The farmers' movement In the Western part of Uttar Pradesh has been going on for well over a year r.bw. The scale and vigour of the movement has added a new dimension to the politics of the powers that be and, in a sense, has dramatically brought out.the vacuousness of the variety of political leadership. This is one of the few occasions when the Chief Minister of the most populous state who goes down to meet a leader, leading a movement not even two years old, Is made to walk half a kilometer and Is made to face the farmers; and gets more or less abused by the farmers' leader when his replies are considered unsatisfactory.
But this kind of treatment is not meted put only to those who hold executive power; even leaders of the Opposition are not treated with the deference that is conferred on "complalners".* V.P. Singh is told that the leader would not grant him a private meeting. Similar is the case wfth Smt. Gayatri Devi, widow of the late Charan Singh, who was supposed to have held Western UP "in his pocket". Disciples of Charan Singh now In power in Ha'ryana, find themselves incapable of keeping up communication with Chaudhury Mahendra Singh Tikait who leads the farmers' movement in the Western UP
Farmers movements, such as this one concerned with issues of remunerative prices for farm produce'or electricity tariff, have been going on in various parts of the country for the last fifteen years. Between 1977-81, Tamil Nadu witnessed a series of agitations by farmers articulating demands on these Issues. Similarly, farmers In Kamataka moved into action during the ill-fated rule of Gundu Rao and have continued to be active ever since. The utterances and activities of the Shetkari Sang hat nana in Maharashtra, led by Sharad oshi, are quite well known. The farmers In Gu arat more or less paralyzed the administration when they decided to press for their demands for remunerative prices. In the much maligned Pun ab, there' has been an association of farmers which made news when they organised "gherao" o! the Ra Bhavan In Chandigarh in 1984.
Things seem to have been taken differently when the farmers in Western UP laid siege to the Commissioner's Office in fvleerut in February last. For one thing the gathering, estimated onelhuridred to one hundred fifty thousand strong, was perhaps larger tor an occasion.of a] sustained siege, lasting several days. Gathering so many people - most farmeis are reporttxf to have brought women in the households along - and keeping them from turning resti'e, demaix s leadership qualities of a high order and the existence of such leadership might have been one of the points of attraction. The proximity of Delhi Is certainly one of the reasons why the siege of Meerut attracted very wide attention In the Press. The fact that the Chaudhury rebuffed approaches from any politician further seems to have endeared him to the Delhi based intelligentsia, who has been looking for a messiah of sorts! The very point which would usually be counted against Tikatt, his seml-literateness for example, is now held up as a plus point Indicative of authenticity.
Behind the facade of the images built by the Press and the intelligentsia, one must look for aspects that render the movement in Meerut region a significant development. The demands of farmers centre around the Issue of remunerative prices for farm produce. By now, it Is accepted by much of the Intelligentsia that there is a fundamental disparity between the value based price fixing of industrial products and that of the agricultural produce. The perceptive critics of the-farmers'' demand do admit that such a disparity exists but claim that nothing should be done, lest it should push up prices of food in urban areas thus causing unrest among the labour. Such is the fragility of the enormous food security that the nation Is supposed to have derived from Green Revolution (GR). The package that is called GR has had adverse consequences in terms of the distribution of yields and reduction In the variety of food-crops produced in this oountry (see .K. Ba a , "Green Revolution" A Historical Perspective, PPST Bulletin, Nov.1982). More Important, it has tied the agricultural sector to certain sectors of industry, such as fertilizer production; the subsidy given by the government to these Industries, by the classical technique of labelling, is now known as "subsidy in agriculture". This Is one more myth that the Farmers' Movements have blown up.
Besides the critics from the Establishment or quasi-Establishment circles, a notable criticism has appeared from among the agitating farmers themselves. Sharad oshi, leader of the Shetkari Sanghatana in Maharashtra, has come down rather heavily on Chaudhury Tlkait's leadership for not being "sufficiently economlstic" In their demands. He has further Identified certain "weaknesses" in the Meerut movement, that include improper strategy (of keeping so many people in cold In the name of besieging Meerut), unfocussed demands, whimsical decisions (of leaving the corpse of a volunteer, dead from fatigue, to "rot" till the authorities conceded the demands) which, he believes, would only contribute towards "messing up" further the fledgeling organisations of farmers. Social engineers such as Sharad oshi perhaps have deep-seated theoretical reasons for coming out against the Meerut movement, but, in general, farmers' leadership over the country has not been that dear that Tikatt is "messing up" ;he situation.
The most extraordinary (and its weakest, as oshi would consider it) feature of tne Farmers' Movement In Meerut area is the nature of its organisation. The movement in general and the Siege of Meerut in particular, has been extremely disciplined and this is one aspect that has won approbation from various quarters. Under this lies the basic organizational structure, which, according to information available, is nothing other than the knap or a certain k'rd of regional grouping. The khap. It is said, is an assembly, panchayat, of about 84 villages, and Chaudhury Tikatt happer.s to be :ne Chief or the Chaudhury of one of the knaps in the area.
Tlkait himser'says that the khaps have existed since time immemorial, and have always been the power that every ruler" needed to contend with. He has also given instances when the khaps directed the people to overthrow kings and came out successful In the mission. The {fierce tattles of 1857 in the Meerut region against the British were, he claims, th3 outcome ot the decisions made by the khaps and the present movement Is, It can be understood, an outcome of the decision of the khaps. That this institution has been mostly'responsible for running various parts of India has been noted and there appears to be some debate as to what really constituted the basis of polity in traditional India, the village Itself or the assembly such as Nadu or, as we hear the word often now, •the knap. While their value In terms of being able to provide an alternative - or even a functional counterbalance - to the power of the modem system of governance Is yet to be assessed, we may ust mention'that the Western scholarship is already on the way to include them" as parts of a universal scheme of governance, In which the present day, Western model acquires the requisite supremacy. There Is enough scope for carrying out scholarly work to comprehend 1 the nature and type of continuity that the traditional institutions such as the khap express, particularly as made manifest by the Fanners' Movement in Western districts of Uttar Pradesh.
Author: V.Balaji
When the Prime Minister's adviser Sri Satyen Pitroda announced the national "Technology Missions" in five areas namely, drinking water, oilseeds, immunization, literacy and telecommunications, he was hailed by many across the country as a new messiah. In a short period of two years, Sri Pitroda has earned the reputation of being one of the most visible and articulate functionaries of the Indian state. A leading Tamil Newspaper, In an editorial, termed the technology missions as "Pitroda's .revolution". Even those who saw themselves as the opponents of the policies of the Indian Government and many hardened cynics grudgingly admitted that Pitroda may after all bring a breath of fresh air to the Indian scenario.
There are a couple of factors responsible for this response to the technology missions and their architect. The first is Pitroda's often unconcealed impatience with the dead-wood that permeates most of the modern sector in India, where most of the things ust do not work. The second and' perhaps more important factor is Pitroda's emphatic assertion that it was time now 'to make the pendulum swing away from complete import-dependence to complete self-reliance". It is this insistence on self-reliance that perhaps caught the imagination of many who otherwise saw the policies of the Indian state as a( sell-out on many fronts.
In the current five year plan, Rs.4,000 crores have been allocated in the first phase of the technology missions. Of this amount, Rs.2,000 crores are allocated for the water mission, Rs. 1,000 crores for telecommunications, Rs.500 crores for the literacy mission and Rs.250 crores each for immunisation and oilseeds missions.
Each of the missions is characterised by clearly quantified targets to be attained within a specified date, often stated with a precision bordering on the ridiculous. For example, under the water mission, by 1990, nearly one lakh - 98,746 to be "exact" - villages are to be supplied with drinking water, 40 I it ires per capita for human consumption and 30 litres per head of cattle in the desert regions, per day. Or under the literacy mission, 80 million "illiterates" in the 15 to 35 age group are to be transformed into "functional literates". A "functional literate" is defined as one, who is able to, among other things, "read silently small paragraphs in simple language at a speed of 35 words per minute", "write with proper spacing and alignment" and "do simple calculations without fractions involving addition, subtraction upto three digits and multiplication and division by two digits" (Business India, March 21 - April 3, 1988).
