'Asking institutes to find own funding will hamper long-term

Renowned agricultural scientist Prof M S Swaminathan today cautioned the government against asking scientific research institutes to find their own source of funding, saying it will hamper research which deals with issues requiring long-term commitment.
The geneticist, known for his leading role in India's Green Revolution, suggested that the Science Advisory Committee to the Cabinet should carefully deliberate the issue and recommend a long-term funding strategy which will help achieve a balance between public good and private profit.
His comments were in response to recent media reports claiming that the government has asked the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in India (CSIR) and other organisations involved in scientific research to generate their own sources of funding.

Swaminathan said public good institutions should be "adequately supported by the government".
"Scientific research is increasingly becoming oriented towards immediate commercial profit than on short and long term public good. A recent report suggests that CSIR laboratories have been asked to find funds for their research.
"This approach can help to promote research on topics of current market interest but research dealing with issues requiring sustained long-term commitment will suffer," Swaminathan said in a post on his website.

The scientist said good public research institutions are essential for developing technologies relevant to resource poor farmers operating small holdings which constitute a majority.

"Public good research involves more investment on long- term basis and strategic research. It is only such researches which can provide the foundation for developing technologies which can confer the maximum public good. Again taking the example of agriculture, public good institutions will concentrate on developing varieties of crops whose seeds farmers can keep and sow.
"Profit institutions will mainly concentrate on producing hybrids whose seeds will have to be purchased every year by the small farmer.
He said national laboratories can cooperate with private sector labs in the area of translational research, i.E. converting scientific findings into field-level applications taking into account considerations of ecology, economics and social and gender equity.