Krishnaswamy VijayRaghavan: Developing a scientific culture is no mean task

The appointment of biologist Krishnaswamy VijayRaghavan as the principal scientific advisor to the Government of India has come at a crucial time. On one hand, the country is progressively moving towards scientific temperament and on the other,  there is a section of people, including ministers, still bogged down by misconception and superstition. Union Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan recently claimed that physicist Stephen Hawking once said: "our Vedas might have a theory superior to (Albert) Einstein’s law E=MC2."

A major responsibility for researcher-turned-administrator VijayRaghavan will be spread to the word of science across the country, supported by his vast knowledge and experience.

The geneticist and biologist will succeed nuclear physicist Rajagopala Chidambaram, who remained the position for more than 16 years. VijayRaghavan served as secretary, Department of Biotechnology, since January 2013.

“He is one of the most exceptional scientists in the country who commands a lot of respect in the scientific world,” said Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairperson and managing director of Biocon. She called VijayRaghavan "a global citizen".

“He is an ideal choice. He has already played an important role as secretary at the Department of Biotechnology. He is a great ambassador when it comes to science and technology,” she said.

Many remarkable works that VijayRaghavan spearheaded may have gone unnoticed, but bringing Foldscope, also known as the 50-cent microscope that can be assembled from simple components, including a sheet of paper and a lens, to India is laudable. He is active on Twitter with over 3,500 tweets to his credit. 

It took a tweet from him to Stanford University professor Manu Prakash to come to India with his paper microscope. These sturdy foldable microscopes were distributed among undergraduate students by the Department of Biotechnology, then headed by VijayRaghavan.

The IIT-Kanpur alumnus believes that science and technology could be the fulcrum of change in agriculture, health, environment and development. “Connect science to society and society to science,” he said. He also called for democratisation to the access to science, so that citizens from any background can access science and technology opportunities, and lead. “One’s language should not be a hurdle, but an advantage. The best of science should be accessible in any of our languages,” said the scientist, who was conferred the Padma Shri in 2013.

He helped set up of the Bengaluru-based National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) with his mentor (at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research) Obaid Siddiqi in 1992. One of the finest bio laboratories in the country, the NCBS created a science museum last year to commemorate its silver jubilee, which tells stories about the biological past, with the passage of time etched in physical rocks and metaphorical fossils.

VijayRaghavan, who is also a Royal Society fellow, has made noteworthy contributions towards the understanding of muscles development by experimenting with common fruit flies. In particular, his work has contributed to the knowledge pool of the molecular and cellular steps in the growth of flight muscle.

Recently, a lot of officials in power have made statements which are not only unscientific but also ridiculed on the social media. 

Challenging Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, Union minister Satyapal Singh had claimed that it was scientifically wrong and needed to be changed in school and college curriculum. Rajasthan Education Minister Vasudev Devnani broke the internet with his statement that cows inhale and exhale oxygen. 

Hence, the post of principal scientific advisor to the government holds great significance as the country is facing a shortage of rational thinkers who could take the lead and help build an economy that is technologically propelled. 

VijayRaghavan’s selection as the principal scientific advisor is a breath of fresh air which could leverage our scientific ecosystem towards expansion.