The national mission on oilseeds was set up in May 1986. A document titled "National Mission on Oilseeds" (hereafter abbreviated as NMO) was released In anuary 1988. presumably to educate the public. This glossHy produced document, reflecting the new technocratic approach, Is -at first sight, a refreshing o 9parture from the wordy government documents which are probably read by no one. In fact one thing that may be said in favour of this document's that It makes fairly transparent what the mission Is all about.
As in the case of the other technology missions, one "nodal' ministry Is identified, which In this case is the ministry of Agriculture. Within the ministry the concerned or "nodal" department! Is the department of Agricultural Research and Education which has produced the booklet on the mission. Other concerned departments are, Agriculture and Cooperation, Biotechnology, Scientific and Industrial Research and Civil Supplies. There is a mission director who Is the official in charge of the mission. In this case this happens to be the Additional Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research and Education.
The objective of the technology mission Is spelt out (NMO: p.4) simply, as 'accelerating self-reliance' in edible oils". The context Is also provided, equally simply: "Heavy imports worth Rs.3884 crores in 5 years, 1981-1986". The targets set for the mission are also listed (NMO, p.5).1 They are, by 1989-90, annual production of 1.6 to 1.8 crores of tonnes of oilseeds, from the current average of 1.14 crores of tonnes during 1980-85. For edible oil the envisaged production is 44 to 50 lakhs tonnes in 1989-90 from an average of 32 lakhs tonnes during 1980-85. The target set for 2000 A.D. is 2.6 crores tonnes of oilseeds and 80 lakhs tonnes of edible oil.
Right at The outset, one is struck by the fact that there Is no statement in the mission document as to how a situation" came about wherein we have to import edible oils costing oh an average Rs.777 crores per year during 81-86. One would have thought that the first task of the mission would be' to present an understanding cf what went wrong with oilseed production in our country in order to work out ways of getting out of this situation.
Such an analysis is for instance presented in the article by Dr. .K-Ba a , Sri Samir Shah and Dr.H.S.Shankar, "Impact of Modernisation on Milk and Oil seeds: Part II.- Changes in the Agriculture and Economy of Oil seeds", which appeared in the PPST Bulletin (Serial No. 11, une 1987, pp.20-44 - hereafter abbreviated as IMMO).
As Bajaj etial show, during the period 1949-65 (prior.to the so called Green Revolution) which rnay be termed the pre-modernisation period in Indian Agriculture, the production of oil seeds rose at a rate of 3.20 percent per annum, which was slightly better than the rate of growth of overall agricultural production in the country. It is only in the period 1967-81, following the "Green Revolution" and modernisation that the growth rate in the production of all crops seems to slacken. However, oil seeds and pulses suffer a decline which is much sharper than the decline in the growth of food grains or in the total agricultural'production. The rate of growth of oil seeds in the latter period was 1.04% per annum while that in foodgrains production was 2.39% per annum. The rate of growth of pulse production fell drastically from 1.62% per annum during t949-65 to -0.28% per annum during .1967-81 (IMMO: Table 13 p.21). Traditionally a certain balance was , maintained) between the production of foodgrains, pulses and oilseeds and it is this balance that was destroyed ,by the modernization of Indian agriculture. In the period 1950-64 the proportion of oilseeds to all foodgrains was more than 9%. After 1964 this , proportion began to fall and by 1975 it became less than 8% (IMMO: Table 14, p.22).
Prior to 1976-77 adlble oil Imports were only marginal in nature. During 1976-77 imports of ediole oils amounted to 1,79,297 tonnes. 1977-78 was a remarkable year from the point of view of organisation of the oilseeds economy. It was then that a "National Oilseeds Development Pro ect", was entrusted to the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). Predictably, the NDDB resorted to a heavily import-oriented approach, ust as it did In the case of Operation Rood Programme. As a consequence, In 1977-78, edible oil imports umped to 12,82,625 tonnes, which was more than 7 times the imports of the previous year. By 1983-84 imports had reached a staggering figure of 15 lakh tonnes and the value of these imports was Rs. 1,200 crores (IMMO: Table 23, p.35).
It Is necessary to examine the compulsions for this drive towards heavy imports. It appears that there has been no serious analysis of this trend. More complete data on the utilization of raw oils In India Is absolutely essential. For Instance, one of the sectors that has greatly benefitted from the imported oils Is the "Vanaspati" sector. The quantity of raw oils in the manufacture of Vanapasti has grown from 5.2 lakhs tonnes in 75-76 to almost 8 lakh tonnes in 80-81. Simultaneously the contribution of imported raw oils went up from 60,000 tonnes In 75-76 to a massive 6.90 lakh tonnes by 80-81 which was more than 40% of the total edible oil import of that year. In 80-81 about 87% of the raw oils used in the manufacture of Vanaspati were imported edible oils (IMMO: Table 26, p.38).
An important feature of the imported edible oils Is that most of them happen to be exotic and non conventional oils In the Indian context. It has been remarked that "this is, of course, an excellent way to sell unpopular oils, because once hydrogenerated and converted Into the so-called Vanaspathi Ghee, their taste and flavour cannot be separately recognized, and the consumer, especially the one who cannot or does not read the label, has no way to find out what has gone Into the making of (the) cooking medium" (IMMO: P-38).
In this context it may be useful to recall that over forty year ago, Mahatma Gandhi carried on a relentless crusade against "Vanaspati". The following passage from the Hari an Sevak of 13.10.1946 is worth quoting in full:
"......I have put 'Vanaspati' in quotes. Its full name is 'Vanaspati Ghee'. Vanaspati, which means flowers, fruits, leaves and so on, is always good. But when ft becomes the name of something else, It becomes a poison. Vanaspati is not and never can be ghee. If ever it were to become ghee,1 would be the first to loudly proclaim that there is no further need for real ghee. Ghee or butter is the fat drawn from the milk of an animal. Selling vegetable oil in the form, or in the name, of butter or ghee is a great fraud perpetrated on India. It is a betrayal of India. It is the duty of the businessmen of India not to sell any oil or any other product In the name of ghee. Certainly no Government should countenance such sale. The crores of India today get neither milk nor buttermilk, neither ghee nor butter. The result is that people go on dying and becoming more and more enfeebeled. Human body, ft would appear, needs meat and milk or milk products such as curds, buttermilk, ghee and butter. Anyone who deceives people in this regard or countenances deception of them is an enemy of India" (collected works of Mahatma Gandhi, Volume 85, p.423).
Human body, it would appear, needs meat and milk or milk products such as curds, buttermilk, ghee and butter. Anyone who deceives people in this regard or countenances deception of them is an enemy of India" (collected works of Mahatma Gandhi, Volume 85, p.423).
It is unfortunate that a National Technology Mission with emphasis on self-reliance seems to have become an abetter to this great fraud perpetrated on our people.
Coming back to the technology mission and its targets, the mission document states that the targets will be achieved through the following measures: (1) Additional Irrigated area (2) Crop substitution (3) Modern crop technology (4) Better dry farming (5) Better extraction (of oil) and (6) Tapping non-conventional oH (NMO: p.6). The mission, further, Is organised into four sbca'iled mlnl-misslons, each under different departments. These mlni-mlssions[are (t) Crop technology - under the Department of Agricultural Research, and Education, (2) Post-harvest and processing technology - under Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, (3) Farmer support systems - under Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (4) Price support, processing, storage and marketing - under department of Agriculture and Cooperation and Department of Civil Supplies (NMO: p.11). It Is claimed that this strategy has been successfully tried and tested in whe&v, r'ce, cotton and sugar production! (NMO. p.8).
Let us now try to understand whether the above measures, which are elaborated in some detail in the mission document, are in any sense compatible with the overall ob ective of the mission which is to "accelerate self-reliance in edible oils".
