Fellowship help to brain grain
Navneet Kumar Gupta
Designed to recruit top research scientists back to India, Government of India started may fellowships. Fellowship is awarded based on the candidate's achievements, quality of research, proposed research plan and its relevance to solve current unmet needs in the various fields of biotechnology
Over 1,000 Indian scientists working abroad have returned to India in the last two-three years, said Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences.
“Now Indian scientist feel that India is changing and they can fulfil their ambitions here. They are finding that opportunities in India are better. From brain drain, we now have a scenario of brain gain.”
Dr. Vardhan said that the scientists were being attracted back to India through several scholarships and fellowships, such as the Ramanujan fellowship and Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellowship.
Department of Science and Technology (DST) is all set to roll out a scheme to attract scientists from abroad on a longer term basis. The program, called Visiting Advanced Joint Research (VAJRA) Faculty Scheme, will offer accomplished NRI scientists the opportunity to undertake research in India.
Recently Dr. Srivatsava Naidu, Assistant Professor, Centre for Biomedical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Ropar (IIT Ropar) has been awarded the Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellowship by the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology for a period of 5 years.
The fellowship aims to attract highly skilled Indian researchers working overseas in various cutting edge disciplines of biotechnology and other related areas, by providing them an attractive avenue to pursue their R&D interests in Indian institutions.
Dr. Naidu’s research proposal focuses to understand the molecular perturbations caused due to derailed basal transcription mechanisms which plays a major role in oncogenic transformation. The outcome of the study will enrich the current understanding of molecular events deciding cell fate, particularly during oncogenesis, which may ultimately exploited for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes.
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Navneet Kumar Gupta is a science communicator working as a Project Officer (Edusat) in Vigyan Prasar-National institute of Science communication under the Department. of Science & Technology. Govt. Of India. He has deep interest in popular science writing for general public through Print and electronic media. Besides his twelve books, he has written more than 200 popular science articles. He has edited/authored/co-authored more than 10 books. He have been awarded six National Awards including Rajbhasha Award, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India He has had a long stint as Associate Editor, VIPNET news - a popular science magazine. You may contact him at - ngupta@vigyanprasar.gov.in