‘Finishing schools’ for engineers

While that application is still being processed, the CSIR has gone ahead and set up that educational arm called CSIR-AIST (Advanced Institute of Scientific Training), and its office has been functioning at Ghaziabad since August 1.

In the absence of a deemed university status, the CSIR-AIST will, as of now, not be able to award PhDs to research scholars working in various CSIR laboratories, but instead act as a ‘finishing school’ for fresh engineering graduates who can be groomed to be absorbed within the CSIR.

“Unless we focus on developing quality human resource, we would not be relevant. We need people with multi-dimensional skills to occupy future scientific space. So we have decided to create a separate wing for human resource development that will impart trans-disciplinary knowledge to the best scientific brains with an aim to create maximum intellectual property for the country,” said Prof Samir Kumar Brahmachari, director general of CSIR.

According to Ernst and Young-EDG 2008 report on ‘Globalising Higher Education in India’, there was a 58 per cent shortfall of engineers and 80 per cent shortfall of doctorate scientists in the country. It is here that the CSIR-AIST is hoping to make a difference. The CSIR has a total strength of 4,500 scientists, more than 1000 of whom are actively involved in knowledge generation. In 2007, CSIR produced 3,800 publications. About 400 PhDs emerge out of CSIR labs ever year.

The need for setting up an educational arm of CSIR was felt due to some other reasons as well. About 2,200 junior and senior research fellows work fulltime in these laboratories while pursuing their PhDs. To obtain their PhDs, however, these research scholars have to enroll themselves in the nearby universities. This often causes logistical difficulties for the researches. Then, many of CSIR laboratories are located in places where no decent universities exist.

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