Traditionally, oil seeds had always been grown primarily on dry (unlrrigated) and often marginal lands. Wet or irrigated lands had been allotted to foodgrains. The suggestion that additional irrigated area be allotted to oilseeds may be ill-advised considering that all the irrigated land is perhaps best utilised by alloting it to food grains. Otherwise foodgrain targets may be impossible to meet. The compulsion to allot Irrigated area to oilseeds perhaps arises from the increasing role of exotic and alien oilseeds that are being introduced into Indian agriculture. The document (NMO: p. 17) lists the names of sunflower varieties from USSR, Rapeseed varieties from Canada and one Soyabean variety from USA which are under field trials. We are informed (NMO: p. 18) that more than 300 varieties of Rapeseed-mustard, Sunflower and Soyabean, from several Eeuropean, American and Asian countries, are "improved varieties under evaluation for breeding". The whole thing is [tragic because the traditional Indian oilseeds are as good as the exotic oilseeds in terms of the yield of oil per hectare. In fact the oil yield per hectare from the exotic varieties, even under special circumstances, happens to be much less than the average oil yield per hectare as it obtains today from our groundnut.
Soyabean, which seems to be the most favoured of all exotic imported oilseeds is rather low in its oil content. In fact, it is not considered an oilseed anywhere in the world. It Is used as a vegetable in countries such as China and as an expensive high-protein cattle feed in European nations and more so USA. Calling Soyabean an oilseed is as ridiculous as calling rice an oilseed ust because rice-bran contains oil.
There have indeed been many reports of several indigenous varieties of Rapeseed, Sesamum, Linseed etc which have very high yield potential. Our planners and mission experts who claim to be concerned about self-reliance seem to know nothing about such oilseeds. The Green Revolution and Operation Flood model of planning the oilseed economy has ensured that when truely innovative solutions are required, we-resort to the beaten track of dependence on the West for Ideas and material resources.
So much for "self-reliance" in crop technology. Apparently the ma or' share of the budget as well as the effort goes Into processing (of the oil) ust as in the case of Operation Rood,which In fact seems to be a great source of Inspiration to this entire mission on oilseeds. In fact, under the NDDB's own Integrated oilseeds development pro ect, Rs-250 crores have already been invested on "developing cooperative infrastructure for procurement, processing, marketing and production" and another Rs.450 crores are to be invested in future (NMO: p.38).
Thus, ust as in the case of Operation Flood, the Implied strategy in oilseeds is to force the farmers and villagers to sell the oilseed to the procuring agencies and not allow the oilseed to be processed in the village itself, as ft had traditionally been. The question of oil extraction is not merely one of finding a technological solution In a modem context. Eliminating traditional extraction also ensures that the oil cake does not go back to the villages and cattle, to the great detriment of our bovine stock (IMMO: p.31).
In the entire oilseeds mission document, there seems to be no recognition of our traditional wisdom and expertise of our farmers and the rural society. There is also no discussion as to how farmers may be involved in this effort. A truely innovative aporoach would have tried to revive the traditional village organisations and get them Involved In the task of identifying the edible oil requirements and needs of the rural people. Instead the mission document contents itself wfth paying the usual lip service to the "key role of farmers" and comes up with Its own brilliant analysis: "Farmer's main motivation - PROFIT1 (NMO: p.10). Mere technocratic and modem organizational argon cannot be a solution to any crisis. True modernisation Is when we understand the roots of our problem in all its complexity.
It is perhaps not a coincidence that in 1936, around the time the national technology mission In oil seeds started, an US mission visited India. At that time, ft is said tliat there was a glut in the US Soyabean market and a corresponding stagnation In the oil processing industries there. It Is by now well-known that both the so-called Green Revolution and Operation Rood were motivated primarily by inspiration and guidance from the Western world and that they can in no sense be called "successes" as their spokesmen claim them to be. It Is quite likely that at the time of introduction of' Green Revolution and Operation Flood, our scientists had neither enough confidence to speak of self-reliance nor were they aware of the complexities of the international situation and its hold on our country. However, we now have a new generation, one of whose members has the confidence to say "we must make the pendulum swing from complete import dependence to complete self-reliance". But in this whole National Mission on Oilseeds, one fails to see any sign of the pendulum swinging - at least not in the direction of self-reliance.
If the technology mission Is to move towards self-reliance Instead of merely paying lip service to It, then, to begin with,' the NDDB - Operation Rood model should be totally gotten rid off. The causes for the huge imports of oilseeds and for the total Imbalance In crop production in the Post-Green Revolution era need to be dearly understood. By providing suitable encouragement and support to traditional cultivation practices such as inter-and mixed-cropping and dry cultivation, the balance between oilseeds, pulses and cereals can be reestablished. A stable rate of production of of! seeds at about 10%,of the total foodgralri production can once again be realised, thus overcoming the so-called "crisis" In oilseeds production. Indigenous High Yielding Varieties of oilseeds ought to be Identified, and distributed on a wide scale.
Traditional home wisdom and our Indigenous systems of medicine wfth a very long history of analysing and comprehending edible oils suitable for the Indian environment and diet have served our people well In their choice of the appropriate oils for consumption. Import and cultivation of exotic "o seeds" with dubious credentials such as Soyabean, whose cultivation may be In fact detrimental to the overall ecological balance, should under no circumstances be encouraged. But for the aggressive advertisement that goes along wfth the new highly processed and packaged oDs, the Indian consumer would not have been persuaded to purchase and consume vanaspatls" and refined oils. Once a balanced growth of Indigenous oilseeds is planned there should be no need for persuading our people to go for exotic oH seeds. If imports are necessary, as an Interim measure, to meet edible oil shortage, only traditional oils ought to be Imported. Edible tree oils such as coconut oil can be developed ! intensively through a proper use of the wasteland development programmes. The huge idle solvent extraction capacity that may result from the elimination' of exotic and non-conventional edible oils from the domestic scene, may be devoted to processing, for' instance, non-edible oils of tree origin. Vanaspatls, margarine and refined oil industries should produce, If at all, only for export.
All these efforts may not sound like the components of a 'Technology Mission". But as already pointed out, as far as oilseeds are concerned, the ob ectives of the mission may be fulfilled by recovering the balanced growth In production and such recovery seems quite easily feasible, ff a new mission is really needed, it Is perhaps In pulses, where due to the introduction of Green Revolution in rice and wheat, the balance between cereals and pulses has been severely disturbed and a massive effort fs needed to recover this balance.
Finally, let us'not forget that historically India has been the leader In the production and use of edible vegetable oils. There never was, and nor Is there any need to send our scientists abroad for 'training11 In oilseeds technology as mentioned In the mission document (NMO: p.44). in fact, the only place where our scientists can truely receive training that will enable them to meet the ob ectives of the mission In a genuinely serf-reliant manner Is in the fields of some of our own farmers all across our vast country. It Is only by understanding fully the science and art of traditional cultivation (especially In Inter-and mixed-cropping and dry cultivation) and where necessary innovating on the basis of traditional cultivation - whether It Is in developing hybrid varieties of oil seeds or In improving traditional extraction technology - can our scientists live up to the expectations and merit the faith that is reposed In them by the farmers and our people in general. In this endeavour the scientists must look upon the farmers as their colleagues and fellow-experts and not as an ignorant mass that is at the receiving end of governmental doles. Afterall self-reliance means that our people have control over all aspens of their own lives and activities, and that their Initiative receives all encouragement and support.
Author: T.M.Mukundan
With the launching of IRS IA on 17th March 1988 from a Russian station, it can truly be said that the Indian space scientists made a big leap. It is not a small matter to design, fabricate and 'get launched, a complex satelite weighing nearly 1 tonne, as has been repeatedly reported In ail the newspapers. There are ust five other countries in the world who have been able to do this. Now we have become the sixth member of the space club.
It Is sad that we had to send this satellite up on a Russian rocket. Our own rocket programme is in a bit of a mess. Since the SUV launchings of 1980 and 1983 we have not launched any rockets. An year ago, an effort was made to launch an augumented version of SlV, namely ASLV. The Prime Minister Mr Ra iv Gandhi had himself come to witeness the launching. But the launching misfired. For quite sometime, we have not been doing too well on the rocket front. After the failure of the ASLV it appears, our plans have suffered sti'l further. If our rocket programme were progressing well, we would have by now launched the next version of the SLV, namely PSLV, In which case our IRS IA satellite could have been launched on our'own PSLV rocket.
