The GnuVision Blog

The manner in which the venture was managed, says Mr Karmakar, seemed to suggest otherwise. For instance, the Tatas created tightly-bound employment contracts for the scientists working on the project, which prevented any kind of dissertation. A scientist who was on deputation from TIFR was unable to submit his thesis because of strict employment […]

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One of the good things about an IIT education, even if you don’t plan for a career in academia, is that you get exposed to the highest end of the Indian tech industry. It seems that there are a few Indian companies which are aiming high - and these companies may be accessible only […]

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An article in `Current Science’ bemoans the decline of open ended research in India. A few notable observations:

…But when we introduce a measure for quality, say the number of citations per paper, we quickly drop into #119 (out of 149 top performing countries in the field of Science and Technology)

Our R&D expenditure per capita […]

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A few of my students have strayed off the beaten path and are currently doing M.Tech/PhD rather than working for XYZ MNC. A M.Tech/PhD opens up the doors for a career in research and teaching - two things which are currently out of fashion in India. Very few of the guys enrolled for a […]

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The names of this year’s Nobel prize winners have been announced; as an old `Outlook’ article says:

The Nobel Prize is certainly not the perfect mirror of the state of our science but when the score reads 3/486, and when three of our top nominees are currently doing their work abroad, it is useful to […]

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A news item on Slashdot says that the original Bell Labs Unix group (with guys like Rob Pike, Kernighan, Thompson, Ritchie, McIlroy) has been disbanded - most of the researchers have left the lab, some to become university Professors, others to work in companies like Google. There have been lots of interesting user comments - […]

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Science, Anyone?
The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) offers some of the top
school students in India a chance to work with real scientists
doing cutting edge research in Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics
and Biology. A cousin of mine got a chance to attend an interview
conducted at IISc aimed at choosing candidates for this program;
his qualification was that he was […]

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