities, I am afraid there is no standard procedure: otherwise we would have coaching institutes training students for these interviews as well [assuming they don’t already exist].

If other readers of the blog have a more substantial answer to Aravind’s query, comments would be highly appreciated!

[1] I am not discounting the competence required to approach a to-do list in an organized manner and accomplish all items in it in a timely manner!

More on student interviews

Mathematics @ IISER Pune is all set to start an Integrated PhD programme in the coming autumn semester. We finished interviewing candidates for this programme today. Sharing some thoughts from being a part of this process:

1)   We interviewed candidates shortlisted through the NBHM entrance exams and/or the JAM exam (jointly conducted by IISc and IITs for admission into their MSc/Int. PhD programmes). The candidates were either in their final year of undergraduate proramme or had finished it last year.  When we asked the latter what they did in the last one year, many mentioned that they took coaching for JAM exam. I was very surprised that there now exist coaching institutes for MSc entrance exams! When we asked why they did not instead register for an MSc at their university, they mentioned that their university marks were lower than the cutoff and JAM coaching offered a better alternative.

2)   There were a couple of colleges (not the famous, elite ones, but those which would be ranked from middle to low at their respective universities) from where multiple students showed up. These students did very well at the interviews and displayed high levels of motivation. Seeing the enthusiasm of these students, it looks like some faculty at these colleges are definitely doing the right things (which possibly include identifying bright students, training/counseling them, informing them about available opportunities and organizing lectures by eminent mathematicians which would spark their interest.)

3)   I still have the concern mentioned before that there could be students who are very good, but cannot perform optimally at interviews due to nervousness, a wrong set of questions [although we made every possible effort to give them a fair chance based on their preparation] or other factors. I wish the selection process could be modified to minimize such cases (so that we don’t lose out students with potential), but have no idea how.

4)   If Indian institutes ever feel the need to organize faculty orientation programmes analogous to North American universities, these should include a session on conducting all kinds of student interviews.  We do this frequently (for example, KVPY, PhD, Int PhD etc) but even with the best of intentions, have no idea how hurtful or intimidating our behavior as interviewers can be to students.