HYDERABAD: Bharat Ratna awardee scientist Prof CNR Rao speaking to media in Hyderabad on Friday, said that Narendra Modi government should increase expenditure in Science to counter China. “Those who control Science, control the world,” he said. Prof Rao also said that spending on Science by successive governments in India, including the present one, has been less than 1 per cent of the country’s GDP and that most of the money government spends on Science goes to only a handful of institutions.
Prof Rao spoke on the sidelines of the first day of 21st CRSI National Symposium in Chemistry being organised at the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology. Dr. S Chandrasekhar, director of IICT said that more than 650 scientists from academic, research and industry backgrounds are participating in the symposium which will end on July 16.
Prof Rao said that his work will soon be published on how the costly and rare Earth element Platinum can be easily replaced by compound Nickel hydroxide in various chemical processes where Platinum is required, thus reducing the overall cost.
He stressed that scientists in India need to focus on production of Hydrogen and materials which can store Hydrogen safely as Hydrogen will prove an important source of fuel for automobiles in future as oil resources will deplete.
Indian scientists need to be at the forefront of fuel cell technology rather than trail their western counterparts by designing Sodium or Magnesium based fuel cells, Prof Rao said and added, “Lithium is not available in abundance. The world’s and even India’s energy needs are going to grow exponentially over the years and fuel cell will play an important role in serving these needs. Lithium based fuel cells will not be of help for long as lithium is not abundantly available in nature. Indian scientists should soon come out with efficient fuel cells based on Sodium and be at the forefront of fuel cell technology.”