But our failure on the rocket front ought not to distract us from the success on the satellite front.! We have traversed a long path in making this satellite, in 1975, we made our first experimental satellite and named it after our great mathematician and astronomer Aryabhata. This small satellite Aryabhata was also launched on Russian rockets. Then in 1979 we got the Russians to launch Bhaskara I. Bhaskara I like this present IRS 1A was also a remote sensing satellite. It had telescopic cameras and microwave equipment to take pictures of the earth from space. Then, in 1981, we Improved it to make Bhaskara II. In the meantime we were launching small satellites of the Rohini series on our SLV launchings. Three Rohini satellites have been put into space. However these Indian satellites bearing names of Aryabhata. Bhaskara and Rohini, were only ust toys. We of course would have gained from these the necessary experience for building larger satellites. But they themselves were not of much commercial use.
It is with the INSAT series that our programme on commercial satellites began. INSAT IA however went waste. From the day in 1983 when our INSAT IB was positioned over India by the American spaceship Challenger, there began a revolution in our telecommunication, ft is now possible to view TV serials in every corner of our country. It has also become easier to have telephonic links with far-off nations. It is now possible to sit in a'mofussii town like Chandigarh and talk to anyone in scores of countries. We still have great difficulty in contacting a person in the next district, but of course satellites cannot perhaps help much in this. Something will have to be done right here on the earth to link our villages and districts. :
Even though the INSAT satellite was Indian it was not made in India. We had given the contract for making it to the Ford Aerospace of the USA. It was claimed by the Indian scientists that the design was, however, theirs only. This could ust mean that we had told the Ford Aerospace as to what our requirements are and what kind of facilities are needed.
INSAT is basically a communications satellite. Its ob is to route communications between different points. It is mainly used for TV and telephone links. The satellite launched now is for remote sensing. This satellite takes pictures of the earth and analyses them to grVe Information about water resources, crops, forest cover, the environment etc. It Is claimed by the space scientists that we can use this information for better utilisation of our natural resources. The remote sensing satellite IRS IA is much more indigenous than the INSAT satellites. We did not contract out this ob to any foreign agency. It was designed in India and was also built here. But this does not mean that we have made everything that has gone into it. Actually most of the components that went into Its making would have come from outside. All the metals and other special materials needed for its making would have come from abroad. But our ability to build the satellite using Imported components and materials means that our space scientists are very knowledgeable in satellite technologies. Even though our country cannot compete Industrially or technologically with other countries, our scientists are not inferior to scientists of any other country. Even though our technological backwardness might be compelling our scientists to import components and materials from abroad, they certainly have the necessary technological know-how. And they also know as to what is available from where and how it can be procured. They are respected members of the International Science Community. And now they nave enhanced their prestige In this community by building IRS IA.
While applauding these successes of our space scientists a few doubts come to ones mind. First of all, It is not clear as to why each one of our steps In the direction of modem technology has become so tortuous. The way we learn the techniques is as though we are infants learning to walk holding elders' fingers. Take the case of the telecommunication satellite itself. For the first few years, we kept making toy sat el I it as and got them launched by others. In this process, the United States gave us one of their telecom satellites on loan. Using this satellite we ran the SITE programme for two years and through this we kept learning how to link up remote TV stations. Our space scientists were excited about it like children. In those days, when our ISRO Chairman or UGC Chairman used to carry with them video recordings of the dance programmes shown in the SITE scheme, it used to be told how we are taking the folk culture to our villages using the borrowed satellite. After a period of two years the satellite was taken back by the USA.
We got the INSAT when we had learned to use the Telecom Satellite. In the process of launching the INSAT our scientists were taught the art of putting the satellites Into their orbits. The Americans helped us to build our earth stations and o r scientists learned to manoeuvre the satellites from these stations under American supervision. After learning all that, we have now begun 10 build our own satellites. Even now we have to take our satellites to Russia first, where they examine whether everything is in order and after that they launch it for us.
It Is not that other countries are not having to learn these technologies step-by-step. It Is only that they do not climb the steps holding others' fingers. And they also do not keep screaming about how they are advancing. They do not make 30-35 Kg. toy sat el I ft ec and keep telling the world all about such achievements. We, like Infants, keep prattling about every little step we take. We name our experimental satellites after great scientists like Aryabhata and Bhaskara. And when we make some viable and useful satellites they are given some strange names like IRS etc.
It appears that our experimental stages are indeed too many and it takes very long to arrive at any'commercially viable technologies. China started its space programme about the same time as we did. They have already launched two one-tonned satellites on their own rockets" and positioned them in geostationary orbits. To launch satellites into geo-statlonary orbits Is much harder than to launch them into polar orbits as required of remote sensing satellites. Scarcity of money could perhaps be one reason for our slow progress even though we cannot exactly be said to be thrifty as far as our spending on space programme is concerned.1 We have spent 432 crores this year on this programme. This is about 25% higher than last year's spending and ft is equal to all our spending (other than on atomic energy and space) on industrialAechnological research.
Whatever be the amount we may spend on space technology, it is still bound to be small' compared to international standards, for, after all In the international market our crores of rupees are only lakhs of dollars. Our money has no great value there. If we were developing these techniques using our own material, then we would not have felt the paucity of funds. We could have used as much of our things as we want; but ff we have to get everything from abroad then we have to pay in dollars only and we are In no position to pay much in dollars. Irrespective of whether our satellites are made here or abroad, everything inside them has to come from abroad and that means paying In dollars.
One is reminded of an interesting instance in this context. Those were the days following Aryabhata arid Bhaskara. The Director of SSPL (Solid State Physical Laboratory, New Delhi) was explaining how the solar cells made there were as good! as the ones made anywhere else and that the energy for satellites come from the solar cells and every satellite utilises them In hundreds of thousands. The Director was asked How many of the cells made In his laboratory were being used In the Indian satellites. The number was about 10 or so, and even these few ceils were put on this satellite only to find out how they function in space. Use of Indian things on Indian satellites Is by-and-large of this type only.
The way we import things from abroad and learn these technologies from abroad, ft Is not clear whether we are training scientists or merely consumers of latest foreign technologies. After all, It is shopkeepers who keep displaying newer and newer things and keep persuading others to buy them. Even in the case of space, ft seems are have becoming good consumers.
As such it Is not a bad thing to learn the use of such technologies. As long as we live In this modern world we have no option but to learn about the modern technologies. We will have to know'what Is going on In the world and how. However acquiring this knowledge¬of other peoples' technologies cannot be the ma or thrust of our own S and T efforts. Our ma or concern can only be about utilizing our own resources and the skills of our people. The difficulty is that we have become so immersed In learning techniques that we are not even aware of the skills as welt as the needs of our own people. As we don't even notice our own resources, our country appears so poor to us. And we have reduced ourselves to merely learning other peoples' technologies and utilising them like other people do.
But a nation cannot be built this way. This nation can only be built by a proper utilisation of Its own resources and skills of Its people. The primary purpose of learning foreign technologies can only be to protect and safeguard our way of life In this world. Those technologies can have no greater significance per se . In the long run, even this task of protecting ourselves will have to be performed by our own technologies. Others are not going to give us such things that will make us independent of them. Take the case of IRS l-A Itself. The cameras used in this have a resolution of 30-35 feet. We bought them from abroad. We could have as well bought cameras with 10 feet resolution. In that case we would not have to be purchasing satellite photographs from the French SPOT and the American LANDS AT satellites, it is perhaps for this reason that we could not buy cameras of 10 feet resolution.
Things bought or learnt from abroad can only have such limited utility. While this can make our scientists internationally famous, It cannot help much In the growth of our science. Because of this even a great leap by our scientists remains but a small step as far as our nation Is concerned.
