VISAKHAPATNAM: “Less than 3 per cent of GDP is being spent on education, with the higher education in universities getting no support for scientific research. Against this background, when will India have a university like Cambridge and best of the IITs,” pointed out CNR Rao, honorary president of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bengaluru, and Bharat Ratna awardee. He was delivering a lecture on ‘Place of India in the World of Science — Where Does It Belong’ as part of the 36th GITAM Foundation Day celebrations at the GITAM University campus here on Saturday.
Rao, an authority in solid-state and structural chemistry, has published over 1,630 research papers, penned about 50 books and bestowed with honorary doctorates by 60 universities. “Age is not a limit for achieving goals, even now I run like an 18-year-old though I’m 82,” says Rao.
“Now the biggest competition for us are China and South Korea. China has 20,000 PhDs per annum, while India produces about 8,000 PhDs. About 60 per cent Indians are young and in the ensuing years the figure will reach five crore in higher education,” he pointed out.
Rao published research papers at the age of 25 and was the youngest professor at 29. “Indians are not hard working. We do just enough to get a promotion, when will we grow better?” questioned Rao.