Indian institutions produce some 1,000 basic science PhDs per year but still there is a need for 10 times the present number to maintain the present growth rate,said a report prepared jointly by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC),UK,and Chemical Research Society of India in Pune on Friday at the National Chemical Laboratory (NCL). RSC CEO Robert Parker said,While in the UK we face budgetary restraint in higher education,in India there have been significant allocations for education and research. So a partnership at this stage is to benefit both. He said in the next few months high-end equipment will be provided through RSC to NCL and Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER),Pune. Career development workshops for postgraduate students and workshops on drug discovery programmes,funded by RSC and the Indian pharmaceutical industry,will be held at IISER early next year. Another major problem pointed out in the Indian context was that teaching assignments take up a high percentage of staff time because of faculty shortage following difficulties in the appointments of new faculty,thus leaving academic staff very little time for research. After completion of the first phase of the UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) in March 2011,next phase was announced earlier by both the governments. The next phase will be funded by Rs 357 millions per year from both the governments for the next three years. Some students from NCL have already gone to various UK institutions as a part of UKIERI,said NCL,Pune,director Sourav Pal. IISER,Pune,director N K Ganesh said,In the report,while we have studied the problems in both countries,issues specific to the Indian context have been closely looked at and analysed as we cannot extrapolate the UK system in the Indian context. The problem that we have at hand is how to make sure the research done in labs reaches the markets. As both industry and academia in India have grown in isolation,bringing them together needs massive efforts. Bolts and handles worth Rs 90,000 stolen from Sadhu Vaswani Mission A case was registered at Bundgarden police station after about 40 brass bolts and 28 brass handles worth Rs 90,000 were stolen from Darshan Museum of Sadhu Vaswani Mission. A complaint has been registered by Haresh Agarwal,an administration staff with the Mission. Assistant police inspector S L Dubal with Bundgarden police station said,As per the complaint,the theft is suspected to have taken place sometime between July 15 and August 10,when a pandal was erected on the premises for a ceremony. We have not yet arrested anyone.
