Opposition members in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday criticised the government over low spending on scientific research while calling for increasing the salaries of scientists.
In a discussion on ‘India’s glorious space journey marked by successful soft landing of Chandrayaan-3″, members also called for the need to use science to solve the problems of the common people and improve their lives.
Taking part in the discussion, V Sivadasan CPI(M) said over the years the number of space mission launches has come down.
“It is not due to lack of work from scientists. I believe it is due to lack of government funding,” he said, adding India’s spending on science and technology as a percentage of GDP was a meagre 0.7 per cent while countries like South Korea, the US and China spend far more.
“We are spending a larger amount on making statues than for science education. Expenditure of Chandrayaan-3 is Rs 615 crore but the expenditure on statues might be Rs 10,000 crore,” Sivadasan said.
Abdul Wahab (IUML) highlighted the need to increase the salaries of scientists who, he said, despite putting in long hours of work “are paid very less” as a result of which many people were choosing higher-paying jobs.
He also took a dig at the government, saying that the “cost-effectiveness of Chandrayaan-3” was due to the “meagre salaries” paid to scientists, whose counterparts abroad were “getting five times more”.
Stressing the need to use science to improve the lives of common people, Kapil Sibal (Independent) said, “The kind of funding that we do in research is so minimal that we won’t be able to find those solutions.” He further said, “You may reach the moon, you may reach the star, you may research the sky, but what you need to do is to look after people on the ground.” Sibal pointed out that science is a “subject that is so far-reaching that it can change our lives” but for that “we have to think about innovations in science at every level”.
At one level is what ISRO has done and has been able to achieve, he said, “but at another level, we have to think about 1.4 billion people in this country and ask ourselves the question what has science done for them?” AD Singh (RJD) hit out at the government for glorifying ‘Amrit Kaal’ saying “the actual Amrit Kaal will come when we are able to provide employment or sustainability for the 800 million whom we are feeding by giving rice and wheat today.”
The poor India is still starving today, he said, adding, “We are sitting on a timebomb of unemployment.” KR Suresh Reddy (BRS) called for the strengthening of engineering colleges across the country, not just the IITs, to encourage young minds to enter space technology and cash in on the scientific temper that has been created among the young minds by the success of Chandrayaan-3.
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