Hi all,
This is a topic that is very close to my heart. By education, I am an engineer and have been in this field for three years. The need of research has been always downplayed by the indian engineering community. I wanted to know the reasons for this. India was labelled not to have produced any worthwhile real engineering products for quite a long time. The exceptions being the space and nuclear technology which was born out of the hardwork of really exceptionally people ranging from Homi J Bhaba to Dr. Abdul Kalam. These two fields have improved the quality of life of a average indian to a great extent for sure. But why havent this kind of engineering marvels havent happened in other parts of engineering, science, humanities and social sciences.
I have always wondered the difference in the working style of European and Indian Scientists. I believe I have got a hint of what it is. Indians think in a more complex way compared to the Europeans. Indians in general are believed to think in a two dimensional way, which essentially means to alter two parameters under study to reach the optimum. The advantage being that the path is always the most efficient and costs the minimum. The disadvantage being the path to be travelled everytime with a certain level of uncertaininty as the effect of the individual parameter is not evident after the study is conducted.
The problem actually starts when scaling is accounted. This is a huge problem in engineering. It is the basic P=nP problem of mathematics. ie if a problem ( P ) is solved, can n times the problem P be solved in the same way and is it feasible. In our case, it has been easy for us, humans to think in case of two dimensions. What will happen when the problem to be solved is a multiobjective multiparameter problem. I would like to explain this with a small example.
First problem ( P ) : Making a tea.
Second problem ( nP ) : Making a full fledged sumptuous Indian meal.
Now if both problems are categorised to be a food processing problem, then a person who is able to make a tea should be able to make a full fledged sumptuous Indian meal. I leave it to the readers for the rest to be thought about.
The case with the European way of thinking and analysing the problems in more linear.
ie they assume that one single parameter affects one output. In this way, they learn more about each parameter and its effects. This helps in the long term for various reasons.
Now to the point of how these affect the way research in india gets affected. The Indian community has always failed a number of times in many engineering practices as they have taken more than their capability to handle at a time. This is not to tarnish the great Indian scientific community. There are always exceptions to anything in this world. The great engineering Indian Community has always been dominated by these people.
Although this, on one hand is good and to be proud of, it leads to a situation, where the problems always have to be taken to these exceptionally talented people to be solved. This is the reason IISc, IITs and IIMs are always called upon to solve the problems faced by the Indian society. They definitely provide great solutions. But the implementation of these solutions to the field is definitely a great challenge in itself just because of the term "FIELD". India with its diversity is, on any given day, a huge nightmare for engineers to handle.
So, does this mean we have to copy the European way of thinking. DEFINITELY NOT.
Then what would really be the solution. For me, that is a million dollar question.
I would like to get some points from the readers on my views on this topic.
The ideas that are presented are my personal and are bound to change without any notification.
