NRI brains power world

By Chidanand Rajghatta TNN

Of Raman Effect and Bose-Einstein Condensation, you might have an idea. But have you heard about the Chandrasekhar Limit, or Karmarkar’s Algorithm, or Viswanath’s Constant?

Long before Indians got into nuts and bolts, their contributions to the world of pure science was the stuff of legends — whether it was Aryabhata and Brahmagupta’s postulation of zero, or Buddhayana’s calculation of the value of Pi, or Shridhara’s rules for finding out the volume of a sphere.

The rich theoretical tradition continues to this day as Indian scientists, engineers and mathematicians traverse the world. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, the legendary C V Raman’s equally famous nephew who taught at the University of Chicago, calculated the eponymous limit to describe the maximum non-rotating mass which can be supported against gravitational collapse, commonly given as being about 1.4 solar masses. Narendra Karmarkar, who taught at Caltech and UC Berkeley before returning to India, introduced the eponymous algorithm in 1984 to solve linear programming problems. In 1999, Diwakar Viswanath, a computer scientist at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley, California, arrived at the mathematical constant in number theory that carries his name.

While the Indian legacy in conceptual thinking has been kept alive by such advances in theory, the second half of the 20th century also saw Indian-born scientists and engineers in the west contribute substantially to discovery and innovation. In 1948, Yellapragada Subba Rao synthesized Aureomycrin, the first of the tetracycline antibiotics, and Methotrexate, used to alleviate several types of cancer, including childhood leukemia. ‘‘He lived, so that you could live longer,’’ it was said of him. In 1952, Narendra Singh Kapany, building on the work of Irish physicist John Tyndall that had shown that light could travel in a curve inside a material (water), conducted experiments that led to the invention of optical fibre. In 1956, underwhelmed by the performance of high-end stereo speaker systems, Amar Gopal Bose undertook experiments that paved the way for breakthrough technology in acoustics and led to the formation of Bose Corporation.

While these were the early pioneers, Indian contributions to the world of technology breakthroughs in the last quarter century are just too many to chronicle in a short article. From Lasik eye surgery, which is built on the work of University of California scientist Mani Lal Bhaumik and IBM engineer Rangaswamy Srinivasan (whose grand-nephew Krishna Bharat gave the world Google News), to advances in catalytic convertors in automobile engines (credited to Ford’s Haren Gandhi), Indian contributions span the spectrum of science, medicine and engineering.

In fact, many of the Indian-engineered or -inspired inventions are so much a part of our life now that they don’t even stand out. How often do you associate Windows, whose early versions were largely wrought by desi heads, with Indians? Or the rewritable CD, which was based on the work of Dr Praveen Chaudhuri, who now heads the Brookhaven National Laboratory?

There’s no better place to get a sense of how deep the Indian contribution runs than the legendary Bell Labs, the 84-year-old institution whose inventions and discoveries crowd every part of our homes. This is where a young scientist named Mohan Sondhi invented the echo canceller, which made phone conversations clear; where Bishnu Atal’s digital speech coding innovations dramatically expanded the benefits of cellular phone technology to millions of users; where C Kumar Patel invented the carbon dioxide laser; and where Arun Netravali’s work led to the development of the High-Definition Television.

But all this would seem like skimming the surface if one considers the past decade. Each year, since 2000, desis are present in greater numbers in every major annual list recognizing innovative work — from MIT’s young tech innovators list to the National Academy of Sciences recognition for distinguished scientists, to science talent searches conducted by Intel, Lucent and Westinghouse. Next only to the US, which remains the world leader in modern advances despite its relative decline, India seems all geed up to make the world a better place.

Break from the past

By SWAPAN DASGUPTA

Times of India, 27 Jan 2008

There are two interesting facets of a state visit to India by a British dignitary, be it royal or commoner. The first is the sight of the Union Jack fluttering all along Rajpath — a sight fairly uncommon in England and an absolute rarity in Scotland. The second is the dreary question a lazy media loves asking: Is India still inflicted by a colonial hangover?

The term ‘‘hangover’’ is a misnomer since it denotes an unpleasant morning after a pleasurable night-before. Regardless of the awe and veneration with which Britons were regarded by those who, ironically, fought for freedom, most young Indians have flushed colonialism out of their system. There remains a keen interest, even fascination, for the West, particularly the US. Some of us even see London as the perfect home away from home, a comfort zone in alien Europe. But, as prime minister Gordon Brown should have gauged during his brief visit, there is no meaningful special relationship any more with the erstwhile ‘‘mother country’’. Even the remaining ‘‘coconut’’ enclaves face extinction.

To those who view the 190 years between Plassey and Independence as the Dark Ages, this exorcism was inevitable. Yet, despite all the tripe that the history text books dish out, Indians have shown no extreme antipathy for the colonial experience. Compared to the deep hatred in the popular Hindu imagination for, say, Mahmud of Ghazni and Aurangzeb, posterity has been relatively kind to British rule. There was always an innate respect for British-moulded institutions; in recent times this has extended to an appreciation for colonial aesthetics.

Why hasn’t this sneaking admiration translated into a love for what today’s Britain stands for?

Indians who have been out on the town on a Friday night in a British city often ask: are these the same people who just 60 years ago presided over the largest empire in history? It is not merely the public show of loutish drunkenness that conflict with our mental stereotype of the British. Almost every virtue we associated with our former rulers — exemplary restraint; commitment to hard work, thrift and enterprise; a level-headed approach to adversity; and unflinching national pride — has been thrown into the dustbin of history.

In just six decades, Britain has redefined its national character. Britishness is now personified in the ‘‘democratic’’ culture of the pub, the football stands, the tabloids and binge holidays on the Costa del Sol. No wonder the British home secretary has admitted that it is dangerous for a woman to go out late at night in London. In 60 years, Britain has moved from Caesar to Caligula.

The decline has rubbed off in strange ways. Suffering from post-colonial guilt, Britain is now in a tearing hurry to reject every aspect of its past. Apologising for past excesses has been presented as a way to make the country more ‘‘inclusive’’ and ‘‘multicultural’’. From being a strong and somewhat arrogant power, Britain has sought to refashion itself as a good power, committed to noble ideals like fighting greenhouse emissions, downgrading excellence and promoting curry. The result is unintended: it is perceived as cringing, grovelling and, at the same time, patronising.

In India, this image makeover has been ridiculed. Britain had been associated with smooth talking hard-headedness. In packaging itself as the benefactor of self-empowered women’s groups, pesky NGOs and environmental activists, it has adopted a role associated with pious but irrelevant Scandinavians.

If Pakistan is an example of a failed state, Britain is a curious example of a faltering society. There is a lesson in it for us. Unless political liberalism is supplemented by robust and rooted social values, a nation can easily lose its head.