Author: J. K. Bajaj
Introduction:
The last few years have witnessed anguished leaders of both the Indian polity and Indian science acknowledging In public that India's performance In science Is not altogether encouraging1, (1-3). The Indian Prime Minister, Mr.Ra iv Gandhi (1) spoke about mediocrity' In Indian science in his address to the annual meeting of the Indian Science Congress Association held In Delhi (January 1986) and Bangalore ( January 1987). Contrary to what one would normally expect of a political leader of a developing country, Mr. Gandhi Is not merely concerned about the Inadequate impact of scientific research in the spheres of socio-economic benefits, Industrialisation, modernisation and 'in the dally life of our people', but he is equally concerned about the fact that "for much too long we have been playing the game of chasing other people's research". He goes on to comment, "I think we are amongst the top countries In the number of papers that our scientists produce. But how many of these papers are quoted by other scientists? Do we ever hear of these papers some years later or do they ust diappear? This Is a question that we must put, and we must see that what we produce Is really top-grade frontline stuff
Addressing the general body meeting of the Indian National Science Academy In early anuary 1987, the outgoing President of the Academy and Chairman of the Science Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, Prof C.N.R. Rao said (2): "I believe that In spite of the successes we have had in certain areas of science and technology, the total scientific scenario In the country Is not altogether encouraging. There are very few men and Institutions of, excellence. The morale and performance of the average working scientist are not very high". Prof. A S Paintal, President of the Indian National Science Academy, feels that the traditional values in the practice of science have been given a go by in India, and Indian scientists are seeking big grants not because they need them but because they serve as a status symbol, and seek authorship in papers where it Is unwarranted (3).
A few years ago Arunachalam (4,5) had not only shown from publication and citation data that Indian science is mediocre but also had attempted to find out the reasons for mediocrity. But what is the extent of this mediocrity? Is Indian science uniformly mediocre across the board? Or are there islands of excellence? Currently there is a lot of interest In the assessment of the impact of scientific research done In Indian laboratories. For instance, Arunachalam and Rao have not only evaluated the citation Impact of the research papers of a national laboratory, but have also attempted to plot research productivity (in terms of papers per scientist) and cost of a research paper as time
Extracted from two articles to appear in journal of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), une, uly 1988.
(6). Arunachalam and Manorama (7) have compared the citation Impact of the work published by two of India's academic physics laboratories. There have also been attempts , to compare the citation Impact of work done In India and a few other countries In different subflelds of science such as superconductivity (8,9) catalysis (10), genetics (11), etc. In two other studies - not yet published - an attempt Is being made to find out the international citation Impact of the publications of the constituent laboratories of an Indian research council. And a ma or funding agency in New Delhi has evinced Interest In evaluating the research and journal funded by it.
Among contemporary Indian scientists, few have devoted so much time and thought to the organization and quality of Indian journals as Prof Ramaseshan (12), who took charge of the publication programme of the Indian Academy of Sciences immediately after the death of Raman In 1970. He was largely responsible for the reorganization and diversification of the Academy's journal publishing programme. Recently, in a sensitively writen paper, Krlshnan and Viswanathan have addressed the very important question of the poor standing of Indian scientific and technical journals (13). In another paper, Manorama and Bhutiani (14) have studied the coverage of about 750 Indian journals in different abstracting and indexing services. This paper. In some ways, is a sequeal to the Krlshnan-Viswanathan and the Manorama-Bhutlanl papers and attempts to place In perspective the piace of different Indian ounrias in their respective fields.
The Science Citation Index - journal Citation Reports 1985-86:
The entire analysis in this paper is based on Science Citation index(SCI) - journal Citation Reports( CR) 1985 and 1986, and particularly on the Impact factor values of journals. The impact factor of a journal, as defined in the journal Citation Reports, is a measure of how often articles (including review articles, full-length original research papers, and short communications) published In a journal get quoted on an average in a given time span. It is Independent of the size or periodicity of a journal, as it is calculated on a per article basis, and it correlates well with peer udgement of the quality standing of journals. We belrve it Is, In general, a very good criterion for comparing the standing prestige of journals. Christenson and Sigelman (15) have demonstrated the superiority of citation-based evaluation of journals over prestige ratings by peers.
More than 4300 journals have been covered in SCI- CR 1985. The impact factor of these journals varies from 39.723 (Annual Review of Biochemistry) to very nearly zero for some journals. On the whole, ff we consider the entire journal literature covered in SCI as a single journal, the average impact factor works out to 1.474. This figure is not arrived at by taking the average of the impact factor values of all the journals, as that would be a fallacy - giving equal weight age to a small journal publishing say ten or twenty articles In a year and a bulky journal publishing several hundreds of citable Items. This figure Is arived at by dividing the total number of citations in 1985 to papers published in 1983 and 1984 In the more than 4300 SCI covered journals (14 38 049) by the total number of citable Items published in 1983 and 1984 (4 90 545 + 4 85 107 « 9 75 652).
In all, 829 journal (roughly 20% of the total number of journals covered by SCI In 1985) have an Impact factor greater than or equal to 1.474
SCI- CR provides a listing of journal under about 130 sub ect categories. About 30 sub ect categories, Including Aerospace engineering and technology, Agriculture, Son science, Applied chemistry, Construction and building technology, Engineering (general), Ergonomics, Forestry, and Horticulture, have no journal with an Impact factor 1.474. Most , of these belong to the disciplines of engineering and applied science. Only one out of 79 mathematics} journals, two out of 81 journals under agriculture and dairy and animal science categories, one out of 35 chemical engineering journals, one out of 26 mechanical engineering journals, and one out of 14 microscopy journals have a 1985 Impact factor of 1.474 or higher. At the other extreme, a very large number of new biology journals have a very high percentage of high impact journals (68 out of 131 In biochemistry | and molecular biology, 48 out of 36 in neurosclences, 36 out of 61 In Immunology, 25 out of 53 In cancer, etc.). In contrast, classical biology journal are poorly cited: only 4 out of 72 zoology journal and 13 out of 88 botany journal excel the average citation rate. In general, basic science journal have higher Impact factors than 'applied science journal. For example, 10 out of the 15 atomic, molecular and chemical physics journal have an impact, factor 1.474 as against 20 out of 62 general physics journal and 9 out of 25 applied physics journals. Also, review journal have a tendency to attract more citations than journals devoted to original research papers.
When we see the break up of the 829 jouranls (having an impact factor 1.474) by publishing country, not surprisingly, the United States leads the field with nearly 60% of * these titles, followed by Great Britain, and the Netherlands. The USA, UK and Western Europe dominate the list which (has only one entry from the Third World, viz Revista Mexicana de Astronomia y Astrofislca, an astronomy title from Mexico, and only seven titles from Asia, all of them from apan. Canada (2), Australia (1) and Israel (1) which are in many way comparable to India as middle-level scientific enterprises ( see for Instance (19)), have barely marked their presence. The whole of Africa and Asia (sans apan) are simply missing from this list, proving yet again how much more skewed the world distribution of,science journals publishing is than even the skewed distribution of wealth among nations and the distribution of scientific research papers (20).
The situation can be understood in terms of centre-periphery dichotomy (21) we have talked about In other contexts, such as certain sub ects like physics and new biology . being centra and others like' ecology and environmental science and applied science engineering being peripheral, or certain regions of the world such as North Amercia and Western Europe (including the UK and Scandinavia) being central and most of Asia and Africa being peripheral to the worldwide enterprise of generating new knowledge In the sciences (19,20)
The Poor Impact of Leading Scientific journal of India:
In table 1 we provide certain citation-based Indices for many Indian and several international journal In order to see in perspective the enormous gap that exists between the two. The numbers given here are from CR 1986. We notice that Indian journals, on the whole, have very International impact.
The low Impact factors of Indian (and probably many other so called peripheral countries) journals may marginally Increase if the definition of Impact factor followed currently (for Inclusion In CR) Is changed. In Table 2 we have calculated the Impact factors of many Indian journals based on citations in 1986 to articles (or citable items) published in these journals in different pairs of two consecutive years. The values given in column A are the ones obtained by following the current CR definition. The values In columns B and C are often found to be higher. This is because work published In Third World journals get time to be noticed In mainstream countries. In any case, the current mode of calculating Impact factor favours the already better off journals to the great discomfiture of the poorer journals.
it Is not merely the case that the Indian journals have a poor impact compared to the leading International journals. Their performance is poor compared to journals of many 'middle level' countries. One fact that stands out clearly Is that while the number of Australian, Canadian or the Israeli journals covered in SCI has Increased over the years whereas the number of Indian journals has declined. SCI covered 20 Indian journals in 1977, and 16 in 1985. Currently (according to information provided by the publishers in May 1987) SCI covers only ten Indian titles! To see in perspective India's role as a publisher of research papers in chemistry, one may note that only 24 of the top 1000 journals covered by Chemical Abstracts are Indian, as against 314 from the USA. 153 from the USSR and 131 from the UK. Again, there are only three Indian journals among the more than 100 titles covered by Current Abstracts of Chemistry and Index Chemlcus. Manorama and Bhatiani have recently reviewed the coverage of Indian journals in International secondary services (14).
