[കേ.ശാ.സാ.പ] Re: [കേ.ശാ.സാ.à´ª] Re: Our research centres

Attached article of mine focussed on S&T Administration. A slightly edited version of this was published in the April Issue of Marxist Samvadam. It will be of some relevance here.
"V. Sasi Kumar" <sasi.fsf_at_gmail.com> wrote:
On Mon, 2007-05-21 at 23:51 -0700, R.V.G. Menon wrote:
>
> I remember that when Dr Vallyathan introduced the CSIR model to administer our R&D Centres, the argument was to give more autonomy to the Centres.
> It is a fact that the model works quite well in the case of RRL Trivandrum (now the NIIST).
> Where has it gone wrong in the case of the State Institutions?

Apparently, though the KSCSTE is modelled on the CSIR, the shift from
the Central Government to the State Government has caused some
difficulties.

For instance, the CSIR DG has apparently much greater powers, especially
financial, than the Executive Vice President of our Council. Similarly,
the Directors of the Centres under KSCSTE also have relatively less
powers. Although the Coucil has its own set of rules, these essentially
follow the KSR. And I think KSR is not really suited for a research
institute. For example, if a scientist wants to participate in a seminar
abroad, s/he has to get sanction for going abroad from the government,
even if s/he is invited to the conference and all expenses are met by
the organisers. This usually means that the scientist has to spend about
a month going through the various offices in the Secretariat.

During Valiathan's time, a Research Council and a Management Committee
was set up in each institute. He also succeeded in getting Plan funds
for research work based on projects submitted to the Research Council.
The Council was empowered to examine the proposals and recommend them
for funding. The Management Committee was empowered to sanction the
funds. This really boosted the availability of money for research and
put projects that would otherwise have been difficult to get in the
hands of the scientists. But the funds thus allotted are subject to
restrictive rules. For example, if a scientist has to travel outside
Kerala, s/he has to get sanction from the KSCSTE and it is now the EVP
himself who has to sign the approval, though this is normally given (I
don't understand why such a restriction should be there if it is never
refused). If, for some reason, an employee who is normally not allowed
to go by air has to do so, then also the EVP himself has to sanction it.
Since such a situation usually arises due to lack of time, getting
approval from the KSCSTE becomes a big burden. Interestingly, though the
Plan funds come from the Government of India, projects sanctioned by the
central government (the Department of Science & Technology, for
instance) have no such restrictions! The average age of scientists is
around 54 and there has been no recruitment for several years. So only
temporary project staff is available to do any work that requires hard
physical effort. It may therefore become necessary sometimes to send
such people by air, especially to places like Andamans and the
Lakshadweep islands.

Again, a lot of money has been spent on building the existing
infrastructure and expertise in many fields. Some of these were built
from scratch since no expertise was available in the country. All this
could go waste if young people are not recruited a few years before
existing scientists retire. Valiathan used to say that we will not
recruit any more people and that we will hire scientists on five-year
contract. I think this is a big mistake. This system will not work in
our country. Even a premier institute like the Indian Institute of
Science discontinued the practice.

We need to remember that creativity cannot flourish in a restrictive
environment. We need to give plenty of freedom. If anyone does any gross
violation of rules, we need to take action against them. Now what is
happening is that if a few people tend to do something that is not
strictly according to the rule, then more restrictions are brought on
everyone but no action is taken against the people who tend to stray.

I therefore think that we need to study the functioning of these
institutes, identify the problems and possibilities and take necessary
measures to at least save whatever is possible. The problem is to
identify the people who will conduct the study.

Best regards

-- 
V. Sasi Kumar 
Free Software Foundation of India
       
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