Home Calling: India Govt To Bring Back NRI Scientists

BANGALORE: In a bid to reverse the brain drain and bring back NRI scientists who left the country many years ago for various reasons, the Narendra Modi government has initiated talks with many eminent non-resident Indian scientists , reports Sanjeeb Mukherjee & Sushmi Dey of Business Standard.

As per Jitendra Singh, minister of state (independent charge) for science and technology, the ministry  has even gone the extra mile by approaching a team of well-known scientists from across the world in various departments.

These scientists, mostly coming back to India through different government fellowships will be inducted in various well-known institutions and departments that include the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bose Institute and many other research centres, and other institutions mainly funded by the government.

According to Vijay Raghavan, secretary to Department of Science and Technology, the department has constituted two different re-entry fellowships namely Ramalingaswami and Ramanujan fellowships, under which most scientists are coming back and taking up projects in India. So in order to facilitate more scientists, the ministry has now planned to propose more such fellowship going forward and create a conducive environment along with social infrastructure to attract eminent brains.

Additionally, the ministry is also holding talks with various domestic as well as multinational pharmaceutical companies to partner for research in the area of drug discovery.

Jitendra Singh said, "We are trying to involve the industry at two levels. One, we are in talks with some companies on projects where they can take care of the funding part. Secondly, there are also companies which have their own research and development (R&D) wings. So, we are discussing if we can collaborate with them and take the research forward."
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