By Prashant K. Nanda, IANS
New Delhi : The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India’s oldest and largest scientific institution, has not just been headless for nine long months, but in 2007, to go by its website, it has a vision for 2001!
The vision document flashing on its website, the institute’s global interface, says: “CSIR in 2001 would be a model organisation for scientific industrial research and path setter in the shifting paradigms of self financing research and development (R&D).
“(It would be) a global R&D platform providing competitive R&D and high quality science based technical services world over and a vital source of S&T (Science and Technology) for national societal missions which combine technology with a human face,” the website proclaims.
It further reads: “This is a grand, yet by no means an unrealistic dream. Realising it would need setting quantifiable tasks and targets along the path in time against which CSIR could be benchmarked and judged.”
It further said that goals set for the “year 2001 are to move towards the path of self financing by generating over Rs.7 billion from external sources, as against Rs.1.35 billion in 1994-95, of which at least 50 percent will be from industrial customers (up from 15 percent in 1994-95)”.
Founded in 1942, CSIR now has 37 laboratories staffed with over 18,000 scientists. The director general’s post has in the past held by illustrious scientists such as Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar, Atma Ram, M.G.K. Menon and A.P. Mitra.
A senior CSIR official said that the vision section on the website has perhaps not been updated for almost a decade.
“When the organisation does not have a permanent director, who bothers about its vision?” asked the official in disgust. “More so in India, government agencies don’t bother about their web interface.”
Asked about the problem, Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal, under whose ministry CSIR operates, said he was concerned about the institution.
“I am worried about CSIR. We are searching for a full time director but somehow have failed to get someone competent so far,” the minister told IANS.
After R.A. Mashelkar retired Dec 31, 2006, the ministry designated V. Prakash, director of the Central Food Technology Research Institute, as the CSIR new head but retracted its decision within a week for reasons unknown.
M.K. Bhan, secretary in the department of biotechnology, was appointed the CSIR director on Jan 5 but he left within just eight weeks. Science Secretary T. Ramasamy is currently handling the additional charge of CSIR.
Sibal said CSIR was doing a lot of research and was a much better organisation now. “It’s now a global platform,” the minister said, declining to give details about its target in research and development.
This year’s Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report, however, has pointed fingers towards the management of CSIR.
According to the CAG report, expensive equipment imported by CSIR worth Rs.94.2 million was lying unused in several of its laboratories across the country.