The Kerala Meeting

Obaid Siddiqi
Faculty, National Centre for Biological Sciences
Bangalore

The young investigator meeting in Kerala, last February, organized by Ronald Vale (UCSF), Sandhya Kaushika (NCBS), and Mukund Thattai (NCBS) was an unusual event. The idea behind the meeting was to bring together a group of young Indian biologists in USA and Europe who are seeking a career in India and a similar group of those who have come back in recent years, to exchange views and experiences. There were about twenty of each kind. In addition, there was a sprinkling of older scientists who have been involved in the growth of modern biology in India and elsewhere and representatives of funding agencies and science departments which support research (DBT, CSIR, NIH, NSF and the Welcome Trust)
 
The young scientists presented their research and older biologists such as Bruce Alberts (former president of US National Academy), Jim Spudich (Stanford University) and Martin Raff (University College, London) gave inspiring accounts of their life in science. Representatives of funding agencies described their policies. The meeting was extremely well prepared. The organizers had gone to the extent of bringing out a very readable booklet on how to write grant applications. A number of sessions were devoted to problems and difficulties that one might encounter. There was, all along, an air of realism combined with enthusiasm.
 
Fifty years ago when I was looking for a job in India, opportunities for doing research in modern biology were limited. Biology was mostly taught in departments of Botany and Zoology. Few universities had biochemistry or microbiology, almost none any biophysics or genetics. Experimental biology as we know it today was confined to biomedical or agricultural research institutes. The situation is very different now. In place of 25 universities and a dozen research institutes, there are some 400 universities and about the same number of research institutes. A head count shows that there are over a thousand research groups of scientists engaged in some area of experimental biology or the other. On my reckoning there are at least 30 research institutes and university departments which provide fairly reasonable facilities. Twenty of these are listed by Ronald Vale and Karen Dale in their article, The Biological Sciences in India (J. Cell Biol. 2009)
 
There are, no doubt shortcomings and difficulties but this is not the place to discuss these. There is one point though on which most observers of the Indian Science scene agree. There is a shortage of good scientists, especially of good leaders who can remedy the shortcomings of this already large and rapidly expanding system. The Kerala YIM made an imaginative attempt to address the problem by bringing together the main players who can improve the situation, young scientist who wish to enter Indian science, those who have already made their plunge and directors of institution, funding agencies and heads of research groups who are in a position to give opportunity and support.
 
The Kerala meeting has been followed by a similar meeting in California. More such meetings are in the offing. Most of us realize that the systems of search and recruitments in our research institutes and universities are cumbersome and archaic. As this portal shows, the Kerala meeting has led the way. I am amazed that over these many years no one thought of such a simple way of dealing with the problem.