Also, In general, the impact factors of Australian. Canadian or Israeli journals are better than the corresponding Indian journals, with journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy published by the Indian Academy of Sciences being the only exception. This is the only Indian journal to have an impact factor higher than 1.0 ( CR 1986). No other Indian journal could cross the 0.5 mark in 1986! In fact we may also recall that none of the Indian journals had an impact factor of 0.5 even in the 1985 edition of the journal Citation Reports.
Two other indices we have compared are the age of references In these journals and the self-cited rate by country. The age of references In Indian journals differs considerably from the age of references In other middle-level country journals. The Indian journals, in general, quote older literature (10 years) very much more often than the corresponding journals from other middle-level countries. Also, the Indian journals quote very few recent references (four years old or more recent). journal of Bioscience (27% of references 4 years old or more recent, and 34% references 10 years ) and Pramana (22% references years and 44% references 10 years) are among the better Indian journals by this criterion (Data from 1985 CR). Both these journals are published by the Indian Academy of Sciences.
The setf-cfted rate by country is a measure of how often citations to work published In a journal occur In journals published In the same country. The self-cited rate by country is found to be higher for Indian journals (as much as 60% in many cases) than Canadian,
Israeli and Australian journal. This clearly Is an Indication that work published In Indian journal Is normally not noticed by researchers elsewhere to the extent we would like them to. In [contrast, the serf-citing rate by country (the percentage of references In a jjournal to work published In the same country's journal) is rather low (of the order of 10%) for Indian journals. In other words, Indian journals quote a very large percentage of overseas journals. Thus the flow of information is overwhelmingly one-sided.
There seems to be two reasons why even the leading Indian journals have poor impact: (1) The work reported in these journals is mostly of peripheral Interest and often Imitative of (or extending) known trends rather than pathbreaklng or of current relevance to frontline research. (2) These journals are poorly circulated, and many of them appear several months behind schedule, and some are not covered by the appropriate International indexing and abstracting services. Thus they lack visibility.
One reason for the bulk of the work reported in Indian journal being of low current relevance is the average Indian scientist's lack of access to current information. Still, why are some journal better off than most others? The answer to this question lies again In another kind of centre-periphery dichotomy. Science in India, for example, appears to be divided intottwo distinct levels,'one almost cut off from the others. At one level, where most of the good work is done, the practitioners are more at home with their counter-parts elsewhere with whom they share the same invisible colleges. Naturally, they continue to publish In overseas journal, published mostly from the USA and the UK. Rarely do they submit papers to national or local journal. Even If they submit papers to local journal they would rarely submit what they consider to be the better ones. At the other level, 'many people tackle problems of not much current relevance, scientific significance or originality in the strict sense of the terms. In spite of the occasional attempts of practitioners of science at this level to publish their work in high impact International journals, they often have to get their papers published In Indian journals or In foreign journals of low significance. What is more, there is not much interaction between practitioners of science at the two levels.
Those national journal which are better off than the rest attract papers from that class of scientists who usually publish In international journal and who are already accepted members of international invisible colleges. A good proportion of scientists contributing papers to journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy, Sankhya, and to some extent Pramana clearly belong to this class. Not only are Indian astronomers and statisticians able to run reasonably good journal but are able to attract overseas authors from,well known laboratories to contribute papers. Although biochemistry In India has all the elements that are essential for it to flourish - good laboratories, adequate funds, good flow of Information, opportunities for Indian biochemists to visit as well as invrte overseas scientists, etc. - the Indian biochemistry journals are not yet able to attract a large number of papers from good laboratories outside India. Actually, Indian biochemistry Is much better than the two Indian journals would Indicate. As pointed out by Krishnan and Vlswanathan (13), most of the better quality papers from Indian laboratories are submitted to International journals of much higher standing. Perhaps, the commitment Indian biochemists have for either of the two Indian biochemistry journal is probably less than
Comparison of Indian journals wfth International journals (Data from CR 1986)
Title | Citiation of all years | Imapace factor | Source Items in 1988 | Immediacy Inoex |
Cun.Scl. | 995 | 0.117 | 557 | 0.038 |
Scl.lnd.Res. | 188 | 0.134 | 34 | 0.900 |
* Nature | 147048 | 15.252 | 1165 | 3.255 |
•Science | 91449 | 12.437 | 803 | 3.004 |
Indian .Agric.ScI | 250 | 0.015 | 205 | 0.000 |
Indian .Agron. | 33 | 0.008 | 27 | 0.000 |
*Adv. Agron. | 617 | 1.737 |
|
|
* .Agric.Food.Chem. | 5716 | 1.269 | 266 | 0.530 |
Indian .Anim.Sci | 145 | 0.019 | 293 | 0.003 |
Proc.lndian Acad.Scl.Anlm.Sci. | 23 | 0.028 | 87 | 0.000 |
* .Anim.Sci. | 8352 | 1.330 | 413 | 0.345 |
* .Dairy Sci. | 6817 | 1.312 | 377 | 0.215 |
Indian .Cfiem.A | 1067 | 0.301 | 329 | 0.040 |
*lnorg.Chem, | 26251 | 2.626 | 1026 | 0.484 |
* .Phys.Chem. | 30618 | 2.967 | 1216 | 0.547 |
Indian .Chem.B | 1062 | 0.371 | 394 | 0.081. |
* .Org.Chem. | 32820 | 2.079 | 1164 | 0.417 |
*OrganometalHcs | 6012 | 3.588 | 495 | 0.611 |
Indian .Mar.Scl. | 79 | 0.069 | 58 | 0.034 |
*Can. .Fish Aquat.Scl. | 3126 | 1.790 | 288 | 0.635 |
*Mar.Bioi. | 6048 | 1.892 | 235 | 0.455 |
Indian .Med.Res. | 1041 | 0.287 | 243 | 0.012 |
*N.Engl. .Med. | 64636 | 17.752 | 367 | 4.082 |
*Lancet | 65734 | 12.857 | 491 | 4.310 |
Indian .Pune Appl.Math. | 102 | 0.082 | 150 | 0.020 |
Proctndian Acad.Scl.Math. Sci. | 11 | 0.000 | 9 | 0.000 |
*Acta Math.-D urshofm | 1111 | 1.500 | 15 | 0.733 |
*SIAM NumerAnal. | 15C7 | 1.168 | 89 | 0.090 |
Indian Technol. | 185 | 0.084 | 159 | 0.006 |
Sadhana | 1 | 0.027 | 9 | 0.000 |
*Chem. I nd.-London | 1836 | 0.427 | 174 | 0.207 |
*Chem.Eng.Scl. | 4519 | 1.008 | 356 | 1.888 |
Indian Vet. . | 160 | 0.022 | 251 | 0.000 |
Title | Citiation of all years | Imapace factor | Source Items in 1988 | Immediacy Inoex |
Cun.Scl. | 995 | 0.117 | 557 | 0.038 |
Scl.lnd.Res. | 188 | 0.134 | 34 | 0.900 |
* Nature | 147048 | 15.252 | 1165 | 3.255 |
•Science | 91449 | 12.437 | 803 | 3.004 |
Indian .Agric.ScI | 250 | 0.015 | 205 | 0.000 |
Indian .Agron. | 33 | 0.008 | 27 | 0.000 |
*Adv. Agron. | 617 | 1.737 |
|
|
* .Agric.Food.Chem. | 5716 | 1.269 | 266 | 0.530 |
Indian .Anim.Sci | 145 | 0.019 | 293 | 0.003 |
Proc.lndian Acad.Scl.Anlm.Sci. | 23 | 0.028 | 87 | 0.000 |
* .Anim.Sci. | 8352 | 1.330 | 413 | 0.345 |
* .Dairy Sci. | 6817 | 1.312 | 377 | 0.215 |
Indian .Cfiem.A | 1067 | 0.301 | 329 | 0.040 |
*lnorg.Chem, | 26251 | 2.626 | 1026 | 0.484 |
* .Phys.Chem. | 30618 | 2.967 | 1216 | 0.547 |
Indian .Chem.B | 1062 | 0.371 | 394 | 0.081. |
* .Org.Chem. | 32820 | 2.079 | 1164 | 0.417 |
*OrganometalHcs | 6012 | 3.588 | 495 | 0.611 |
Indian .Mar.Scl. | 79 | 0.069 | 58 | 0.034 |
*Can. .Fish Aquat.Scl. | 3126 | 1.790 | 288 | 0.635 |
*Mar.Bioi. | 6048 | 1.892 | 235 | 0.455 |
Indian .Med.Res. | 1041 | 0.287 | 243 | 0.012 |
*N.Engl. .Med. | 64636 | 17.752 | 367 | 4.082 |
*Lancet | 65734 | 12.857 | 491 | 4.310 |
Indian .Pune Appl.Math. | 102 | 0.082 | 150 | 0.020 |
Proctndian Acad.Scl.Math. Sci. | 11 | 0.000 | 9 | 0.000 |
*Acta Math.-D urshofm | 1111 | 1.500 | 15 | 0.733 |
*SIAM NumerAnal. | 15C7 | 1.168 | 89 | 0.090 |
Indian Technol. | 185 | 0.084 | 159 | 0.006 |
Sadhana | 1 | 0.027 | 9 | 0.000 |
*Chem. I nd.-London | 1836 | 0.427 | 174 | 0.207 |
*Chem.Eng.Scl. | 4519 | 1.008 | 356 | 1.888 |
Indian Vet. . | 160 | 0.022 | 251 | 0.000 |
| * International journals |
CONCLUSION:
A large part of the sociology of science revolves around the institutional structure of science, and scientific journals - which mediate Information transfer, so very vital for the growth and consolidation of knowledge - constitute an Important element of this Institutional structure
Comparison of Impact Factors of Indian journals Calculated on the basis of 1986 Citations to Different Pairs of Consecutive Years.
