A few years ago, main-line newspapers, television channels and prominent social media accounts were flush with news of a young 19-year-old who had claimed many inventions to his name, including honours like invitations from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and United States President Donald Trump. However, many of these publications withdrew their stories within days after it became clear that there was not much to these claims.
Interestingly, Gopal Jee and similar claims are not uncommon, and inordinate media attention to unverified inventions and self-proclaimed scientists are mucking up the ground for genuine start-ups and their innovations, experts point out.
For instance, let’s examine the case of Jee, who claimed to have two patents, which were later found to be untrue. When contacted, Jee said that these were “provisional patents”, but industry experts say such things do not mean much.
Jee also claimed to have received a Department of Science & Technology (DST) Inspire award in the year 2016 and that he had been sent to the National Innovation Foundation (NIF) by Prime Minister Narendra Modi where he had made other discoveries.
However, Dr Vipin Kumar, director, NIF, says he has no idea about this boy. He went on to point out that he had already sent correction letters to media houses to take down the news. “The moot question is what should be done in such cases? It brings bad name and devalues Indian Science and aspiring start-ups who want to take those innovations to commercial ventures,” said Kumar.
Speaking about the Jee episode, former executive director of Technology Information Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC) Professor Prabhat Ranjan, currently, vice-chancellor at Dr DY Patil International University, Pune, says, “I was also looking at it with interest, wondering how this person could be helped. I tried to go into the invention in detail to find out what patents he had filed and how his findings may be made commercially successful.”
“Since I was also from Bihar, I tried to find a way to help but then, I found out that the patent didn’t exist. When I tried to crosscheck with the NIF (National Innovation Foundation), they also confirmed that the reporting about Gopal Jee was wrong,” he added.
“If this is the case, then many people will ignore the findings of even genuine scientists. It is dangerous for media to publicise such things without verifying the content and truth. It will create problems for people who want to invest into a start-up based on such fake findings,” Ranjan warned.
Meanwhile, NIF is an autonomous body of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India.
It was set up in February 2000 at Ahmedabad in Gujarat to provide institutional support for scouting, spawning, sustaining and scaling up the grassroots innovations across the country.