Chennai: In the past 14 years, there is a major dip in the number of graduates from Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) going to the United States (US) in order to pursue higher studies and research. As per sources, it has dropped from 80% in 1997 to 16% now.
During IIT Madras function on Tuesday i.e. on March 29, 2011, US-based National Science Foundation (NSF) Director Dr Subra Suresh, talking about this decrease in numbers, said that it was not a loss only to the US, but also to scientific enterprises across the world. He added that this is a huge loss of talent for the world, because this means fewer people for research in science and engineering fields. Moreover, IIT-Madras director Dr M S Ananth has said that with the country's economy booming, most IIT-ians chose to do their MBA after graduation. He added that even the number of people going to software industries has come down in the past few years.
Dr Suresh, an IIT-M alumnus who was speaking about Science without borders', also talked about Global Ring Network for Advanced Applications Development - Taj (GLORIAD - Taj), an international network for connecting different institutions across the globe. He said that it is part of the NSF's cyber network that currently connects half the globe. The NSF would be partnering and funding this initiative. He said that the network which would serve advanced research and education services to scientists and students across the world was in the nascent stages in Asia and would be expanding soon. He also added that it includes high speed data connectivity and building networks critical for developing science without borders.
Furthermore, about the NSF's various initiatives, he said research initiatives funded by it in the field of nanotechnology alone had led to 175 start-ups and 1200 major companies. He said that this is the computer and communication revolution and most jobs in this decade have required complex knowledge skills, problem solving, creative thinking and problem solving. He also added that research initiatives were evenly distributed across the world with one third of the research enterprise of the world originating from North America, one third from European Union and one third from Asia.