Title | Impact Factor | ||||
A | B | C | D | E | |
Curr.Scl. | 0.117 | 0.130 | 0.149 | 0.124 | 0.091 |
Indian !Chem.A | 0.327 | 0.481 | 0.513 | 0.426 | 0.298 |
Indian .Chem.B | 0.370 | 0.430 | 0.373 | 0.278 | 0.235 |
Indian .Med.Res. | 0.287 | 0.302 | 0.249 | 0.225 | 0.208 |
Indian .Pure Ap pi. Math. | 0.082 | 0,097 | 0.061 | 0.072 | - |
Indian .Technol. | 0.095 | 0,155 | 0.152 | 0.085 | 0.056 |
. Bioscience | 0.396 | 0.578 | 0.596 | 0.918 | - |
.Scl.lnd.Res. | 0.202 | 0.219 | 0.187 | 0.274 | 0.256 |
Proc.lndlan Acad!Scl.Chem.Scly | 0.399 | 0.385 | 0.536 | - | - |
Proc.lndlan Acad. |
|
|
|
|
|
Scl.Earth.Sci. | 0.386 | 0.424 | 6.308 | 0.66 | - |
Pramana | 0.428 | 0.428 | 0.352 | 0.208 | 0.119 |
Sadhana | 0.055 . | - | - | - | - |
A. Number of citations In 1986 to articles published in 1984 & 1985 divide by citable source items In 1984 & 1985.
B. Number of citations in 1986 to articles published in 1983 & 1984 divide by citable source Items in 1983 & 1984.
C. Number of citations In 1986 to article published In 1982 & 1983 divide by citable source items in 1982 & 1983.
D. Number of citations In 1986 to articles published in 1981 & 1982 divide by citable source items in 1981 & 1982.
E Number of citations In 1986 to articles published In 1980 & 1981 divide by citable source items In 1980 & 1981.
Although science is 'universal' and new knowledge can be and Is often made available to a worldwide audience through publication in International' journals, there Is a need for 'national' and 'regional' journals, for the same reasons we need national and local conferences and symposia along with International conferences. It Is not merely a question of logistics, but is also one of 'organizational' convenience and 'managerial' advantages - from the point of view of science and knowledge as growing entitles.
Any society - be it Indian, Chinese, African or Latin American - having ambitions of growing into a scientifically advanced society needs to nurture indigenous journal as well as needs to adopt a well-planned strategy of judiciously placing Its scientific papers In International and local journals. Also, as a nation's standing In a research speciality rises, there will emerge the possibility for the ‘local’ journal devoted to that speciality to become an 'International' journal. .
However the Indian scene as we have seen Is alarming. India publishes a very large number of scientific journals. Only a small fraction Is found to be worthy of coverage in SCI. Even among the few journals covered by SCI, we hardly find any which is of the world class (by criteria based on citation counts). Surely, Indian Science is capable of showing better performance. What makes journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy stand out? Cannot the other journals adopt the same strategies?
It seems to us that the poor showing of Indian journals is largely the result of apathy and lack of will. We suggest that Instead of frittering away scarce resources on too many mediocre journals, India should publish a smaller number of journals of) quality. We also believe that the poor showing of Indian journals Is a true reflection of deeper maladies In Indian science.
Acknowledgement
We thank Dr.Eugene Garfield of,the Institute for Scientific Information, Philadelphia, who sent us the 1986 journal Citation Reports by airmail as soon as it become available. One of us (K Mahorama) thanks Subbiah Arunachalam not .only for Introducing her to the exciting world of scientlometric research but also for making It possible for her to take part In such research by providing generous financial assistance.
Author: Subbiah Arunachalam
That Indian Science and Technology (S and T) journals have a rather poor prestige and standing amongst the Science and Technology journals of the World Is quite well known. Many studies have shown that neither the world scientific community nor the scientific community oft our own country takes them seriously. This however does not as such Imply that our scientific and technological research output is as a whole of very poor quality, because on an average only about 40% of our research output Is published In our own journals. About 60% (and often even as much as 90% in some areas) of our research output Is published in foreign journals, and usually this also happens to be the better part of our research output. It can therefore be argued rather convincingly that the prestige and standing of our S and T journals would Improve markedly if our scientists decide to publish their research findings mostly in our own journals.
One of the main reason why our researchers prefer to publish In foreign journals seem to be that we do not have many specialized journals of our own**. In order to bring one's research findings to the attention of the experts In one's area of specialization ft is necessary that these are published in specialized journals devoted to this area. And today India does not have such specialized journals In most areas. In fact, it Is generally believed that the quantity of research output produced In India in any given field of specialization is too low to support specialized journals of our own In most areas. It Is the contention of the present authors that such a belief has never been critically examined for its veracity. The purpose of this note is to do so In one area of specialization namely Polymer Science. We want to examine whether we could have a journal of international standing In this area if most of our high quality research output in this area could be made available to it.
To examine this question we collected the data of the publications of fundamental research In Polymer Science from Chemical Abstracts (CAS) for a nearly 20 year period based on the author's affiliations. Even though we have attempted to make our search as exhaustive as possible this method of data collection has its own Intrinsic limitations. It Is known that of the 1000 journals most frequently indexed in Chemical Abstracts only 24 are Indian. Oh the whole, CAS covers only about 268 Indian titles I.e. about 15% of the Indian scientific periodicals (which are about 2000 In number). It Is to be remembered that the arguments presented In this note will be sub ect to the nature of the bias of the secondary service used for the data collection. This leads to another Interesting question on the need for a national data base of our own.
