· The Fields Medal, popularly seen as the equivalent of a Nobel Prize, is awarded once in four years to two-four mathematicians below the age of 40.
· No Indian has yet won it although it was also in 2014 that for the first time an Indian-origin Canadian-American mathematician, Manjul Bhargava, was awarded.
· In the recently announced prize for 2018, an Australian mathematician, Akshay Venkatesh, was awarded. He too happens to be of Indian origin.
· It is the same case with respect to the Nobel Prizes in science.
· If Indians studying and working abroad can have a great impact, then obviously the problem has to do with our systems of education and research.
· In contrast, in other fields like Chess and badminton Indians have succeeded in coming to the top.
· Similarly, we have global leaders in music, arts and literature.
· It clearly indicates that India has managed to be productive in the fields which have had very little support either from the government or the corporate sector.
· It is important to understand why our contribution in science does not match this enormous cultural capital invested in science.
· The reasons can be the nature of school education, the state of science administration, and our cultural response to the idea of excellence.
· Science education is not egalitarian and is designed to keep people out rather than embrace diversity and multiplicity of background, language and talents.
· This is done in the name of merit, and yet it is precisely this merit that we lack on the global stage.
· Perhaps not so surprisingly, the school system as well as science administration are both linked together by a common problem: the inability to understand and deal with excellence.
· In academic institutions across the country, it is far more difficult for a person to stand out in terms of high quality work since the system has little support for excellence.
· Great work in any domain is not produced in isolation. Greatness is deeply cultural and arises from a particular attitude and not subject competence alone.
· Our education system has reduced the notions of competence and merit only to that of science, thereby denying the greatness inherent in so many other domains.
· Children who could have excelled in so many other disciplines and activities end up being forced to do science or being in education systems which put very little premium on other disciplines.
· At the same time, countless artists and musicians struggle to survive in spite of creating great work.
· Great science will only arise in a culture which celebrates great music, art, literature, philosophy, sports and so on.
· As long as this myopic vision of science, the hegemony of science education and the unprofessional cult of Indian science administration continue, we are not going to win Fields medal or Nobel prizes in science any time soon.
Source : The Hindu