The Centre, while announcing the new Vigyan Ratna, asked 8 science and health departments to cut down nearly 100 fellowships and awards.
Vigyan Ratna: Government plans Nobel-like prize; asks eight science and health departments to cut down over 100 fellowships, awards.(Illustration: Sumit Jha/South First)
The Centre’s decision to drastically reduce the number of awards and fellowships given to scientists and medical researchers and, instead, institute a Nobel-like award, the Vigyan Ratna, has upset and irked the community. Some of scientists even took to social media and called it a “bizarre decision”.
The scientists argued that instead of scrapping the awards, the Centre should have ensured greater transparency in the selection process — by making the names of applicants and shortlisted candidates public.
“They want the awards to be of ‘high standard’; it’s absolutely fine. But when you say awards given out now are not of a high standard, that means the selection mechanism you have had so far is inadequate,” Dr Gagandeep Kang, microbiologist and professor at CMC Vellore in Tamil Nadu, told South First.
“And one way of fixing it is probably to relook at the mechanism of selection. But to cut down the number of awards is neither here nor there,” she added.
Professor Chandrashekhar Sharma of Department of Chemical Technology whose Twitter post on the subject was widely circulated and commented on by fellow scientists told South First: “I am not for or against this, but the decision should have been made after consulting the scientific community. Obviously, awards have pros and cons, but the most important point is that the scientific community should have been taken into confidence before making this kind of decision.”
No #SSB prizes are announced today on the occasion of @CSIR_IND foundation day. Most of the awards are also being scraped as per the MoM circulated by Home Ministry (attached). Govt. however wants a new award like @NobelPrize. Disclaimer: I am not an applicant for SSB 2022. pic.twitter.com/EeMCuisIWN
— Chandra Shekhar Sharma (@Chans2k2) September 26, 2022
The Centre has decided to reduce the number of awards given to scientists and medical researchers and wants to restrict these to only “really deserving candidates”. This was decided at a meeting chaired on 16 September by Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, which was attended by senior officials of the country’s science departments.
Ajay Bhalla
Those who attended the meeting were from the Department of Science and Technology, Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Department of Atomic Energy and representatives from the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Indian Council for Medical Research, and the Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Centre.
The home secretary suggested that one Nobel Prize-like award (Vigyan Ratna) could be instituted for scientists in consultation with the Principal Scientific Advisor to the government. This award may be open to all science disciplines .
The minutes of the meeting are available with South First.
There were 207 awards given by the Department of Science and Technology out of which four were national awards, 97 private endowments awards, 54 scholarships/fellowships, and 56 internal awards.
All private endowments, internal awards, and scholarships/fellowships have been discontinued
Department of Atomic Energy
The department used to confer 25 performance-based awards and 13 non-core domain awards.
All the awards have been discontinued, and a new award of “high stature” may be instituted for scientists in the field of atomic energy.
Department of Space
The department used to confer three internal awards. All three have been discontinued, and a new award of high stature may be instituted for those in the field of space science.
Department of Biotechnology
Department had six fellowships which were categorised as awards. These will now be fellowships to be granted “with proper justifications and detailed guidelines”.
Department of Scientific and Industrial Research
The department conferred seven awards, six of which have been scrapped. The only surviving one is the prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Awards — given annually to accomplished scientists across 45 departments.
The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar awardees were supposed to be named on 26 September, but no announcement has been made as yet.
The meeting decided that Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Awards is a “high stature award”. However, it has reduced the period for which winners are given a monthly allowance from 20 years to 15.
Ministry of Earth Sciences
It had four national awards. The Dr Anna Mani Award for Women Scientist may be merged with awards given to women by the Ministry of Women & Child Development.
The other three awards are to be discontinued and a new national-level award with high stature may be instituted for earth sciences.
Department of Health and Family Welfare
After a discussion, it was agreed that the 51 awards given under the National Florence Nightingale Nurses Award may be rationalised. And the Kayakalp award may be discontinued as it is basically an incentivising scheme .
Noting that the government is not even clear in it’s guidelines on choosing the number of people for awards, Dr Kang said the government must explain what it means by “rationalising the awards”.
“This can mean that some people deserve an award, and others don’t. Then tell us what the rationale is. Then the government should clearly say if the criteria for choosing is to decide 1 in 10,000 or 1 in 20,000, whatever it is. Cutting the awards is neither here nor there.”
Speaking to South First Dr Rakesh Mishra, former director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, and currently director of the Tata Institute for Genetics and Society (TIGS), Bengaluru, opined that scientists are motivated by different reasons and not just by awards.
However, he added that awards are also a kind of recognition of good work and can be motivating for student communities and scientists. He hoped the government would set up a new process to recognise the work by scientists.
“I don’t think the government has removed the awards because of financial reasons, because the money is not big. Maybe the government is a concerned about process of selection — that can be improved and corrected. But it sends the wrong message” if the awards are scrapped, he said.
“The awards give recognition not only to scientists, but also to students; the public also gets motivated that scientists are doing good work.”
Expressing a similar view, Dr Kang said, “The government should have a strategy on how it intends to continue to encourage scientists. Research is the bedrock of economic empowerment in the country; if the bulk of research is currently being done in the government sector, then the government should consider coming up with strategies to keep up the recognition and motivation, and ensure the government sector performs better.”
“Awards are not just to boost the ego of the person receiving it; it is a way to cultivate a scientific temper, a culture of innovation, ecosystem of building the best frame for the next generation of India,” said Prof BA Patil, formerly of the Fraunhofer Research Center, Germany.
“It is not enough to award; the government should reward the person, support the research, encourage him/her. The concept of D2D, which means Dream to Dollars, should be brought in. A scientist is someone who dreams for the welfare of the society and translates that it into dollars for financial sustenance. I am ashamed to see that the government has reduced the number of awards,” he told South First.
M Vidyasagar, SERB National Science Chair at IIT, Hyderabad, and Fellow of the Royal Society, took to Twitter and called it a “bizarre decision!” His tweet: .
What a bizarre decision! Signs of a clueless, anti-STEM govt. running amok.
Scientists will devise their own ways to recognise their peers — with or without GoI involvement. In a way, it is better if the politicos and babus stay out of it.
But all in all quite disgraceful. https://t.co/6h8zeOWI3S
— nullstellensatz (@stellensatz) September 27, 2022
Meanwhile, a Ph.D. Student at Virginia Tech Abdeali called it “signs of a cash-strapped govt desperately looking to cut budgets?”, to which M Vidyasagar added, “Cash-strapped? These awards cost a pittance compared to the overall budget. All this makes the Indian government look like a bunch of buffoons,”
“Cash-strapped”? These awards cost a pittance compared to the overall budget. All this makes the Indian government look like a bunch of buff00n$.
— nullstellensatz (@stellensatz) September 27, 2022
Interestingly, IIT Kanpur professor Amitabha Bandyopadhyay, KENT chair for entrepreneurship and innovation, said, “I didn’t know that Home Ministry has the advisory role on ways and means of scientific recognitions. The Home Secretary advised a group of top scientists of the country on who to celebrate and how to celebrate scientific accomplishments! Every day I learn new things.”
Meanwhile, Soumen Ghosh, theoretical and computational chemist, opined that “it would be interesting to see the list of ‘scientists’ who participated in this meeting and agreed to the proposal”.
It would be interesting to see the list of “scientists” who participated in this meeting and agreed to the proposal. ? https://t.co/unCTEyoF25
— Soumen Ghosh (@SoumenChem) September 26, 2022
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