Any serious attempt for the evaluation of the performance In Science Is possible only when a reliable and comprehensive data base is really available. The international data bases available today (the international abstracting and Indexing services) are grossly under-representing Indian scientific output. For example as we pointed out earlier, out of the 2000 journals and periodicals published from India, only 288 are covered in Chemical Abstracts, while BIOSIS takes note of only 273, INSPEC 67, ISI's Science Citation Index (SCI) only 10; the ISI services cover about 55. Any analysis based on the data generated by these secondary services could be grossly misleading especially when one wants to trace the seeding and growth of scientific pursuits at the national level. It is also necessary that alternative indicators apart from citation counts and other procedures followed in developed countries may be necessary to examine the nation's scientific output. This Is especially true for India, since India's scientific output is mainly multiauthored and multiplicated (i.e. resulting in multiple publications), and requires a careful examination based on methods such as searching the talent-out methods etc. The point to be realised, however is that without a comprehensive national data base of our own, all efforts at assessing India's Science and Technology are bound to remain incomplete and partial.
After collecting the data we have scanned the actual abstracts to classify them as pertaining to various aspects of Polymer Science. Papers dealing with more than one aspect have been included only In one category based on the ma or emphasis of the paper. Table 1 gives the detailed break up of Indian research output in the area of Polymer Science. It is seen that India is active In practically all the aspects of Polymer Science into which research Is being done in the ma or centres of the world. Polymer Science research In our country is in this sense quite mature and established. Table 2 gives the number of papers published by Indian scientists for the period 1982-83 (two years) in five sub-areas of specialisation. From this and from the information In Table 1, It can be concluded that India produces more than about 90 papers per year in the fundamental aspects of Polymer Science. This Is certainly not an Insignificant number for any area of specialisation.
Table 3 gives the year-wise break up of publication pattern of Indian Scientists in the sub-areas of Redox Polymerization. It is seen that more than 90% of the papers published In this sub area are in foreign journals. It may be safely concluded that this pattern w8l also apply to the entire area of Polymer Science as a whole. That more than 90% of our work in this area Is accepted for publication in international journals Implies that the quality of this work Is comparable to what Is being done elsewhere In the world. To examine the question of quality further we took a closer look at the various foreign journals In which our polymer scientists have been publishing their papers. The results for Redox Polymerization are given in Table 4 and those for Photo-polymerization and Graft cc-porymerlzatlon are given in Table 5.
DISTRIBUTION PATTERN OF PUBLICATIONS OF INDIAN SCIENTISTS IN
POLYMER SCIENCE
TYPE OF POLYMERIZATION PROCESS | PERCENTAGE |
1.REDOX POLYMERIZATION | 47.7 |
2.GRAFT CO-POLYMERIZATION | 12.5 |
3.PHOTO POLYMERIZATION | 9.3 |
4.METAL ALKYL INITIATED POLYMERIZATION | 3.6 |
5.CO-POLYMERIZATION , | 2.5 |
6.PHASE TRANSFER POLYMERIZATION | 1.8 |
7.GAMfcfA-RAY, INDUCED POLYMERIZATION | 1.8 |
8.ELECTRO-POLYMERIZATION | 1.1 |
9.0THERS | 19.7 |
| 100.0 |
TOTAL NUMBER OF PUBLICATIONS IN VARIOUS ASPECTS OF I POLYMERIZATION DURING THE PERIOD 1982-63
REDOX POLYMERIZATION | 85 |
PHOTO POLYMERIZATION | 17 |
GRAFT CO-POLYMERIZATTION | 20 |
CO-POLYMERIZATION | 6 |
GAMME-RAY INDUCED POLYMERIZATION | 5 |
| 133 |
It Is seen that the journals receiving the output of our polymer scientists are almost alt specialist and 'reputed journals. Within the limitations Inherent in this manner of assessing the quality of research output, It may be safely concluded that the research output of our polymer scientists is Indeed of high quality, it Is observed that In the sub-area of Redox
YEAR | TOTAL | NO. OF PAPERS | ||
INDIAN JOURNALS | FOREIGN JOURNALS | % IN FOREIGN JOURNALS | ||
1979 | 24 | 3 | 21 | 87.5 |
1980 | 21 | 3 | 18 | 85.7 |
1981 | 25 | 0 | 25 | 100 |
1982 | 46 | 3 | 43 | 93.5 |
1983 | 39 | 3 | 36 | 92.3 |
TOTAL | 155 | 12 | 143 | 92.3 |
JOURNAL WISE PUBLICATION PATTERN ON REDOX POLYMERIZATION
BY INDIAN SCIENTISTS
S.NO. | JOURNAL | 1982 | 1983 | ||
|
| NO | PERCENT | NO | PERCENT |
1 | J. MACROMOL SCI CHEM | 4 | 30.4 | 8 | 46.2 |
2 | J.APPL POLYM SCI | 8 | 17.4 | 7 | 17.9 |
3 | EUR POLYM J | 6 | 13.0 | 1 | 2.6 |
4 | POLYMER J | 2 | 4.3 | 1 | 2.6 |
5 | BR POLYMER J | 3 | 6.5 |
|
|
6 | COLLOID POLYM SCI | 2 | 4.3 | 3 | 7.7 |
7 | POLYM BULL |
|
| 1 | 2.6 |
8 | MAKROMOL | 4 | 8.7 | 3 | 7.7 |
9 | APPL POLYM SCI | 2 | 4.3 | 1 | 2.6 |
10 | OTHERS | 5 | 10.9 | 4 | 10.3 |
JOURNALWISE PUBLICATION PATTERN OF PAPERS ON PHOTO-POLYMERIZATION AND GRAFT CO-POLYMERIZATION BY INDIAN SCIENTISTS FOR THE PERIOD 1979-1983
| S. NO. | JOURNAL | PHOTO POLYMERIZATON | GRAFT CO-POLYMERIZATION | ||
| NUMBER | PERCENT | NUMBER | PERCENT | ||
| 1. | J MACROMOL SCI CHEM | 11 | 26.8 | 12 | 37.5 |
| 2. | J APPL POLYM SCI | 1 | 2.4 | 16 | 50.0 |
| 3. | EUR POLYM J | 9 | 2.0 | 2 | 6.3 |
| 4. | POLYM PHOTO PHYS | 4 | 9.8 | - | |
| 5. | J POLYM SCI (MOSTLY POLYM CHEM ED.) | 8 | 19.5 | - | |
| 6. | MAKROMOL CHEM | 3 | 7.3 | 1 | 3.1 |
| 7. | OTHERS | 3 | 7.3 | - | |
| 8. | INDIAN JOURNALS | 2 | 4.9 | 1 | 3.1 |
Polymerization alone, research' work of high quality Is being done In at least 15 laboratories In our country, viz., the Universities of Allahabad, Calcutta, Dibrugarh, abalpur, Kalyanl, Lucknow, Madras, Madurai-Kamara , Osmania; the Indian Institute of Technology at Bombay, Kharagpur and Madras, the Institute of Science at Bangalore, the Indian Lac Research Institute at Ranchi, National Chemical Laboratory at Pune and Ravenshaw College, Cuttack. Thus research in Polymer Science has a sufficiently wide base in India and is truly an alt-India activity.
The above points lead one to conclude that the quantity and quality of research work In the area of Polymer Science in our Country is adequate for us to have an Indian journal of international standing In this area. The availability of such a journal of our own would lead to much greater communication between our specialists In this area; it will help In providing cohesion and a national Identity to our polymer scientists. When such a journal begins to present to the world the best of our polymer science research, there Is no doubt that the World Polymer Science Community would be compelled to take serious note of it.
There by boosting the prestige of Indian Science and Its impact. The Initiative for taking such a step should of course come from the polymer scientists themselves particularly from the leading scientists amongst them.
Author: B. Viswanathan,
Note:
* This has been discussed In detail in our earlier paper - The Performance of Modern Science [and Technology In India: The case of our scientific and Technological journals', PPST Bulletin No.11, (1987) pp. 1-19.
* The evaluation of the performance of the few existing specialised journals in India would be a rewarding exercise to undertake.
* Alternatively our polymer scientist community can organise themselves through the available Indian journals with specific sections devoted to publication of research papers in Polymer Science and thus establish a national Identity in this field of research which could contribute to the upward growth of our existing S and T journals.
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