On India's lack of Nobels

👉Why are there not more Nobels from India and what does that say about the state of science education?👈

The modest glass doors of the Nobel Museum in Gamla Stan in Stockholm, Sweden, give little hint of the wondrous troves of human knowledge within the building. Yet, as they swing open, you see a world of scientific endeavours, taken to the pinnacle of analytical and abstract thought.

In one corner hangs Amartya Sen’s bicycle, and the plaque besides his photo reads, “Amartya went to a school in India that encouraged curiosity and didn’t focus too much on grades.” This, according to Nobel Media CEO Mattias Fyrenius, captures the very spirit of the Nobel Prize. “What we are trying to do is really reach out with Nobel and what Nobel stands for... to get people around the world to be more interested in science, research, education, literature and peace-related topics,” he said. In that sense the Nobel “mission” began when the Prizes themselves did, in 1901. Yet, over the past five years the Nobel Foundation has intensified its global outreach ambition, broadcasting its message across the world through its website and social media. India ranks alongside Brazil, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea as one of the focus countries for the Foundation’s engagement in discussions on the state of science education.

One part of the strategy is simply to popularise what Nobel stands for, and in that vein, 2017 saw the start of an exhibition called the Nobel Prize Series, as part of the Vibrant Gujarat initiative. That platform included an exhibition called The Nobel Prize: Ideas Changing the World, and also brought nine Nobel laureates to the country to participate in conferences and school and university interactions. The second prong of the Foundation’s outreach in India entails a conversation with the Department of Science and Technology and the Department of Biotechnology, and a special focus on teachers. The message is to underscore the spirit of curiosity, and spur investments in research and development (R&D) in higher education in basic science. These activities beg the question of why there are not more Nobels from India, and what that says about the state of science education. India’s level of investment in R&D, according to the latest Economic Survey, is 0.7% of GDP which is relatively low on an international scale.

Mr. Freynius said that a core message from the Nobel laureates was the importance of basic science, or “curiosity-driven science”, which does not hinge on questions of commercial applicability of their results. Japan is a positive example in this context, as it has been investing in such research for a long time. The result: 26 Japanese laureates compared to India’s 12 (including laureates by citizenship and ethnic origin). It is telling that among India’s academic Nobel laureates, a considerable proportion have spent years of research within foreign education systems — one indicator, perhaps, of how far India has to go in this regard.

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